Despite being one of Sacramento State’s most successful programs, the rowing team dwells in largely unseen waters among the rest of the school.

This year the team is strong yet again, as it ramps up for the home stretch of the season.

During the Sacramento State Invitational on March 10 the team swept all six races that it had boats entered in.

The varsity eight, second varsity eight, varsity four, varsity four B, novice eight and novice four all took home the top times in their respective races, a result that coach Mike Connors has grown accustomed to.

“It’s always our goal in that event,” he said of his rowers dominance of the meet. “We respect our competition, but in the past we have won all the races before. Our goal is just to race well.”

Before the next meet, Connors has the rowers focused on running their fastest times down the stretch.

“I think, in other years, the rowers started out with better speed,” he said. “But we want to run at our fastest at the end.”

This year’s varsity eight boat is very strong, possibly the strongest squad Connors has seen in his time at Sac State. He believes the reason for this is that he hasn’t set a concrete lineup for each boat.

“The competition amongst the rowers makes everyone work harder. We have a lot of potential combos that we can go to,” he said. “It makes my job harder to have to find the right combination, but at the same time, it’s a nice problem to have with so many good rowers.”

Senior rower Constance Deslauriers agrees with Connors and said that the constant competition for seating keeps the rowers motivated.

“It helps to keep people working hard because, if you don’t, then someone is going to kick your butt,” she said.

Despite the team’s small fan base, mostly family and friends, the team continues to thrive.

When asked what he would like students of Sac State to know about the team, Connors just laughed.

“Well, I would like them to know about us,” he said.

But why is the team relegated to the back burner of the sporting landscape?

Connors’ answer is that most students aren’t aware of what the Aquatic Center has to offer?or even that it exists.

“It would be nice to get more people out to watch the boats perform,” he said. “The facility is a great place to go. People should go take advantage of it.”

The facility is located at 1901 Hazel Ave. in Gold River on Lake Natoma, where the team performs for its home meets.

Deslauriers said she is disappointed at times with the school’s lack of knowledge of the team’s success.

“At times it’s disappointing,” she said. “We are out there placing well against Pac-10 teams like Stanford and Washington. How many other teams at this school can say that?”

“It’s frustrating to win and have no one talk about us,” Deslauriers said.

Whether the team gains notoriety or not will not phase the team’s organization going forward.

“Our goal is to get to the NCAAs,” Connors said. “But right now we are focusing on our intermediate goal of doing well in the WIRA (Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association) races.”

The team does not compete again until UC Davis comes to town on April 7 at Lake Natoma. Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]