It was a shocking day for the Sacramento State women’s rowing team at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) Grand Finals on Sunday.

It wasn’t shocking that all six boats entered in the meet made it to Sunday’s final races, nor was it a shock that the team won its second straight WIRA championship by way of capturing the team points trophy. What was surprising was the disappointing fourth place finish out of six boats in the varsity eight final.

Sac State had won the varsity eight gold medal, the marquee race in the event, three times in the past (2000, 2001, 2006), but struggled to a fourth place finish in the six-boat field.

Last year’s varsity eight won the event with a time of 6:35.9, a school record, while on Sunday the boat was almost 20 seconds behind that pace with a time of 6:55.7, 12 seconds behind first-place Gonzaga. The boat’s best time this season came on Apr. 23 when it took silver at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Championships with a time of 6:47.0 in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Senior Janine LaCrosse took the team’s performance especially hard. LaCrosse explained that it’s hard for her and fellow seniors to have to end their WIRA careers in that fashion.

“Obviously, it’s a huge disappointment for the seniors and everyone on the team,” she said amid tears. “We didn’t have a good heat on Saturday (in qualifying), but we still thought we had a chance.”

The thing that is perhaps most surprising about the boat’s finish is that several different rowers within the varsity eight have said that this year’s boat is faster than last year’s.

“We don’t really know what happened,” LaCrosse said. “We’re talking to each other about it to see what went wrong.”

Freshman varsity eight rower Chelsea Semrau is at a loss as well.

“We have been working hard to come together as a boat,” Semrau said. “But the time and the place don’t reflect that.”

Semrau went on to say that the boat has had issues this season, but it was coming together. “We need to work smarter, not harder.”

“I think it can work as motivation,” LaCrosse said of the letdown on Sunday. “No one wants to end the season on a bad note. It’s a huge wake-up call.”

Added Semrau, “We know we will carry (the memory of it) into our next races. We want to feel excited after the race like we did earlier this year.”

Despite the varsity eight’s struggles, the team did manage to win the WIRA team points trophy by way of advancing six boats to the grand finals on Sunday. All six boats finished in the top five of their respective race, with the novice four taking home the best finish with a second place showing.

The second varsity eight (third), novice eight (fifth), varsity four (fourth) and varsity pair (third) rounded out the results.

The varsity eight has less than two weeks to work out the kinks as the team prepares for the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships on May 12 and the Pac-10 Championships on May 13, both of which will be held on Lake Natoma.

Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected].