Sacramento State’s women’s rowing team ended its season with a third-place finish in the petite final at the Pac-10 Conference. In front of a home crowd at the Aquatic Center, the varsity eight finished behind UCLA by four seconds and Gonzaga by three-tenths of a second. “We would have liked to be able to have beaten Gonzaga for the last race but they still kinda inched us out,” said junior Kellie Cook. “But overall it was probably one of the best races the varsity boat has had.” The Hornets had boats in the varsity eight, second varsity and novice eight races. While none made it to a grand final event, all three finished third in their petite final. Even though the team didn’t accomplish all of their goals this year, the team still had a strong season. Earlier in the year, the Hornets won the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association (WIRA) championship team trophy. “I think we’re pretty satisfied with the accomplishments we’ve done,” said senior Dani Thole. Aiming to have their best races against the Pac-10, the team just barely missed defeating teams expected to win. “We train to peak at Pac-10’s,” said Head Coach Mike Connors. “The Pac-10 schools, they’re all ranked.” Defeating Pac-10 and other high-profile teams is a future goal, not just close finishes behind is a goal Connors has for the team. “Our objective was to beat Gonzaga,” Connors said. Like many other teams at Sac State, the team had lots of injuries all season long. “We just weren’t very healthy most of the year,” Connors said. Connors would like to see more team members to balance out the injuries and build the strongest team possible. “We didn’t have a lot of depth on the varsity this year,” Connors said. “So we weren’t able to field a competitive varsity four.” Next season the team will try to take what they’ve learned from this year to reach their goals. “This season has been really good with progress,” Cook said. “Every race we’ve had we’ve learned something new as a boat and as a team.” Every season players have their positions and roles determined by a number of factors. Improvements and health are just two things that will shape the next varsity teams. There are 10 seniors whose collegiate careers have come to an end. For Thole, she plans to have rowing still be in her life. “I hope to become a collegiate coach,” Thole said. “So I’m going to try and be a grad assistant somewhere on the east coast and see where that can take me.”

Mitchell Wilson can be reached at [email protected]