Despite dealing with bad weather consisting of rains and crosswinds, the Sacramento State rowing team won its third Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association points trophy Sunday.

All six boats: the varsity eight, second varsity eight, novice eight, second novice eight, varsity four and novice four finished among the top six boats in each of the grand finals at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center. This is the Hornets’ third WIRA championship win in four years after previously winning in 2006 and 2007.

The crews gathered points from their respective grand final event and the Hornets earned a total of 360 points, defeating second-place Gonzaga with 352 points and UC Davis with 347 points.

This was the first time in school history that all six boats advanced to the grand finals in the same year. The Hornets were also the only team to have all six boats advance to the grand finals at this year’s WIRA championships.

Gonzaga won the varsity eight title by crossing the 2000-meter finish line with a time of 6:48.9, edging out the Hornets (6:50.1) by 1.2 seconds.

“We worked really well together and we held our head high knowing that we did something great still,” said senior Megan Riggs. “We just need to work on maintaining our speed during the last couple hundred meters of the race, which is where Gonzaga got us.”

The Hornets’ silver medal marks the ninth medal for Sac State in the WIRA grand final since the program participated in intercollegiate play in 1995. Among the varsity eight, Riggs, senior Anne Morrison (who is a news writer for the State Hornet) and Junior Holly Hopkins, were named first team all-WIRA team.

“All three of them had an outstanding year and it was nice bonus for Anne and Megan as seniors to have that in their last year of rowing,” head coach Mike Conners said.

Sac State’s novice eight boat won the bronze medal with a time of 7:06.9, its first medal since 2006. Gonzaga won first place with a time of 6:57.0 followed by Western Washington clocking in at 6:59.6. UC Davis rounded out the top four boats of the six-boat event finishing at 7:11.7.

“Some of our novices raced four times and that was such a huge accomplishment for them,” Riggs said.

Conners said that the next competition that the team will be focusing on is the Pacific-10 Championships.

“We just need to fine-tune things for the Pac-10,” Conners said. “We have two weeks to practice and to find the right gear to win our races.”

Sac State will meet Gonzaga again in the Pacific-10 Championships and Senior Dani Thole is confident that the Hornets can compete with the Bulldogs.

“We can definitely beat Gonzaga,” Thole said. “The fact that we were that close to them this past weekend is pretty good. We just need to stay focus and not let the race get into our heads.”

Thole also said that the team’s consistency was the key to success this year and it made a difference in the team’s performance compared to past seasons.

“A lot of improvement has been made this year,” Thole said. “Other crews have struggled a bit with a lot of changes, but for the most part, everyone stayed consistent throughout the year and that really helped us.”

The Hornets will return to Lake Natoma for the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships May 16 followed by the Pacific-10 Championships May 17.