With another Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship under the rowing team’s belt and a third place finish at the Dad Vail Regatta, the Hornets are now preparing for the Pacific Coast Championships and Pacific-10 play.

“I feel like this has been one of our better years,” said junior Erin DeGoede. “We have been hitting our goals in practice and bringing them into our races.

The WIRA win, the third in four years, was a big confidence booster for the team.

The WIRA uses a point system to score the performance of the multiple boats from each school. Schools from all over the western United States participate in WIRA. In the event, the Hornets collected a total of 360 points, besting close competitor Gonzaga University with 352 and also UC Davis with 347.

The teams got off to a quick start this year when the boats opened against Santa Clara. The Hornets dominated the competition and swept the day’s events with Sac State boats finishing in the top positions in both the four- and eight-person varsity and novice races. The team continued its success in the Sacramento State Invitational by winning both varsity eight races, both novice eight races, the novice four, and placed second in both the varsity four races.

The team was also successful in an invitational event when the team defeated both Central Florida and Texas, both programs of which have recently been to the NCAA.

“The performance of the varsity eight was key in our victory over Central Florida and Texas. It was a race where we have to come from behind and it was good for us to shock a couple of teams we normally don’t see,” said coach Mike Connors.

From there the team headed into the Causeway Classic with UC Davis. The Hornets took top honors in three of the four events to not only win the event but also clinch the Causeway Cup for Sac State for the third time in the five years of the competition.

Following the Causeway the team prepared for the WIRA. Now the team is looking toward its next challenge here at the end of the season. On Saturday the team will put boats in the water at the Pacific Coast Rowing Championship and again a day later at the Pac-10 Championship. Although Sac State is not a Pac-10 school, the championship invites the top 21 teams throughout the western region to compete. The top four or five finishers in these events will be invited to the NCAA tournament.

At the event, the Hornets will have their sights set on one school in particular: Gonzaga. During a meet earlier this year, Gonzaga was able to slightly outperform the Hornets in every race.

“We would like to beat Gonzaga. It’s tough to lose to a crew by so little. We definitely want to beat them by the end of the year. It’s a goal for that race,” said junior Holly Hopkins.

DeGoede recognized the same goal and said, “We definitely want to beat them. Hopefully we can work on our weaker points and pull together to beat them. (Last time) I think we could have brought up our sprint better we would have beaten them. If we do that we’ll be fine.”

From top to bottom the team is aware of this goal. Even Connors sees the importance of it to his team: “We would really like to reverse what Gonzaga did to us. As far as out last race went, we put ourselves in a position to win and we just didn’t finish. We were ready to go at the end but not as a unit. We couldn’t bring our level up together.”

Although the team is going into the event with high hopes and is prepared to capitalize on every advantage possible, the Pac-10 will be a daunting measure of the team’s abilities.

“What is always most important is that we rode our best and went as fast as possible,” Connors said. “If we rode as fast as we have gone all year and they still beat us, that that’s life. It’s still better to lose by a half a second than by two boat lengths.”

Andrew McFadden can be reached at [email protected]