The Sacramento State women’s rowing team is looking to start the spring season strong and defend last season’s championship titles.

In the 2010 season, the team won the WIRA Varsity 8 Final on Lake Natoma with a 2,000-meter time of 6:56.5. The win makes it the fourth time Sac State women’s has won the title with wins in 2000-01, 2006 and 2010.

The team also went to the Dad Vail Regatta last season and took home the Varsity 8 title with a 2,000-meter time of 7:02.52. This is the second time Sac State has won the Dad Vail following its win back in 2004.

“We’re not in a conference so the closest thing to it is our league called Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association,” said head coach Mike Connors. “That’s one of our last races so our focus is to perform well in all our entries, make all our finals and hopefully win medals.”

The team has 13 freshmen new to the team this season, some rowing for the varsity team and others with the novice team.

“We have a little bit of a younger group this season,” Connors said. “We have four freshmen rowing with the varsity so we’re blending them in, and several of them are new to the sport so there’s a lot a growth and development.”

Freshman Julia Lathrop was one of the athletes chosen to row for the senior varsity team. This is not only Lathrop’s first time rowing for a varsity team, but it is also the first time she has been involved with the sport of rowing all together.

“It’s exciting and an honor to move up especially when I’ve never done it before,” Lathrop said. “It’s kind of nerve-wracking when you’re with a bunch of people that are older because I have never rowed before. Right when I first got moved up, I just felt so out of place but they really take you in and help you to get more comfortable.”

Senior Emily Airoldi is one of the more experienced athletes, this being her third year with the team. Airoldi tries to do her part in shaping the new incoming freshmen so they can properly use their talents to benefit the team.

“Being a senior, I try to be approachable,” Airoldi said. “It’s about lighting that fire and getting the competitive spirit going. I think the freshmen sometimes get intimated, but they are catching on to the competitive spirit. For me, it’s just being a role model, working hard and leaving it all out there.”

Airoldi said she welcomes the pressures that freshmen are putting on some of the more experienced rowers.

“As long as they’re bringing it, it brings a whole new level of competition,” Airoldi said. “I think it pushes us to the next level when we see all the young ones coming up, and it also keeps us on top of our game.”

Connors said incorporating the new members of the team is something that can prove to be beneficial in defending their championships this season.

“We have a lot of physical talents on the team,” Connors said. “We have some people that can produce numbers on a rowing machine, which is good. I’d rather have horsepower than not because you can develop (power) and if you don’t have it, you can only get so fast.”

Connors said that developing the talent is one aspect the team will have to improve as the season goes on.

Another element the team has to cope with is some of the injuries team members have sustained in the past couple of weeks.

“It’s been a really bad year for injuries,” Connors said. “Most of them are minor, but we’re a sport where you have to train and when you have young rowers, they need to be out there refining their technique.”

Connors said with rowers being sidelined because of injuries, the team’s potential cannot be fully harnessed, but encourages his athletes to accept the challenge he is putting before his athletes.

“We just have to deal with it,” Connors said. “People just have to step up, fill seats and be ready. The competitors are hopefully going to rise to the occasion and get better and the team has to respond to that.”

The rowing team will be back in action on Saturday. The Hornets will take on San Diego State at 8 a.m. on Lake Natoma.

You can reach Anthony Honrade at [email protected]