The women’s rowing team opened its spring season at the Sacramento State Invitational Saturday morning with a first place finish in three out of the six races at Lake Natoma.
The racing conditions featured no wind and flat water as Sac State was able to take home gold medals in the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four.
Sac State fielded a total of six boats in Saturday’s regatta including the first, second and third varsity eight boats — as well as the first and second varsity four.
The Hornets competed against Humboldt State, Mills College, Orange County Coast College, Portland, Saint Mary’s College and UC San Diego.
“I thought that we did fairly well today,” Sac State coach Mike Connors said. “This spring we haven’t had much water time and we haven’t had much time with the particular lineups — so I think they managed things pretty well.”
The varsity eight competition resulted in Sac State taking the gold with a time of 6:33.2. Coming in right behind them was Portland with a time of 6:36.4 as well as Saint Mary’s coming in third with a time of 6:47.7.
Sac State’s second varsity eight won by nearly 10 seconds with a time of 6:50.0 over 2,000 meters. Coming in behind the Hornets was Saint Mary’s (6:59.9), Portland (7:09.7), UC San Diego (7:11.2) and Humboldt State (7:18.7).
The Hornets’ varsity four also posted a winning time of 7:48.8 after beating Humboldt State (7:56.5) and Orange Coast College — the two other teams that rounded out the top three finishers in a five-boat race.
The novice eight for Sac State finished third out of seven boats with a time of 7:26.7. Sac State’s second varsity team had two boats in the race with the A boat coming in second with a time of 7:48.0 and the B boat finished third at 7:55.0.
“Now that we are back at (Lake) Natoma rowing every day, we can make a lot of progress,” Connors said. “We’ve got some good races coming up next weekend and we’re definitely going to be preparing for that.”
Sac State will return to Lake Natoma for the Hornet Invitational March 18 against San Diego State, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s College and Drexel.
