WIRA Championships
05 May 2009
Cougars Defend Gold, Capture Bronze in Three Events
The Washington State University Men’s Crew repeated a victory in the Men’s V4+ event Sunday at Lake Natoma in Sacramento, CA. With a time of 6:51.8 in their heats Saturday, they were the fastest time of any V4+. On Sunday their time of 6:46.0 was 5 seconds faster than the second place crew, giving the Cougars a dominating margin.
The Cougar Crew raced its strongest novice class in years. The first year rowers took third, finishing only seconds behind rowing powerhouses Gonzaga University (6:08.6) and Orange Coast College (6:03.9). Even in the less than favorable conditions, the Novice 8+ posted a 6:11.1, the fastest recorded Cougar time of the weekend. “The narrow margin of just 2.5 seconds reflects how fast our novice are as a club team at the national level, as the varsity Gonzaga team has now secured an entry in the national championships,” commented Head Coach Arthur Ericsson.
Also taking home bronze were the 2N8+ and the L8+ boats. The second novice boat raced a 6:30.3, taking third behind two OCC boats. The lightweight 8 came in at 6:22.0 behind Loyola Marymount and Cal Lights.
The Cougar Varsity 8 took 9th in a field of 17, beating their seeding in the WIRA polls. The JV 8 took 8th in its field to beat its last place seeding.
The Cougars also entered a N4+, which took 7th, a pair that took 4th even after catching a mid-race crab and a L4+ that placed 4th of 8.
The WSU Men’s Crew’s weekend was capped off with three additional awards. WSU Varsity rowers Garrett Lyman and Andrew Winters were honored with the title of Second Boat All-WIRA’s. This meant they were honored as two of the top 18 rowers at the regatta.
The third and perhaps most prestigious award was the Cougar’s second place finish in the points category. This honor was based on the number of events entered and placing in those events. With a very deep Cougar team that entered all but one men’s event, the Cougars managed to bring home the second place honors for the first time in recent memory.
WSU Men’s Crew will face off against even tougher opponents at their Pac-10 Championships in two weeks and will be competing at the ACRA club national championships in Tennessee in the novice 8 and varsity lightweight 4 events the weekend after that.
WIRA Results
