The Women's Varsity Team from Sonoma State reached a milestone recently by placing first at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.
The third-ranked women's crew finished first ahead of the first-ranked UC San Diego Tritons and second ranked Humbolt State Lumberjacks. This was the first entry for the Seawolf women's rowing team, a group that is less than three years old, in the prestigious Varsity 8 person Division II/III event.
"After the heats on Saturday we knew that UC San Diego was going to be a tough team to beat," said Coach Mark Niemann.
When the time came for the Grand Final the Seawolf women came off the line first and never looked back. They held the lead throughout the race and fought off a last-minute push by the Tritons in the final 500m of the 2000m race to get their best time of the season - 7:00.9 minutes.
The Men's Varsity as well as the men's and women's Novice teams also finished in notable positions. The first year as a full varsity squad, the men's team out did their rankings and knocked off the Loggers from the University of Puget Sound and the Hornets of Sacramento State to get fifth place in the second final event for the Varsity Men's 8 person event with a time of 6:11.1 minutes.
The Seawolf Novice Women finished eight out of 20 crews with a time of 7:10.8 minutes. The Novice Men finished eighth out of 15 crews with a time of 6:21.6 minutes. "I could not be prouder of the entire team. It is wonderful to see all of the hard work these student athletes have put in this year produce these great results," said coach Niemann.
The team has its sights on traveling to Philadelphia to compete in the prestigious Dad Vail Regatta in two weeks.
More information can be found at the team website at http://www.sonoma.edu/clubs/crew/
ABOVE, SSU Women's crew include (left to right) Susi Brunamonti, Amanda Judy, Rachel Beardsley, Jenny Chodola, Chelsea Campbell, Chrissy Towner, Jennifer Huss, Ariane Benito, Audra Anderson and Vicki Denison.
