Humboldt State University Athletics

LAKE NATOMA - The Humboldt State women's rowing team put it all on the line at Sunday's Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, competing in five grand final races.

The novice lightweight four boat took the Lumberjacks' highest finish of the day in fourth with a time of 8:29.8. The University of California at Berkeley won the race with a time of 8:03.5.

"We had a great opportunity to place this weekend," Meiggs said. "This group has some raw talent and are really good kids. They just couldn't quite get their swing together."

HSU took two fifth place finishes in the second novice eight and second varsity eight races. In the second novice eight, the Jacks finished in a time of seven minutes, 45.3 seconds. In the second varsity eight the Jacks finished in a time of eight minutes, 1.2 seconds.

"We were really excited with how (the second novice eight boat) finished," Meiggs said. "They raced against some of the biggest Division I schools in rowing. To go out there and beat Sac State after having looked at where we started at the beginning of the season. We improved tremendously. For the second varsity eight this was one of their best races of the season. They really brought it together as a boat and they were very satisfied with how they finished. I think they have some pretty good attitudes."

The Jacks' last two races were frustrating as they finished sixth with a time of 7:20.1 in the Division II/III varsity eight and seventh in varsity lightweight four with a time of 8:40.2.

"(The varsity eight) was a very disappointing race after yesterday only being about seven seconds off of Seattle Pacific," Meiggs said. "It was very tough to come back and be almost 20 seconds off of them. I thought we had a great opportunity to go out there and have the same race that we had yesterday and we didn't. We got stuck out in lane six where there was a good side wind. We'll go back next week and try it again with SPU at Dad Vails. The lightweight four race was a real battle for them. As a group they either have a hit or miss performance and they had a miss today. They're one of the only boats that practice every day and I think today they were their own worst enemy."

The HSU rowing team travels east next weekend to compete in the two-day long Dad Vails regatta, May 8-9, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.