PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University’s Cougar Crew gave a strong performance Saturday in their season opener at the Cascade Sprints on American Lake in Tacoma. The men’s varsity four won convincingly, and the novice A and B 8’s won their respective events over the 2000-meter race course.

 

In the second race of the day, the men’s varsity eight took two tries to complete the race.  Less than three hundred meters into the first start, two boats collided and officials stopped the race.  After restarting, the Cougars stayed within striking distance of Pacific Lutheran University, but came up short in the sprint and finished in third place with 6:18.97.

 

The men’s varsity eight then broke into two fours and competed in the men’s varsity four and second varsity four event, respectively.  Due to the re-start in the earlier race, the varsity four crew had less than five minutes on land before they were back on the water and rowing back to the start line. The Cougars gradually pulled ahead of the other boats and won by open water. They were followed by Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University.  The WSU men’s second varsity four took second in their event, behind Western Washington University, but well ahead of Seattle Pacific University.

 

 Head coach Arthur Ericsson summarized the performance of the varsity team by saying "Today’s racing was an example that sometimes the parts are greater than the whole…the 8’s race fell short of what it could’ve been, but when we broke the 8 into 4’s both crews showed their full potential and we ended the day having accomplished what we needed to.”

 

In their spring racing debut, the lightweight women’s novice faced tough competition in the women’s novice open-weight four, won by University of Puget Sound. Pacific Lutheran and Willamette University came in second and third, respectively. The Cougars had a close battle with Seattle University, but took fourth place.

 

Also competing in their first spring regatta, the men’s novice A boat crew won a close battle with Western Washington. The novice B boat crew was more dominant in their event, besting University of Puget Sound by nearly twenty seconds. WSU fielded two boats in the novice four event, finishing  third and fifth.