The Western women’s rowing team glided past the competition during the annual Northwest Collegiate Rowing Conference Championships in Vancouver, Wash.

Saturday’s victory marked the third Viking win of the season.  Also, their six-year winning streak over non-Division I teams was extended to 15 straight.

The Vikings tallied 106 points at the event. Western came in strides ahead of its closest competitor and victim of last week’s defeat at Lake Samish, University of Puget Sound, who scored only 72 points.
Humboldt State University came in third with 60 points, Seattle Pacific University and Willamette University tied for fourth at 40 points,

Lewis and Clark University came in sixth with 25 points and Pacific Lutheran University came in last with 15 points.

“Our goal was to win the [tournament] for the sixth year in a row, and we accomplished that,” said senior Heather Kelly, a fourth-year rower.

Western placed first in six of the eight events. In the first varsity eight, the Vikings came in ahead of Puget Sound by almost seven seconds, with a time of 6:46.82, an approximate seven-second improvement over last week’s time.

The second varsity eight mirrored the first, with Western clocking in just shy of seven seconds faster than Puget Sound at 7:17.56.

Other gold medal races for the Vikings included the third varsity eight at 7:24.09, the first varsity four at 8:06.57, the second varsity four at 8:17.62 and the novice four at 8 minutes.

The novice four was the closest win of the day for Western, with the team barely edging out Willamette by .84 seconds.

Kelly and team captain senior Madeleine Eckmann was part of the pairs team without a coxswain. Kelly and Eckmann came in third at 8:54.03, behind Puget Sound at 8:33.22, and Humboldt at 8:38.74.

Western’s novice eight placed fourth in a close race, coming in at 7:38.70. Humboldt took first with a time of 7:33.36, followed by Puget Sound at 7:35.67 and rounding out the top three was Lewis and Clark at 7:36.14.

Sophomore Lauren Fleming took part in the novice eight that missed the podium by just one spot.

Fatigue had started to set in as it was one of the last races of the day, and every member of the team had done two or three races earlier in the competition, she said.

This was the last regatta of the season where the Vikings would face Division II and III schools. Western’s remaining schedule includes Division I schools, followed by playoffs.

Sophomore Katie Woolsey helped earn Western two gold medals in both the first varsity eight and the first varsity four.

The first boat was launched into Vancouver Lake at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and the races continued on throughout the day, with the last race starting at 1:30 p.m. Even though it was cloudy and rainy at times, Woolsey said it was actually somewhat warm.

“We’re used to really cold weather,” she said. “I still enjoyed it.”

The team will travel to Spokane to compete against Gonzaga University and Washington State University on Saturday, April 24.

“This was a good building regatta,” Woolsey said, “It’s a good step to where we want to be by the end of the season.”