WHAT'S HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
The No. 13 Washington State University rowing team will race at the 2016 Pac-12 Rowing Championships, Sunday, May 15 at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma at Gold River, Calif…women's racing will begin at 9:15 a.m with the third varsity eight grand final, followed by the varsity four grand final (9:45 a.m.), the second varsity eight grand final (10:15 a.m.) and the varsity eight grand final (10:45 a.m.)…in addition to challenging for the Pac-12 title, WSU will be competing for a bid to the NCAA Championships, which take place May 27-29, at the same location, Lake Natoma at Gold River, Calif...the Pac-12 Championships will be shown on tape delay on the Pac-12 Networks, Saturday, May 21 at 11:30 a.m...live results can be found online.
THE FIELD:
The 2016 Pac-12 Rowing Championships will include the seven conference varsity rowing programs (No. 2 California, No. 4 Washington, No. 6 Stanford, No. 12 USC, No. 13 Washington State, No. 20 UCLA, and Oregon State)…all events will be seven-lane races to determine the champion...each race is worth a different amount of points, as varsity eight is worth as many as 21 points for first place, second varsity eight is worth as many as 14 points for first place, varsity four is worth seven points for first place and the third varsity eight race winner earns 3.5 points...please see the sidebar of this release for more details on the scoring...WSU's third varsity eight boat has the team's highest seeding at fourth, while the varsity eight and second varsity eight are both seeded fifth and the varsity four crew is seeded sixth.
WSU HEAD COACH JANE LaRIVIERE ON THE PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS: “We're happy to have graduation and school over. We've been going down to the boat house and doing our last bits and pieces of preparation. We're looking forward to going down Friday and getting used to the venue and giving it our best shot. We just assume everyone in the Pac-12 is fast. Every time we race someone from the Pac-12 it just confirms they're fast, so it'll be a really fast race. I think the Pac-12 is really stacked this year. The margins between the different teams are not as great as they have been in some cases, so we'll have to just see what happens.”
PAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Last season Washington was just one race shy of capturing the Pac-12 Championship as the Huskies won every women's race besides the varsity eight...California took the final race and the team championship in dramatic fashion as it raked in a total of 41 points to claim the title...Washington finished second with 39.5 points, followed by Washington State (30.5) in third, defending champion Stanford (29.5) in fourth, USC (20.5) in fifth, UCLA (11) in sixth and Oregon State (10) in seventh...WSU's third-place finish last season was its best since also placing third in 2008...the Cougars were led by a second-place finish by the varsity four crew, tying its highest finish by its varsity four boat at the conference championships...WSU's second varsity eight and third varsity eight crews each placed third, while its varsity eight was fourth...WSU earned its best conference team finish in 2006, stroking to second place as a team…the Cougars have finished third four times (2003, 2004, 2008, 2015)…three Cougar crews have garnered Pac-10/12 Champion honors (second varsity eight, 1995, 1996; novice eight, 2001)...the varsity eight and varsity four boats' best finishes came in 2006 when both placed second.
COUGARS' LAST OUTING:
The 13th-ranked Cougars swept Oregon State, going on to claim their seventh-consecutive Winchell Cup, Saturday, April 30 at Wawawai Landing at Pullman...WSU's varsity eight defeated OSU by four seconds...the varsity eight victory over the Beavers secured the Crawford Plate, named for WSU rowing's first head coach, Tammy Crawford, remained on the Palouse.
COACHING STAFF:
Jane LaRiviere is in her 14th year as head coach of the WSU women's rowing program...LaRiviere led the Cougars to their 10th NCAA Championship appearance in program history last season and fifth in six years...she is joined by associate head coach Josh Adam, assistant/novice coach Karl Huhta, coordinator of operations Sam Hoeper and graduate assistant Brandon Campbell...Adam is in his sixth year after coaching his prior two years at Indiana...Huhta is in his second year at WSU and fourth year overall, he spent last season as the coordinator of operations after being a volunteer coach in 2009-10…Hoeper enters her first season as the coordinator of operations after rowing at Washington State from 2010-13…Campbell enters his first season as a graduate assistant after graduating from Brock University in 2015…the coaching staff was named the CRCA West Regional Staff of the Year in 2015.
PAC-12 HIGHLY RANKED:
WSU is currently ranked 13th in the nation in the USRowing/Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Division I Poll presented by Pocock Racing Shells...WSU is ranked for the 87th-consecutive week, dating back to March 11, 2008...six Pac-12 women's rowing teams are ranked in the top-20 poll: California-second, Washington-fourth, Stanford-sixth, USC-12th, WSU-13th and UCLA-20th...California received 12 first-place votes, while Washington received one.