FOLSOM, Calif. — Saint Mary's Women's Rowing took part in the annual Western Intercollegiate Association Rowing (WIRA) Championship on Saturday morning, racing into the afternoon. The Gaels competed in the varsity eights, second varsity eights, and in the novice fours on Saturday, and their times continued to reflect continuous improvement.
 
The first race of the morning came at 8:30 am, where the first varsity eight boat turned in their best performance of the season in terms of time. They finished sixth-overall in their heat with a time of 7:17.5, which was their fastest mark of the 2021-22 season. They were also within 10 seconds of both Seattle and Santa Clara. At 9:00 am, the Gaels second varsity eight boat hit the water and finished fifth in their heat with a time 7:46.8, just seven-seconds back of Seattle University.
 
The real stars of the WIRA Championships came in the form of the novice fours, who finished in third place out of seven boats in their heat of the novice fours. Their time of 9:05.5 was better than Southern Oregon, Pacific (Forest Grove), UC Davis, and Sonoma State. The same group of five Saint Mary's rowers raced in the Petite Final at 4:00 pm and finished sixth overall with a time of 11:05.9, with times across the board dropping by over a minute for each boat.

RESULTS
V8
Sacramento State - 6:43.8
San Diego - 6:47.8
UC San Diego - 6:56.4
Seattle - 7:08.1
Santa Clara - 7:10.5
Saint Mary's - 7:17.5

2V8
San Diego - 7:04.1
Sacramento State - 7:06.6
UC San Diego - 7:14.9
Seattle - 7:39.5
Saint Mary's - 7:46.8

N4
UC Santa Barbara - 8:29.4
Seattle Pacific - 8:48.9
Saint Mary's - 9:05.5
Southern Oregon - 9:33.8
Pacific Univ. - 10:06.5
UC Davis - 10:35.9
Sonoma State - 11:37.6

Petite Final
Cal Poly (Humboldt) - 9:38.5
Orange Coast - 9:55.0
Puget Sound - 10:03.5
Chico State - 10:23.8
Santa Clara - 10:45.9
Saint Mary's - 11:05.9
Southern Oregon - 11:40.5
 
LINEUPS
V8: Coxswain Camille Bischoff, 8 Emily Ferbet, 7 Emma Scanlan, 6 Katrina Heffernan, 5 Katherine Ferbet, 4 Alyssa Teague, 3 Brooklyn Cassel, 2 Isabella Brakhage, 1 Madison Ciccolella
2V8: Coxswain Madison Sciba, 8 Vivian Hsu, 7 Kendall Brazeel, 6 Olivia Watson, 5 Jessica Ponce, 4 Courtney Cassel, 3 Kiki Koeppen, 2 Lindsay Abrams, 1 Maddison Potts
Novice 4: Coxswain Capri Gavino, 4 Katerina Benedikt, 3 Leah Ohms, 2 Adelyn Phillips, 1 Kaitlin Quezon
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's has just one championship race left on the schedule, with the West Coast Conference Championship taking place on Saturday, May 14. The Gaels will return to Lake Natoma for the fourth time this season, giving the team plenty of familiarity with the water. Last season at the WCC Championship, Saint Mary's finished in fifth place overall and landed two rowers on the All-WCC team following the race.