WSU Varsity Eight Reaches Championship Trophy Race

The Washington State women’s varsity eight crew stroked through extreme heat, humidity and two preliminary races on Friday to earn one of the seven spots for today’s trophy race of the National Collegiate Rowing Championship Regatta at Lake Harsha.

WSU was one of 10 varsity eight boats competing in two heats Friday morning. The Cougars were fourth in the first heat. Washington won with a time of 6 minutes, 23.7 seconds over the 2,000-meter course. Brown was second, Cornell third and Massachusetts fifth.

Princeton was the winner of the second heat with a time of 6:23.6. Wisconsin was second with Stanford, Michigan and Sacramento State finishing in that order.

The top two boats from the morning heats qualified for this afternoon’s finals while the other six boats raced in a repechage with the top three advancing to the finals.

Cornell won the repechage race in 6:31.7. Stanford was second in 6:36.2 and WSU third in 6:36.5.

The Cougar junior varsity eight competes in its final today against four other teams.