Cougar rowers claim third place

The Washington State women’s rowing team’s top boat, the varsity 8, placed third in the Pac-10 championship race Sunday in Sacramento, Calif.

Ranked fourth nationally going into the championship, the Cougars finished the 2,000-meter race in 6:44.7, exactly 2 seconds behind No. 10 Stanford and 5.9 seconds behind first-place No. 1 California. No. 12 USC finished fourth in the grand final, followed by No. 15 Washington and No. 14 Oregon State.

No. 20 UCLA, the final Pac-10 boat, won the women’s petite final. Gonzaga’s boat finished 2.4 seconds later, with a second-place time of 6:55.7. The Bulldogs were among several non-Pac-10 teams that raced in the regatta.

The Washington men won the varsity 8 with a time of 5:52.10, followed by California, Stanford, Oregon State, UCLA, WSU and USC. The WSU men, a club team, finished in 6:27.3.

The California women and Washington men won the team championships. WSU was third overall in the women’s standings.

If invited, the WSU women will compete in the NCAA championships in two weeks at the same venue, Lake Natoma.