Results

TACOMA, Wash. - The four-time defending Northwest Conference Champion Pacific Lutheran University women's rowing team was back in the water for the first time in over a year, turning in a strong showing at the PLU Invitational on American Lake.

"Today was just absolutely great to be back on the water lining up against other programs," said PLU Head Coach Andy Foltz. "Big props to Portland, Seattle Pacific, Puget Sound, and Seattle U for getting to this point as well. Conditions were not idea and in our first few races we certainly felt that. Our 2v came out the gates kicking screaming, which for a young crew like that was a beautiful sight to see. It wasn't the prettiest thing we've seen out of them but they got the job done. They showed a lot of grit. The first round 1V race, was more of the same. Not our best race but we were able to hold onto a strong margin behind SPU, a really well coached program that is slated to be at the NCAA championships."

PLU's second varsity eight highlighted the day, winning its opening race against Division II Seattle Pacific University by a nearly five-second margin, covering the 2,000-meter course in seven minutes, 54.7 seconds. The 2V8+ was back on the water later in the day, touring the course in 7:55.5 to finish second behind Division I University of Portland.

PLU's varsity eight finished second behind Seattle Pacific in its first race of the season, covering the 2K course in 7:16.2. The Lutes 1V8+ was even faster in the afternoon, placing second behind D1 Portland with a time of 7:08.4.

"For the second round of racing we challenged the 1V crew to row a more poised rhythm," said Foltz. "We were already under-stroking the other crews, meaning taking less strokes than them but hanging with them.  That's a really good thing. We just needed better rhythm. We found it in our second race and were able to hang with UP a little more than our times indicated.the second round 2v and 4+ races we changed up our lineups a little bit to see if we could find some better combinations. Both crews rowed well, they simply came up against faster crews. We'll come back to practice this next week and try to dial things in a bit more with Lamberth Cup this upcoming weekend where the focus will be on the V8+ and the 4+, with UPS not being able to field a second 8+. 

Rounding out PLU boats on the water was the V4+ boat that finished behind SPU in its first race in 9:56.3 before placing third in its second trip on the water, clocking a time of 9:44.3.

"It's early season and we're still playing around with different lineups here and there as COVID allows," said Foltz.  "We think we found some good combinations of folks but we haven't done any traditional seat racing. We're so pumped to be back out on the water throwing down with other programs. PLU Invite was the last event before things got shut down last year. It's nice to get through a weekend of racing and look forward to the remainder of the year, whatever that may entail." 

The Lutes are back on the water on March 28, hosting boathouse rival University of Puget Sound in the annual Lamberth Cup.