• SPU Selected for NCAA Championship Field
     • 2010 NCAA Rowing Championships homepage
     • 2010 SPU Rowing Results (pdf)

The Seattle Pacific crew will compete next week (May 28-30) at the NCAA Division II Women's Rowing Championships on Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, Calif. That will be the first appearance by the entire SPU team at championship regatta.

The Falcons earned the NCAA invitation on the strength of a bronze-medal performance against a formidable field at the Dad Vail Regatta, May 7-8 in Philadelpha.

Members of the SPU crew will be contributing rowing reports to keep you updated on their journey leading up to and during the NCAA Championships. This is the first of those blog entries, from sophomore Katy Stine.


Hi, this is Katy,

It was officially announced Tuesday that SPU's women's crew team qualified to compete in the NCAA Rowing Championships. What an awesome feeling!

With a tremendous amount of anxiousness the team squeezed into Coach's office to watch the announcement, live on the internet. As the announcer slowly explained the requirements of receiving the team bids, our anxiety grew - we could feel our pulses rise as we mentally checked off all of the qualifying victories.

Then she began to announce each team in alphabetical order. Once she said 'Seattle…' that was all we heard- shouts of joy resonated throughout coach's office - we had received a team bid - we're going to nationals! After congratulating each other, we all ran out of the office to call our friends and family.

It was quite comical to see the whole team having essentially the same conversation on different cell phones - one girl even compared it to a phone commercial.

Just two weekends ago, our team flew to Philadelphia, PA to compete at the Dad Vail Regatta - we did very well. Our four-person boat made it into the semi-final and the eight-person boat placed third in the final. Both boats did well enough to convince the NCAA Committee that SPU should be in the championship.

We were confident in our ability but hearing the news officially was a great feeling - a feeling that won't be disappearing until sometime after our races in Sacramento.

This year, the Nationals racecourse is in Sacramento, CA. Earlier this season, we raced on this course and took first place- and we're psyched to do well again! We know the racecourse and we can prepare for the conditions that come with Lake Natoma.

We also have a home away from home in Sacramento at Lacey Sheridan's house. Her family is exceptionally hospitable and has the team over to their house for some meals as well as just relaxing after races. This familiarity is a little weird too though because when I think of Sacramento, I think of WIRA and when I think of Nationals, Cooper River, NJ comes to mind, which is where Nationals were last year. Now I have to envision Nationals on the WIRA racecourse.

It's great that there are so many returners in the eight-person boat this year (seven of the nine people rowed last year at Nationals) and even though our success this year doesn't rely on last year's accomplishments, it's still encouraging.

We are a team, and we row well together. And that's that! We are all extremely motivated and driven, which is how we fought through Dad Vail's horrendous weather to place third.

Each person in the boat has her own reason for succeeding but a key motivation is everyone else in the boat and rowing in unity. We all know how hard each person has worked since the first day of classes fall quarter and not one of us wants to be the person who lets the team down by not giving it her all, so we all row for each other.

When push comes to shove, we're all there for each other, which was even seen today during the announcement. We wanted to hear the news together since it is impossible to go to Nationals as an individual.

With Nationals less than two weeks away, we'll all be keeping each other accountable while keeping this positive energy powering us forward. We just have the final sprint ahead of us and we are ready for it!

-- Katy