Jacks traveling to GNAC championships
Cal Poly Humboldt’s women’s rowing team will look to continue a strong season going and make a push for the GNAC championship this Saturday.
The Lumberjacks will be taking to Oregon’s Dexter Lake to compete in the conference varsity four+ and varsity eight+ races in the hunt for the 2022 spring season GNAC crowns and a berth in the upcoming NCAA Division II nationals in Florida.
The team heads north to the race ranked third in the most recent NCAA DII West regional rankings, released Wednesday and coming off a good day on the water at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association grand finals. The varsity eight+ boat finished second in the WIRA grand final, four seconds behind winners Western Washington, out of a field of six teams. The four+ crew finished in third place, only behind Seattle Pacific and Western Washington, out of a field of six teams.
“They raced well, they raised aggressively, and really kind of took some risks on the race course. We did have some good results. We were close to Western Washington in the eights and hopefully we can close that gap when we go to the GNAC,” team head coach Matt Weise said.
A win in the upcoming race would give Humboldt a direct entry into the NCAA DII nationals race, though the team can still make the trip to the Florida race if their times are good enough.
“If we win, it makes the NCAAs simple. If we don’t, all of those gaps have to be really close. So we have to race close to Central Oklahoma,
close to Western Washington, Seattle Pacific … We’ve got to make sure that those margins of loss are very, very small,” Weise explained.
Familiarity with the course will come in handy for the Lumberjacks after racing on the Dexter Lake course during the Covered Bridge Regatta on April 16,