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CAL POLY HUMBOLDT ATHLETICS
HSU Rowing moves up in poll

Rowing Allison Scott, sports information intern

Rowing team begins defense of its national title

ARCATA - After ending the 2012 season on the highest of highs, it is hard not to be excited to see what the 2013 season has in store for the Humboldt State rowing team. The crew made school history last year after upsetting seven-year champion Western Washington to capture the National Collegiate Athletic Association Div. II Rowing Championship.
 
Now, with a lot of new faces on the roster, expectations are high as the Lumberjacks gear up for a new season. Humboldt will open its season this weekend as the team heads to Lake Natoma in Gold River on Saturday for the Sacramento State Invitational. Sacramento State, Portland, University of California San Diego, Saint Mary's and Mills College along with Humboldt State will all be competing in the invitational, scheduled to begin at 8 a.m.
 
“I think our whole goal for this first regatta is to just be competitive,” said HSU head coach Robin Meiggs. “We can always use Sacramento State as a good marker for performance, and we would be delighted if we could break seven minutes in the V8 but it's supposed to be a little windy and the sun is not going to be out.”
 
Meiggs plans to bring her entire roster, giving each rower the opportunity to race - some twice. In doing so, she hopes her novice crewmembers can find composure, as well as see some live competition and try to find to see if the team's depth will pay off.
 
“In Sacramento we'll have the opportunity to race all of our students,” Meiggs said.  “We'll be rowing 1v, 2v, novice 8, second novice 8, varsity 4, 2v4, a lightweight 4, so some athletes will actually get to race twice this weekend. We try to do that the first time out because it's not a lot of race experience, and what we know after this week is that you'll only get to row in one event, and you better make sure it's good. We're just trying to look to see if our depth and training will pay off as well.”
 
Training for the Jacks began in September, and Meiggs is ready to see her crew row against some competition. “It's such a long period of time to train,” she said. “We really hope the training we're putting in is going to pay off for us, but you never know until you go to the first regatta.”
 
Following the Sacramento State Invitational, the Humboldt rowing crew will remain in Sacramento for part of Spring Break to continue its training. “We feel like this is our last push for training because once we start racing, we only have one weekend off until it's over, which is seven weeks from Saturday. It's going to be fast.”
 
Humboldt's jammed-packed six-week schedule includes the Cascade Sprints in Tacoma, Wash., the Big Alumni Weekend, hosted by the Lumberjacks in Eureka, the Covered Bridge Regatta in Lowell, Ore., the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in Gold River, and the Northwest Collegiate Rowing Association Championships in Lake Stevens, Wash. This year's NCAA National Championship will take place at Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indiana.
 
Lumberjacks returning from last year's championship varsity four boat are seniors Kaitlyn Shanle, Amanda Nelson and Shenae Bishop, while senior Ashley Frakes and sophomore Edi Sullivan return from the champion V8 boat. Both coxswains return with Ka'ena Sado in the four and Katie Harris in the eight.
 
Robin Meiggs begins her 19th season as head coach for the Lumberjacks and has been with the program every year since its intercollegiate berth in 1994. Last year Meiggs led the Jacks to an NCAA Div. II Rowing Championship, and a third place team finish at the NCAA Rowing Championships in 2011. She rowed for the HSU club team before it became a varsity sport and coached the club team for three seasons after her graduation from Humboldt State. Meiggs led Humboldt State to an NCAA national title in 2004, winning the women's four event. The team finished second overall in the points standings that season. In 2003, Meiggs led the women's eight to a third place finish at their first-ever visit to the NCAA National Championships. 
 
Venue Notes
The Sacramento State Aquatic Center is located on an eight-acre piece of land within Nimbus Flat State Park. Lake Natoma, the actual rowing venue, is part of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. … Lake Natoma was first formed in the 1950s as a catch basin for the Sacramento area's water needs. It lies behind the Folsom Dam, built at that time. … In 1981, the Associated Students of California State University, Sacramento in collaboration with the University Union and State Parks reached a land use agreement and the Sac State Aquatic Center was relocated from its temporary home up lake to the peninsula. Just before the turn of the millennium, the Sac State Aquatic Center received a capital improvement grant from the California Department of Boating Waterways to build a flagship Boating Instruction and Safety Center. For five years the Aquatic Center maintained operations while transforming to a state-of-the-art multi-use campus.
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