LOWELL, Ore. -- The nationally ranked number one Cal Poly Humboldt competed at the 2023 Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championships on Saturday at Dexter Lake in Lowell, Oregon. Competing in the GNAC Rowing Championships were Cal Poly Humboldt, University of Central Oklahoma, Seattle Pacific University, and Western Washington University. The 'Jacks won the Varsity 8+ race with plenty of room to spare, bringing home their first V8 title, but took second overall as a team, finishing with 26 total points. Central Oklahoma finished with just one more point, tallying 27 points total over the two races that points were scored for. 

Although there were three total races, the V4 Exhibition, V4 Final, and V8 Final, points were only score for the V4 Final and the V8 Final. Below are the amount of points dedicated to each place finisher in the races.

Scoring: Teams were scored based on placing in the varsity 4+ and varsity 8+ race as follows:

Place	Varsity 8+	Varsity 4+
1st	18	12
2nd	15	10
3rd	12	8
4th	9	6

The boat entries and lineups are listed below:

The first race of the day was the V4 Exhibition and Cal Poly Humboldt took second place behind Seattle Pacific with a time of 8:09.93. 

The V4 Final was a photo finish nail biter for second place. With Central Oklahoma finishing in first at 7:51.924, it was a fight for second between Humboldt and Western Washington. The 'Jacks held tough for 99.9 percent of the race, but at the very last second Western Washington snuck by the Humboldt crew and finished just .02 seconds ahead. With this result, Central Oklahoma picked up 12 points, Western Washington got 10 points, Humboldt grabbed 8 points, and Seattle Pacific took 6 points.

The V8 Final was a race Humboldt needed to win in order to have a chance at the GNAC Championship and they did just that, cruising to victory by nearly four seconds with a time of 7:01.99 and picking up 18 points. After one tight finish in the V4 Final, the second and third place boats in the V8 race made for another close video replay finish, as the difference between the Central Oklahoma and Seattle Pacific boats was .126 seconds. In order for Cal Poly Humboldt to win the GNAC Championship, second ranked Central Oklahoma needed to finish in either third or fourth place in the race. After it was all said and done, the V8 boat found massive success in their race by bringing home their first V8 title to Humboldt, but overall as a team the 'Jacks totaled 26 points (8 and 18). Central Oklahoma edged Humboldt by one point and came away with 27 points (12 and 15), securing the GNAC Championship. 

    

Molly Urtz, Malia Seeley, and Alyssa Paynton earned All-Conference honors at the post-race awards ceremony. 

Head Coach Matt Weise stated, "I am proud of our team and how they raced. We are hopeful that we will be able to do it again at the NCAA championships."

The NCAA Rowing Selection Show will be on Tuesday, May 16 at 2:30 PM PST at this link. 

The championships for all divisions, which also stream live on NCAA.com, are May 26-28 at Camden County Boathouse in Pennsauken, New Jersey.

For more information on Cal Poly Humboldt Rowing, please visit humboldtathletics.com and follow us on all social media platforms.