Women’s rowing preview

Event: Pacific Coast Rowing Association Championships; Pacific-10 Conference Championships

Where: Lake Natomas – Folsom, Calif.

When: Saturday and Sunday; all day

Did you know? The Aggies‘ varsity 8 finished fourth at the Pac-10 Championships last year.

Preview: The UC Davis women’s rowing team will conclude its 2008-2009 season with a two-day appearance at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center.

The Aggies will face eight Pac-10 squads as well as four non-conference foes this weekend.

The No. 1 seed for the weekend will be Stanford, which knocked off California on May 6. Stanford claimed the top spot in each the US Rowing/Collegiate Rowing Coaches/NCAA Division I polls with the win, taking 20 of the 25 first-place votes.

Reigning Pac-10 champ Cal, meanwhile, slid slightly to the No. 2 spot.

The Aggies have a full plate ahead of them with non-Pac-10 foes as well. Both Gonzaga and Sacramento State defeated UC Davis last weekend at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.

Gonzaga knocked off the women’s field by winning nearly every event, including the varsity 8 , the second varsity 8 , novice 8 and varsity 4 . The Bulldogs also displayed their dominance by nearly sweeping the men’s field.

The top two finishers this weekend will earn bids to the national championships in Camden, N.J. Live streaming of the events will be available at pac-10.org.

– Andrea Gutierrez