Bearcats Place Third in Women's Novice 8+ at American Lake Fall Classic

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director

TACOMA, Wash. -- Willamette University took third place out of five crews in the women's novice 8+ at the American Lake Fall Classic on Sunday, Oct. 18. WU also placed sixth out of nine boats in the women's varsity 8+. Commencement Bay Rowing Club hosted the regatta.

The Bearcat novice crew earned a time of 23:16.00 over the 5,000-meter course. Lewis & Clark College won the novice race and finished in 22:25.00. Pacific Lutheran University was second in 22:36.03. Also competing were PLU's "B" crew, which reached the finish line in fourth place at 24:53, and University of Puget Sound, which took fifth in 25:10.00.

In the WN8+, Willamette's crew included 8-seat Natalie Branch (Fr., Cupertino, CA/Homestead HS), 7-seat Allison Davies (Fr., Oceanside, CA/Mission Vista HS), 6-seat Elizabeth Crowther (Fr., Boise, ID/Boise High School), 5-seat Rachael Christman (Fr., Kennewick, WA/Southridge HS), 4-seat Elspeth Charno (So./Fr., Port Angeles, WA/Port Angeles HS), 3-seat Catharine Creadick (Fr., Honolulu, HI/Iolani School), 2-seat Samantha Anderson (Fr., Modesto, CA/Ripon HS), bow Annie Joliff (Fr., Chico, CA/Chico HS), and coxswain Laura Polkinghorn (Fr., Camino, CA/El Dorado HS).

Puget Sound won the WV8+ in 19:23.38 for a 14.60-second margin of victory. Lewis & Clark's "B" crew placed second in 19:37.98, while the UPS "B" crew was third at 19:42.95.

The L&C "A" crew placed fourth in 19:47.6, Pacific Lutheran finished fifth in 20:03.02 and Willamette was sixth in 20:46.34. PLU's "B" crew took seventh at 20:49.83. The UPS "C" crew placed eighth at 21:35.36 and Pacific University was ninth in 22:18.00.

Rowing for Willamette on the WV8+ were Carrie Moore (So., P/S, Walla Walla, WA/South Eugene HS) at stroke, Sarah Fish (Jr., P/S, Issaquah, WA/Holy Names Academy) at 7-seat, Abby Bernhard (So., P/S, Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) at 6-seat, Miranda Martin (So., St. Louis, Missouri/Ladue Horton Watkins HS) at 5-seat, Angela Witty (Sr./So., P/S, Eugene, OR/Sheldon HS) in 4-seat, Larsen Fellows (Fr., Homer, AK/Homer HS) in 3-seat, Ingrid Avila (So., P/S, Redwood City, CA/Summit Prep) at 2-seat and Julia Di Simone (So., C, Livermore, CA/Livermore Valley Charter Prep) at bow. The coxswain for the varsity crew was Kyra Farr (Fr., C, Bellevue, WA/Newport HS).

Conditions were great at American Lake during the regatta. There was no wind and the water was calm.

Willamette's next competition will be at the Charlie Brown Regatta, hosted by Lewis & Clark on Saturday, Oct. 24. Action in set for the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon.