Young but motivated.

That is how junior rower Amy Burns describes the large group of freshman rowers that make up most of the SPU women's novice eight crew team, the same team that took first place with a time of 5:28.44 at the Blue Heron Regatta Saturday in Eureka, Calif.

"The novice eight has a lot of potential," junior Rachel Savage said. "We were really proud of them."

There are about 15 novice rowers on the women's team this season, said Burns.

Along with the success of the novice eight women's team came the second place finishes of the Falcons' collegiate women's eight (7:24.41), collegiate women's four (7:57.90), collegiate men's four (7:46.83), and the collegiate men's two (6:43.40).

SPU drove down to California through rain, hail, and snow in order to compete in fair weather against Humboldt State, who took first place overall in the regatta with 88 points. The Falcon rowers took a backseat to Humboldt State, a team they beat frequently last season, and finished in second place overall with 32 points.

"Their wins came as a little bit of a shock to us," Burns said of Humboldt. "They had a great race."

Mills College took third place with 27 points, leaving Seattle University last on the list with four points.

"I was a little disappointed just because last year we came in first in almost every category," Savage said of the team's performance.

Savage said that after the regatta, the collegiate women's eight team realized that they had started much faster than usual, which may have caused them to lack that extra surge of energy at the end of the race.

"When we saw them passing, we got nervous. We need to stick to our race plan," Savage said.

Despite many second-place finishes, Savage said that the effort was there and that several individuals really stepped up, including the collegiate women's eight freshman coxswain, Kristi Tamaki.

"It's a huge role. Not only is she keeping track of all the technical numbers and steering, but she's also trying to motivate the rest of her team," Savage said.

Burns, who has been rowing on the SPU crew team for two years now, said that several athletes rowed in more than one race, which she said takes a great deal of mental toughness to stay focused and not become physically drained.

Due to the small size of the SPU men's crew team this season, which is made up of five athletes, they will only be able to race a collegiate men's four team and will continue to experiment with racing a collegiate men's two.

Juniors Zeke Schellberg and Justin Rowley made up the collegiate men's two on Saturday.

"We lost two veteran senior rowers last season. Now it's all about rebuilding and getting some depth back," junior Matt Shi said.

With two athletes who have never rowed before, Shi said that the men did well at Saturday's regatta in terms of "what we are capable of doing."

Shi said that because there are no men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II national championships, they are focusing less on the future of the season, but more on daily improvement.

Savage praised the efforts made by the men's team.

"Every single one of the guys has to be there every day; that's a lot of pressure, and they've done a really good job," Savage said.

Burns said SPU's head coach Keith Jefferson was very pleased with the team's overall performance.

"He can see hard work when it's presented to him. When he's encouraged, we know we are doing our job," Burns said.

The SPU rowers will now prepare for their races this Saturday at the Northwest Collegiate Rowing Competition Invitational on Vancouver Lake, which starts at 8 a.m. Burns said this race will allow the team to observe different racing styles and will include teams from all different divisions.

Western Washington University will be their toughest competition, said Burns. The Vikings have won the NCAA Division II national championships the last three years.

"Western pretty much crushes all other Division II teams," Savage said. "It's our goal to close the gap between us and them."