The Falcons Online -- Seattle Pacific University Athletics

Falcons Test Waters For First Time Saturday
SPU Rowers Host PLU in Annual Duel on Ship Canal
March 13, 2007

Short Strokes

The Falcons’ dock near Third Avenue West and Ewing Street is about halfway up the race course, which runs westward from the Fremont Bridge. Nearby Ewing Park is the best spectator vantage point...There will be burst of activity along with some lulls as shells return through the course Saturday. The last scheduled race, the women’s eight, is scheduled for 9:40...Last year’s men’s four matched the best finish by an SPU boat of that class by taking bronze at the ECAC. The ‘81 four was took third at Dad Vail...The Falcon women reside in a tough region for rowing. Western Washington has won the last two NCAA crowns and three West Regionals in a row. UC San Diego was an at-large qualifier for nationals the past two years and Humboldt State went as recently as ‘04.

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Back door debut. Seattle Pacific University’s top men’s and women’s crews will have their fair share of long hauls ahead, but this weekend isn’t one of them. The Falcons will begin their season by racing just outside the back door of their shell house. SPU meets Pacific Lutheran in a duel down the Lake Washington Ship Canal Saturday morning (Mar. 17). Next week brings the 13-hour drive down to Eureka, Calif., and the Blue Heron Redwood Sprints.

Catch ‘em while you can. For some, Saint Patrick’s Day is all about wearing green, a meal of corn beef and cabbage and applying the pinch to those garbed in non-green. For SPU rowers, at least this time around, it’s about rising and eating early, and then, beginning at 7:50, ploughing through 2000 meters of water between the Fremont and Ballard bridges. There will be a total of six races in a 1-hour, 50-minute span. Seattle Pacific swept all four races last year in the early-season duel with the Lutes.

Half back. This is Year Two of Seattle Pacific’s new emphasis on the varsity eight for women, while the men continue rowing exclusively fours. There are three returnees from the eight which placed third in the NCAA regional. Rachel Savage (So., Encinitas, Ca./San Dieguito) and Katie Wolff (Jr., Bridgewater, Vt./Mid Vermont Christian) each move two seats back, to stroke and No. 7. Also returning is Katie Wilner (Jr., Everett, Wa./Everett) and coxswain Megan Giske (Sr., Gig Harbor, Wa.). Coach Keith Jefferson says the crew’s development will be directly tied to the progress of the five novices.

Three-fourths. An SPU crew should again be somewhere on the eastern seaboard come Mothers Day. Jefferson says his men’s varsity four remains solid, having lost only one rower after taking third in the grand final of the ECAC National Invitational. Jeremy Bryant (Sr., Gig Harbor, Wa.), John Chevigny (Sr., Seattle, Wa./Roosevelt), Ben Zupke (Sr., Lynden, Wa.) and cox Jeney Wierman (Sr., Walla Walla, Wa.) won three regattas last season. Justin Rowley (So., Kenmore, Wa./Inglemoor) moves up from the novice boat which won the NCRC.

SPU Coaches. Keith Jefferson has steered Seattle Pacific University into uncharted waters in national prominence during his 16-year tenure as head coach. In the past eight years alone, Jefferson’s Falcons have claimed national titles in seven events, medaled in five others and won regional crowns in 10. A past oarsman, alumnus and assistant coach, Jefferson became the fifth head coach at Seattle Pacific University in the fall of 1990. In 2003 he took a leave of absence after being called up to active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. A lieutenant colonel in the reserves, Jefferson was n active member of the Marines from 1983-87. Jefferson succeeded Jim Schultz as coordinator of the program after serving two seasons as an assistant. A graduate of Bothell High School, Jefferson rowed for Seattle Pacific from 1979-83. He was a member of the light four which advanced to the semifinal at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia in 1982. Keith and his wife Lori have a son, Randy, and daughter, Emma, and reside in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. Jessica Pennington is in her fifth year as assistant. She was oarsman of the year and an all-region selection as a senior in 2001. Kip Wassink, who stroked a varsity four at Dad Vail in 1999, returns for his second season on the staff.

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