As the skies clear and the frost thaws, Seattle Pacific University’s winter sports are reaching their final tournaments. At the turn of March, spring quarter sports, rowing and outdoor track and field, will begin their seasons. 

Head coach for women’s rowing Caitlin McClain shared the team has begun working with specific lineups for upcoming races.

“This time of year, we do a selection process, which helps us identify who’s moving the boat the best,” McClain said. “We’re working towards bringing those people together more formally and starting to work on some technical things in a slightly different context, and then obviously start thinking about racing and working on our strategy.”

McClain added how the bad weather that accompanies their winter off-season has assisted the team’s training leading up to competition season.

“The bad weather was sort of a blessing in disguise because we ended up doing a land workout, a drill that will help to translate into boat speed. One part of the stroke that has one of the biggest impacts on force or speed potential is at the beginning of the drive with what’s called the catch (when the blade goes into the water) and then when you change directions,” McClain said. “We’ve been doing some drills around that to bring it into focus because we noticed during the selection period that our catches weren’t going in as directly and effectively as when we’re racing.”

Nearing the first races of the season, McClain’s first concerns are the team’s short-term and long-term goals for the 2024 season.

“We want to go after our GNAC championships. I think that is a big goal for the team and a step along the way for that is our championship race in late April and then our conference races a couple weeks later in May,” McClain said. “Moving into racing, it’s like ‘how do we prepare ourselves to be at our best for those culminating events?’ If those go well, we can make a run for NCAAs.”

McClain’s second concern for the season is the team’s only home race, the Falcon Regatta.

“The next big challenge will be Falcon Regatta on March 23, where we’ll be seeing the number one and number two from last year’s NCAAs,” McClain said. “The goal would be to feel really good going into the Falcon Regatta and feel like we’ve made progress in our blade work and seeing our speed increase.”

Rowing will have their first race on Saturday, March 9, in Tacoma, Washington at 8 a.m. at American Lake.

Joining rowing in the spring will be outdoor track and field. Head coach Karl Lerum and assistant coach Eric Hansen maintain the same goals for outdoor season as their previous indoor season.

“We’re trying to close out potential performance gaps and trying to help athletes set goals and achieve them, but also take joy in the process of the pursuit,” Lerum said. “We have a better sense of what we need to work on and which specific areas can be improved. The goal is just improvement and pursuing excellence on a daily basis, not just when we’re in uniform.”

Hansen elaborated on how the team’s approach for the season is to exceed expectations.

“The message that we’re going to be preaching is everything we’re doing now is going to set us up for the end of outdoor. Our big goal is to perform well, get in points for the team regardless of what events you’re running,” Hansen said. “One thing we always say is our goal at every championship is to finish higher than you are projected to. We scored more points at Indoor GNACs than we were expected to on paper. We want to repeat that outdoors.”

With track and field having an individual competition format, Hansen explained how keeping the team together is essential from start to finish.

“During outdoor, we get a wider variety of events. Groups are more broken up and are doing their own training,” Hansen said. “We have more individualized practices but we’re trying to keep the team mindset together early in this season and just get ready for championships at the end.”

Lerum added further that the individual aspect of track and field means they can only coach the team so far before needing to focus their efforts on each athlete’s skill.

“As a group, we talk about trying to stay on our feet. What our kids are doing is trying to train at a level that is challenging but also trying to keep themselves healthy for a long season,” Lerum said. “When we have a group of people all pursuing different goals and different events, it’s hard to generalize when it comes to what we’re zeroing in on. I think every kid has their path and we’re here to help support them the best we can.” 

The Falcons began their outdoor competition on Saturday, March 2, and will compete in their next meet on Saturday, March 16. at the PLU Open at Pacific Lutheran University at 10 a.m.