The Pioneer crew teams had their strongest-ever showing at the WIRA Championships at Lake Natoma in California this weekend (complete results).

"Our Varsity Men's 4 finished 5th in the grand final and the Women's Varsity 8 finished 5th in the DII/DIII/Club event. Both of these were first-evers for L&C," said Head Coach Sam Taylor.  "No varsity men's boat or varsity women's boat had ever made a grand final before.

"The novice men finished 5th in their petite final for 11th overall. The novice women's 4 just missed the grand final (by less then 1 second in their heat) and ended up 4th in their petite for 10th overall. The novice women's 8 finished 3rd in the 3rd final for 15th overall. This was also the first-ever appearance for any novice women's crew from Lewis & Clark. I'm very proud of how our athletes acquitted themselves at this race; with finals starting on Monday there are a lot of potential distractions for the athletes and they handled themselves very well."