The women’s rowing crew finished in sixth place against stiff competition in the San Diego Classic last weekend.

In the Sunday final, the No. 12-ranked varsity eight finished with a time of 6 minutes, 52.25 seconds, behind Pac-10 teams Oregon State (6:49.54), USC (6:48.49) and Washington (6:45.83). University of Michigan won the race with a time of 6:43.02 and took home the Jessop-Whittier Cup trophy.

The sixth-place finish was a drop-off from the team’s performance in the preliminaries. At No. 12 in the College Rowing Coaches Association/U.S. Varsity Eight Top-20 poll, WSU ranked below two of the six teams participating in the varsity eight final.

“Varsity and novice eight executed better today than yesterday,” WSU Head Coach Jane LaRiviere said in a WSU news release. “We have lots of work to do, but I’m pleased with our performance and optimistic about where we are at.” On Saturday, the varsity eight raced in preliminaries, placing third behind USC and University of Wisconsin, which was good enough to advance them to the finals.

In the second varsity eight’s preliminary, the team took third behind Wisconsin and Oregon State, while beating out San Diego State University, University of San Diego and Loyola Marymount University. Unlike the varsity eight race, a third-place finish wasn’t good enough to advance to the finals.

The novice eight boat won its preliminary race, finishing ahead of UCLA, Sacramento State and San Diego State, securing WSU a spot in the Sunday final. In the Laurel V. Korholz Perpetual Trophy Grand Final, the WSU novice eight came in third with a time of 7:28.87. Washington’s novice eight claimed victory with a time of 7:16.97 and OSU took second with a time of 7:18.63.

The San Diego Classic featured eight Pac-10 teams, seven of which were ranked in the Top 20.

Three more WSU boats competed Saturday at the Husky Open in Regatta, Seattle. Both varsity four boats finished behind UW’s two boats and WSU’s third varsity eight team came behind all four of UW’s boats with a time of 7:05.8.

This weekend, the team will look for some revenge while hosting rival UW at Wawawai Landing on the Snake River.