The WSU men’s club crew team rowed to victory against the Gonzaga Bulldogs while competing in the Head of the Snake regatta on Friday.

The accomplishment marked one of the few times the Cougars have been able to pull off the upset against the Bulldogs. WSU’s men rowing team is a club sport and has to rely on fundraising to compete. Men’s crew is a varsity sport at Gonzaga, so the team receives funding from the university.

The club team braved the poor weather conditions and helped the women’s rowing team host the annual event at the Cougars’ home course, Wawawai Landing. The regatta was the second fall race for the Cougar men.

Men’s rowing commodore Mitch Williams said he knew his rowers could handle the windy conditions.

“Luckily, the Snake River is our home course, so we’ve had to practice in this weather before,” Williams said. “You just have to tough it out.” The varsity eight were the first of the men’s boats to compete and cross the finish line in front of the Gonzaga men by 13 seconds with a time of 14:20.19 The JV boat and the third varsity put up good times of 14:58.01 and 15:24.28, but they fell to the Bulldog boats. The novice teams also showed promise against the strong Gonzaga teams. Boat A of the novice team recorded a time of 15:30.05, losing to the Bulldogs by only 17 seconds. Novice boats B and C raced well, and the C boat beat the Gonzaga boat by 13 seconds. Ending the men’s races were the novice boats D and E. The boats’ finishing times were 18:31 and 19:06.

A new addition to the club crew team is the women’s lightweight program. The new team allows for women less than 130 pounds to participate in rowing. The WSU women’s lightweight A boat clocked a time of 19:30.58.

The fall season is designed to prepare the crew teams for the regular season races in the spring, Williams said.

“Fall season has longer race lengths, which helps us build up endurance and set the bar high for the spring season,” Williams said.

To conclude its fall season, the crew team split up to race in two different regattas. The third varsity, novice teams and the women’s lightweight boats will be competing in the Western Washington Duel on Saturday in Bellingham, while the varsity eight and junior varsity eight will row in the Head of the Lake regatta on Sunday in Seattle.