“It really just pays tribute to those that came before this group,” MSU rowing head coach Matt Weise said. “Everybody keeps setting a standard, and every year, they keep trying to make the standard a little better.”

The only time the Spartans failed to advance at least one boat to the championship regatta since it became a varsity sport was in 2007, making this season’s championship the team’s third consecutive trip. After finishing sixth as a team in the two previous championships, Weise said this season’s ninth place finish was a little disappointing, but he was happy with the way his rowers competed.

“We raced really well on Sunday, but I wish we would have gotten a little bit more of that performance a little bit earlier,” Weise said. “We got better as the weekend went on, and we needed to be a little bit better right at the beginning.”

After all three boats — the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four — advanced to the semifinals during action Friday, MSU struggled Saturday, as none of its boats reached the grand final Sunday.

With every boat racing in the petite final, no Spartan boat could finish better than seventh place overall. However, both the varsity eight and second varsity took advantage of the opportunities they were given, placing first and third respectively in the petite final.

The varsity four finished sixth in the petite final and 12th overall.

“We just treated it like we were in the grand final,” said sophomore Michelle Neuder, a member of the MSU varsity eight. “We wanted to prove to everyone that we really did belong there.”

Neuder and her teammates did just that, as their time of 6:28.53 was better than two of the other boats in the grand final.

Senior Emilie Gross, coxswain of the second varsity, said her boat had a little extra motivation. Ranked 14th out of 16 teams, Gross said the second varsity wanted to prove they were better than their seed, they also had a bit of personal revenge lined up for some familiar opponents.

“We wanted to show we were better than the Big Ten schools that had already beat us,” Gross said. “It was a goal to get the conference rivals and show the other schools in the country we weren’t just a fluke and we were there to be competitors.”

Gross’ second varsity eight boat managed to defeat Ohio State in the petite final and race a faster time than Michigan, which was in the grand final. The varsity eight outraced the Wolverines and Buckeyes as well, and also defeated Big Ten champion Wisconsin.

As a sophomore, Neuder now has raced in two NCAA regattas, but this was her first season in the varsity eight boat. She said the lessons learned in Sacramento from MSU’s seasoned rowers gives her and her fellow returning teammates an advantage over other less experienced teams in the future.

“Just watching our seniors, they’ve been here before, and I’ve just learned so much from them in terms of what it takes to get to nationals and compete there,” Neuder said. “We just want to take everything that happened this year and use it to make us better next year.”