If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The WSU rowing team had this proverb in mind during its Saturday morning home races against Oregon State.

For the fifth consecutive year, WSU took the Winchell Cup with three first-place finishes.

The Cougars lost their first race of the day against OSU, battling through 10-12 mph headwind and 17 mph gusts.

After Washington State’s novice eight (coxswain Ashley Kiehn and strokes Jessi Howe, Lori VerMurlen, Brittany Brooks, Jordyn Erno, Hunter Jones, Kacie Hillery, Christina Larsen, and Anneliese Bruening) fell in the first race the Cougars rallied to win their remaining matches with one tie.

In the varsity eight (sophomore coxswain Sarah Wu, and strokes senior Elise Jones, freshman Mihaela-Teodora Berindei, senior Hannah deVos, senior Mollie McCabe, sophomore Nicole Hare, sophomore Morgan Cathrea, sophomore Jordan Watson, and junior bow Mickey Aylard) the two teams were evenly matched with Oregon State until the finish line. After video analysis, a winner was not declared, so it was declared a dead heat clocking a time of 7:18.88.

The first varsity victory came when the Cougar second varsity eight (senior coxswain Emily Boquet, strokes junior Megan McDonald, senior Emily Starkel, junior Noel Christiansen, junior Alex Waddell, senior Kendall Boliba, junior Carter Marks, redshirt sophomore Kayla Wakulich, and freshman bow Isabella Watt) finished ahead of Oregon State’s (8:04.63) team by more than 20 seconds with a time of 7:43.95.

In the varsity four race, WSU once again came out with a win. The Cougar varsity four A (sophomore coxswain Rebecca Burns, senior Alyssa Rumann, senior Ella Odland, sophomore Ieva Adomaviciute, and sophomore bow Kim Coon) and varsity four B (junior coxswain Julia Monroe, senior Savannah Davison, junior Kellen Srb, sophomore Chloe Rogers, and redshirt junior bow Kerry Hassall) battled for first place. The varsity four A pushed ahead and won the heat in 8:18.44. The varsity four B clocked a time of 8:30.95 followed by the WSU varsity four C ( senior coxswain Hannah Jacobs, senior Gina Head, senior Ashlee Bonahoom, senior Carly Johnson, and sophomore bow Katrina Tarrant,)with a time of 8:40.14. Oregon State finished in 8:50.97.

“Overall, our depth was excellent today,” said Head Coach Jane LaRiviere in a press release. “I was really pleased with the performances from the second varsity eight and varsity fours. Anytime all three of your varsity four boats finish ahead of the competition, it’s a good sign. It was a fantastic race in the varsity eight as well. We look forward to seeing Oregon State again at the Pac-12 Championships.”

In the final flight, the Cougars launched their third varsity eight (sophomore coxswain Lauren Leahy, strokes senior Mallory Wordell, junior Molly Culwell, junior Krista Lizardi, junior Erin Schuster, sophomore JoAnne Bates, junior Chloe Payne, sophomore Sarah Steger, and senior bow Katelyn Maley) and second novice eight (coxswain Zoey Haver, strokes Malia Frame, Rachael Hall, Kalina Balcer-Miller, Taylor Heppner, Sydni Meyer, Chelsea Gorman, Tori Gerken, and bow Alexa LeMaster). The WSU third varsity eight won the race with a time of 7:50.37. Oregon State came in second (8:00.91) followed by WSU’s second novice eight in third place (8:31.44).