Last year’s drizzle and choppy waters scared off a couple of teams from returning to the 24th annual Blue Heron Sprints Regatta on the Humboldt Bay Saturday.

And while dense fog did hang around for the majority of the event, which can sometimes be unsafe for rowers, the conditions were otherwise perfect for the Humboldt State women’s crew team, which claimed the Marybeth Shannon winner’s trophy.

Humboldt State cruised past Seattle Pacific by 30 points to earn first place overall and post back-to-back impressive performances to begin the season.

The Jacks had one of their best finishes in school history to start the season at the Sacramento Invitational, and they brought that momentum back home to host their annual event.

“I think we did excellent today,” said third-year rower Heather MacDonald. “We accomplished our goals. Everyone is really excited about this season.”

The novice crews continued to impress out of the gates as the novice eight, lightweight four and junior varsity four boats all finished one-two in their respective races, while the varsity eight and varsity four boats both finished second to Seattle Pacific.

“The women’s eight was an important event for us, because traditionally we race more decisive boats, but today we raced even boats,” HSU crew head coach Robin Meiggs said. “One boat did not perform well, but I think illness had something to do with that.”

Three members of the team were ill headed into Saturday’s event, but all three elected to compete.

HSU’s three rigs in the varsity eight finished with times of 7 minutes, 39.98 seconds, 7:47.66 and 7:50.75.

Seattle Pacific comfortably took the varsity four with a time of 7:36.11, while HSU followed with a 8:04.67 and Mills College came in third with a 8:17.00

The Jacks first-place novice eight boat came in with a time of 7:12.98, while the second-place boat followed with a 7:21.19 and SPU finished in third with a 7:32.93.

“Our second novice boat has been the biggest surprise so far,” said HSU assistant coach Pat Hyland. “We’re still in the process of putting our fastest boats together. We have a large talent pool to select from.”

The HSU men also had a strong showing, finishing second in the varsity four, first in the novice four, first in the varsity eight and first in the JV four to claim men’s title.

“The men did a fantastic job,” Meiggs said. “It’s always great to see them perform well.”

The Humboldt Bay Rowing Association, which co-hosted the event, won the women’s masters eight, junior/masters four and mixed eight.

The Jacks will look to stay on pace when they travel to Vancouver, Wash., to compete in the NCRC Invitational on Vancouver Lake.

The event is one of the largest this season as it includes Gonzaga, Evergreen State, Lewis & Clark, Mills College, Oregon State, Pacific Lutheran, Portland State, Saint Mary’s, Seattle Pacific, Seattle University, UC San Diego, Portland State, Puget Sound, Willamette and Western Washington.