The Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, an event steeped in tradition, breaks protocol this week at Lake Natoma.

For the first time in a 107-year history that dates to 1895 – the event was not held during World Wars I and II or in 1933 – the IRA Championships will take place in the West.

Since the NCAA, the governing body of college sports, does not conduct a men's rowing championship, nor one for women's lightweight boats, the IRA Championships serve as the equivalent.

The regatta always has been held in the East, though, primarily in Poughkeepsie and Syracuse, N.Y., and Camden, N.J. But the Sacramento Sports Commission pushed hard to land the event, set for Thursday through Saturday at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma.

And with West Coast schools faring well in recent years – Washington won the overall points title last year – pressure has been building to test Western waters.

"We looked into it aggressively," said Sacramento Sports Commission executive director John McCasey, who helped bring the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials and the Amgen Tour of California cycling race to the capital.

"It's another event we've been able to bring to town that has a very special following. I think it gives us that great international sport, like cycling and track, and it helps broaden our profile in Sacramento."

Gary Caldwell, director of rowing for the Eastern College Athletic Conference, which administers the IRA Championships, said McCasey's efforts and the quality of the Lake Natoma course convinced the IRA to come to Sacramento.

"Every time I threw up a potential obstacle in John's path, or the path of the Sports Commission, why we couldn't go out to the West Coast, they successfully knocked it down," said Caldwell, who also serves as crew coach at Tufts University near Boston.

"We're there because of the persistence of John and the commission members."

The men's varsity heavyweight eights field is scheduled to include West Coast schools Cal, Stanford, Washington, UC San Diego, San Diego, Oregon State and Gonzaga.

"A very, very large and competitive portion of this national championship field resides out on the West Coast," Caldwell said. "For the first 106 regattas, they have always been the ones to travel."

IRA steward schools who voted on the event's location include Columbia, Cornell, Navy, Penn and Syracuse.

Cleve Livingston, a local attorney who founded the Sacramento Region Sports Education Foundation and helped the United States win a silver medal in rowing in the 1972 Olympics, said the IRA's decision to head West is significant.

"You get to sort of equalize the burden of travel," he said. "West Coast rowing has really improved. The depth is increasing."

Lake Natoma's reputation as a top rowing facility also piqued curiosity.

"For a lot of these men's coaches, this will be their first visit to Lake Natoma," Caldwell said. "They've heard about it from their corresponding women's programs.

"I know there's a great deal of excitement on the part of Eastern coaches to be making this kind of a 'road trip.' It's pretty neat to go out to a different venue."

The event is projected to generate 2,800 room nights and an economic impact of $1.25 million, according to Steve Hammond, president and CEO of the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau.

National titles will be awarded in the men's heavyweight eight, men's lightweight eight and women's lightweight eight, all competing at the Olympic distance of 2,000 meters.

Oarsmen have to average 155 pounds or less, with a maximum weight of 160, in the men's lightweight eight; the requirement for lightweight women is for each rower to weigh less than 130 pounds, Caldwell said.

The Jim Ten Eyck team points champion is determined by the men's varsity eight, second varsity eight and freshman eight.

What should fans expect this week?

"Watching people race, there is sort of a false sense this is, for lack of a better term, pretty," Caldwell said. "The analogy I use is rowing well competitively is probably as difficult as riding a bicycle along the high wire as fast as you possibly can.

"That's what these men and women are doing."

And if they're not doing it together, they're in trouble.

"In a lot of ways it's the ultimate team sport," Livingston said. "You've got eight (rowers) in each boat. If they're not rowing precisely, the boat's not going to go very fast.

"Aesthetically, it's an extraordinarily pleasing sport. It's beautiful to watch, to see eight bodies in motion in that fashion exactly together."

Call The Bee's John Schumacher, (916) 326-5523.