With April now upon us the American collegiate rowing scene is in full swing. Last weekend both men’s and women’s teams gathered in every corner of the country to test themselves against one and other. While the headlines will likely go to the favourites establishing that status, this weekend also gave us a fair few upsets and close calls to shake up the pecking order for the coming weeks.
IRA Heavyweight Men’s Division 1
San Diego Crew Classic
On Mission Bay in California there was a test for the ages as the dominant crew in all of the USA. #1 California were faced with a test from across the pond in the form of Europe’s best University crew Oxford Brookes, and while neither crew was remotely eligible for the Temple Challenge Cup due to the embarrassment of riches of both U23 and senior international athletes. This would be the test of the truly best university rowing program anywhere on earth.
On Saturday there was a race for lanes and the Golden Bears saw off their English rivals by 1.2 seconds, and in the showpiece final on Sunday, the crew from Berkeley expanded that margin by 1.7 seconds to send Brookes packing back to Wallingford.
While I hope we can see this clash again in the Summer at the Ladies Challenge Plate, many of the Californian rowers will be away on international duty so we will be unable to see a repeat of this truly best-on-best showdown.
Sunshine State Invitational
Across the country at the far fairer course in Sarasota, Florida, there was a major clash between some of the country’s top performing programs. #2 Yale Bulldogs held off a late sprint from #6 Washington to claim a victory, though the 1.1 second margin may be somewhat flattering to the Huskies from Spokane.
The third participant in this race, #5 Brown have underwhelmed the past few weeks with a narrower than expected victory last weekend in Boston and failed to keep in contact in Florida this weekend, finishing clear water behind Washington. All is not doom and gloom for the men from Rhode Island as they have great speed in their program, typified by the second eight posting a time almost a second faster than the first eight.
Week 2 Duals
Away from the regattas there were also some interesting results in the private matches on the east coast. #4 Harvard put 4.5 seconds into #12 Cornell on their home water. There were also some impressive margins on show as #7 Northeastern put local rivals #11 Boston University to the sword with a victory of 7.9 seconds while #9 Princeton obliterated #15 Navy with a 22.3 second victory demonstrating real speed to put their Ivy rivals on notice.
NCAA Women’s Division 1
First Rankings of the Year
Before this weekend’s racing, the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association revealed their first rankings of the year. The Texas Longhorns start out the season on top, a position they have held since May 2021 after two successive undefeated in the first Varsity Eight. Stanford are number two again while Yale were rewarded for their early season speed to round out the top speed. Overall, there are not many large changes from how the teams ended last year but the most notable risers were Syracuse jumping up seven spots to number ten while Ohio State fell from sixth to fourteenth.
San Diego Crew Classic
The San Diego course, due to its tidal nature does not present terribly fair racing to all of the lanes, making Saturday’s heats very important. #1 Texas and #2 Stanford were drawn away from each other with the defending National Champions posting the fastest time and earning themselves lane one for Sunday’s final. When the race came around it was Stanford who got the best of the start, with Texas being second to last out of the gate, but the diesel engine in Burnt Orange rowed through the field, managing to take the eventual victory over Stanford by around half a length. Also in the heat was an exhibition entry from Rowing Canada, which, while drawn in lane seven was beaten by both the Collegiate crews previously mentioned. Oxford Brookes came fourth in the heat with about a length back to #5 Washington who got the better of #7 California.
Doc Hosea Invitational
The forecast of severe storms lead to a far smaller Doc Hosea Invitational this weekend than originally intended, where the multi-round system was shirked for a straight final between #8 Penn, #10 Syracuse, Northeastern, Bucknell and Villanova. This went largely as expected as the two programs in the top ten were far superior to their unranked opposition, with more than 24 seconds gap between the leading pair and the trailing group. But this was not an entirely simple affair as Syracuse managed to get an upset against the Quakers with the Syracuse Orange winning the Varsity Eights by 0.7 seconds.
ACC/Big Ten Double Dual
This event too was moved for the bad weather to the more sheltered waters of the Riviana Reservoir. But the calmer water did not stop the upsets from occurring as not one favourite took a victory in this battle. #14 Ohio State showed their displeasure at being moved down from their high position, beating #11 Virginia and #12 Duke by 7.3 and 2.0 seconds respectively. #8 Michigan, by contrast had a weekend to forget as they were upset by the two lower-raked ACC schools by 4.9 and 2.5 seconds.
Sunshine State Invitational
At Nathan Benderson Park in Florida there were plenty women’s programs who look likely to find themselves on the bubble of making or not making the National Championships at the end of May. It was Tulsa who took top honours in the Varsity Eights but fell to third when you apply the points totals for the entire NCAA fleet, behind both Miami and a Wisconsin team who propelled their fifth placed Varsity Eight up the rankings with far stronger performances in the second eight and the four.
Coming Up Next Weekend
This weekend will be anchored by Invitationals at opposite ends of the country. On the women’s side, the eight rowing universities in the Big Ten will be joined by eight high-quality opponents from across the country at the Big Ten Invitational in Sarasota, Florida.
Across in the San Francisco Bay, #1 California will face their first major American opposition as they and #13 Stanford host four schools from out East at the Pac-12 Challenge on Redwood Shores.
Away from these invitationals there is also some scintillating fixtures on the sheet. For the women, #10 Syracuse face #3 Yale in upstate New York, while #4 Princeton clash with #15 Harvard in Cambridge. For the men, #5 Brown will travel to #5 Harvard to give the Crimson their first top-ten opponent of the season. #3 Yale at #7 Dartmouth is another highlight of a great weekend for men’s dual racing.
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