We are now deep into the Collegiate rowing season. Every school has at least some meaningful racing under their belt, and we are beginning to see how crews shape up. With rowing being a sport all about constant improvement it will be crucial to see how these programs are able to build speed down the stretch before their Conference Championships in a few weeks’ time which will determine if they will even get a shot at the National Championship in the showpiece event at the end of the season.
NCAA Women’s Division 1
Week 2 Polls Released
The Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association’s poll released this Wednesday and is remarkably similar at the top end to those released seven days previously. Syracuse jumps up two spots to eighth after upsetting Pennat the Doc Hosea Invitational. Ohio State are the biggest climbers as they rise two spots after winning against Duke and Virginia, while Michigan are the largest fallers to 13th after losing to the same competition.
Big Ten Invitational
Down in Nathan Benderson Park in Florida sixteen major programs squared off against each other, with #2 Stanford being the class of the field as was to be expected. #6 Brown also did very well, winning both of their Friday races while being far closer to the Cardinal on Saturday than any non-Texas crew was able to achieve in the crew classic, potentially putting themselves ahead of #5 Washington.
#13 Michigan were able to steady the ship after a disappointing last time, getting revenge on #12 Duke while also bettering traditional rivals #11 Ohio State both crews that out-classed them only a week previously.
Unranked Iowa certainly will head back to Iowa City happy with their performances as their first Varsity Eight beat #18 Tennessee twice as well as #19 Alabama in a bid to show the selectors they have something to bring to the table.
Week 3 Duals
Away from Florida, the North-East of the Country was the place to be for major ranked clashes. #4 Princeton travelled up to Cambridge on Saturday and defeated #14 Harvard in a fairly comprehensive manner, while that afternoon #3 Yale were on the road against #8 Syracuse with the Bulldogs taking the victory by a margin of 5.3 seconds. Worth noting too that Cornell were also in attendance at both of these duals and while the result wasn’t terribly impressive – the Big Red being comprehensively beaten in both races – the logistics were marvellous: there was only a six-hour gap between the last race in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the first race in Saratoga Springs, New York and a 300 mile drive between the two that the rowers and their equipment had to traverse to make it work.
More simply logistically, several events were taking place at Overpeck Park in Northern New Jersey. Columbia came out victorious against Northeastern and Navy while Rhode Island were the class of the field at the Saint Joseph’s Invitational, beating a field including George Washington and UMass.
IRA Heavyweight Men’s Division 1
Week 2 Polls Released
On the men’s side, the Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association released the second poll of the year, two weeks after their first. This update will account for two weeks’ worth of results. Washington will be the happiest with it as they climb three spots onto the “podium” dislodging a Syracuse program that were yet to race this spring. The largest upset so far when Cornell beat Harvard caused a lot of movement as the Cardinal fell four spots to eight while the Big Red climbed two spots. The Brown Bears managed to cling onto their fifth-place ranking surprisingly, despite two underwhelming performances over the last two weekends.
The team with the largest climb was Temple who rose four spots to number sixteen after being best of the rest in Redwood Shores last weekend. While those they beat suffered with Oregon State being down one spot and Santa Clara falling out of the top twenty completely.
Pac-12 Challenge
This weekend on Redwood Shores, there was an assembling of six of the top thirteen programs at the Pac-12 Challenge. #1 California were unsurprisingly the class of the field going unbeaten in all three of their matchups. The other undefeated side were more surprising as co-hosts #13 Stanford the lowest ranked team coming into this contest winning over #11 Boston University, #12 Wisconsin and #6 Northeastern.
Of the programs from out east, #4 Syracuse will probably be the most satisfied with their outcome falling only to the defending National Champions. #6 Northeastern may feel conflicted as while they put together a number of good races, their first eight will fly home without any victories to their name.
Week 3 Duals
On the east coast, the Ivy League institutions had their normal assortment of dual action to consume. The most notable result of these came on the Charles as #8 Harvard defeated #5 Brown. This appears to be a more realistic performance from Brown as the second eight was decently off the pace of their first eight for the first time this season, but they failed to defeat the men from Cambridge.
Another interesting result was from Derby, Connecticut where #2 Yale beat #7 Dartmouth. While this result is not interesting in itself, the margin of only 2.2 seconds may be concerning for Steve Gladstone as he would be hoping to focus more on taking on California at IRAs than fighting off competition from rivals closer to home.
Coming Up Next Weekend
Next weekend is more sparse in regard to big invitational events with only the Ivy League Invitational for women having horrendously noteworthy entry lists. But what it lacks in invitationals it makes up for in some very spicy dual action.
#13 Michigan and their newfound positive momentum will face the ultimate test when they to Austin to face up against #1 Texas. Also, many traditional rivals face each other on the women’s side. On the Charles, Boston University and Northeastern will face off against each other and #14 Harvard will host #3 Yale. Out west, it is the battle of the bay as #2 Stanford and #7 California will have a direct dual on Redwood Shores.
For the men, the dual action will also take centre stage as #5 Brown and #6 Northeastern will both be trying to improve after rough weekends while #8 Harvard will race #9 Princeton in a contest that seems likely to be very well matched.
About The Author
