After a long Regular Season and eleven exciting Conference Championships, we are left with twenty-two women’s teams in contention for the National Championship title. As they all converge on Camden County, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, they will provide exciting racing as those at the front of the pack have been hard to split all Spring long and we will only be able to see how they shake out once they come down the track on Sunday morning.

Brown University

Fourth Place in the Ivy League.
Currently ranked Number 8 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The Rhode Island-based program have more wins than any other programs since the NCAA started offering a national championship, but Brown have not picked up the biggest trophy in thirteen years. The bears, however, have had great consistency: in the history of this event, they have never missed out on qualifying and only once finished outside the top ten.

The current squad is young and talented, without a single senior in the either of the top two eights that competed in the Ivy League Championship. This may drive them to strides of improvements in the two weeks before the NCAA Championships.

Season So Far

They have had a strong set of results all season, a close loss to Princeton in the season opener before travelling to Florida to put up a very good showing at the Big Ten Invitational. They progressed in the second half of the season as all four relevant boats went unbeaten through the Ivy League Invitational, a dual against Cornell and the prestigious Women’s Eastern Sprints. They underperformed at the Ivy League Championship placing in fourth place overall but the strength of their season’s results and their closeness to the top three will allow them to rectify this come NCAAs.

Duke University

Third Place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Currently ranked Number 14 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

In her time with the Duke Blue Devils, Megan Cooke Cargano had brought the program from the doldrums, having never achieved an NCAA appearance, to this year attending the event for their fourth successive National Championship. Like many others, the squad in Durham, North Carolina has a very international flavour as recruits have been drawn in from around the Commonwealth including a pair of rowers from Reading Rowing Club in the UK.

Season So Far

Like many seasons before, Duke started off showing some great speed as they sat towards the front of proceedings at the Cardinal Invite, finishing only behind Yale before travelling to the Riviana Reservoir to beat both Ohio State and Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Double Dual. They had a tougher time in Florida at the Big Ten Invitational and were a little off the pace in the three main events at their home Invitational on Lake Wheeler. A strong performance in the lower boats at the Conference Championship allowed them to comfortably earn an invitation to the National Championship but they will be trying to change the narrative that has developed over recent years as they come with speed at the start of the season but are overtaken once it starts to matter.

George Washington University

First Place in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Not Currently Ranked in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Based in Washington DC, the George Washington Colonials won their very first Atlantic 10 Conference Championships in Saratoga Springs this season. The team, led by head coach and former coxswain Marci Robles, had contributions from across the United States with thirteen states represented across their top three boats at the Conference Championship as well as an Australian, a Columbian and a German.

Their first Conference Championship victory came at Robles’ fifth attempt and the Colonials had made three consecutive second place finishes before this year’s triumph. They will be looking to build upon this with the recruiting benefits that NCAA appearances can bring.

Season So Far

George Washington’s racing schedule has been almost entirely within their athletic conference, and they picked up plenty of victories along the way, but they were far from invincible losing to Delaware in the first eight from outside their conference as well as losing to Rhode Island early in the season – though the Colonials got the better of Rhode Island at the Conference Championships. George Washington is yet to meet any of the opposition they will face at the NCAAs so how they will fare is hard to determine but given the mutual competition, they will likely struggle.

Gonzaga University

First Place in the West Coast Conference.
Not Currently Ranked in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Led by third-year head coach Andrew Derrick and supported by a very young coaching staff, the Gonzaga Bulldogs will make their eighth successive trip to the NCAA Championships after winning the West Coast Conference title for the twenty-first time. The Spokane, Washington setup has a range of athletes with a number from close by in the Pacific Northwest and across the border in Canada, though they are joined by Perrine Sarraute, born and raised in the south of France who transferred to Gonzaga from Nova Southern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

While the program’s trips to NCAA have been numerous, missing only one in the last decade, their results have been rather underwhelming, placing only as high as sixteenth as a team and no boat has ever made the A/B Semi Finals. They will struggle to break that this year as they haven’t received a single vote in the coaches’ poll since April 5^th.

Season So Far

The schedule that the Bulldogs have faced has been rather unchallenging, as they have not raced a single school that they will meet at the National Championships. Even then the results produced have not been ground-breaking. The First Varsity Eight picked up three losses against Oregon State, two each from USC and UCLA and single race defeats to Clemson and Washington State. The most impressive results have come in the Varsity Four as they came across the line first in every race so far this year except at the Oregon State invite and even got the better of UCLA the first time down the track.

At the Conference Championships, the Bulldogs reigned supreme with again the largest margin coming in the coxed four as they won by 9.4 seconds.

Indiana University Bloomington

Third Place in the Big Ten Conference.
Currently ranked Number 16 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Indiana make their return to the National Championships after a few seasons away. Head coach Steve Peterson built the program from the ground up taking over after just three years in existence to six successive NCAA appearances from 2014 to 2019. The program is largely built upon American talent with six foreign athletes – all of whom are from New Zealand – bolstering the ranks.

In that six-year stint of successive National Championship appearances the program never managed to break into the top ten but with two eleventh and two twelfth place finishes they were there or there abouts a great deal. After a program best finish at the Big Ten Championship, they will be wanting to return to the big dance with a splash and try to break into the top ten.

Season So Far

While many programs that will compete at the National Championship have a great deal of depth and talent all the way down the roster, Indiana’s greatest strength comes in their First Varsity Eight. It did not start this way as at they lost comfortably to Alabama and Clemson earlier in the season. Towards the end of the season things took a turn when the Hosiers took an upset victory over Ohio State by 4.5 seconds before rowing through a tight field at the Big Ten Championship to take a historic second place finish.

Jacksonville University

First Place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Not Currently Ranked in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

In his fifth year in charge, Jacksonville Director of Rowing Mike Lane has responsibility for both the men’s and women’s squads for the Dolphins but is the head coach for the women. The Dolphins will make their fifth trip to the National Championship of his tenure as the Floridian outfit won their second successive Metro Atlantic title.

The squad, while drawing heavily from Florida, also has an international flair with an Aussie and a Dutch woman in the Varsity Eight at the Conference Championships.

Season So Far

Starting the season with some high-powered opposition at the Deland Double Duals and the Sunshine State Invitationals lead them to have a tough opening to the season as they struggled to place in the top half in both events. As the season drew later and they faced more comparative competition, the outcomes were better for the Dolphins. Entering the NCAA they are seeded last in both of the eights and second to last in the Four so they can only over-perform on race day.

Northeastern University

First Place in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Received Votes in the most recent Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The Northeastern Huskies have made themselves a mainstay at the NCAA Championships. Having attended every championship since 2014 on the back of winning their conference, it has been a while since they have managed to really progress up the rankings against the more highly ranked teams from larger conferences. 

Long-serving Head Coach and founder of the Women’s Varsity program, Joe Wilhelm has built a strong squad from their base at Henderson Boathouse on the Charles in Boston with contributions strong recruiting prowess. One recruit of note is Isla Bathgate, two seat in the British Eight that won silver at the World Junior Championships last summer. The Scot and two Canadians sat in the first eight which secured victory at the CAAs, providing international reinforcements to the squad.

Season So Far

At their season opener in a severely reduced Doc Hosea invitational all three Championship Boats were in a world of their own, well behind the two top ten teams but well ahead of the rest of the field. In a dual with Navy, a team they will likely to be in close competition with they came out on top in both eights but fell in a similar dual to Boston University – who would go on to lose to Navy. Another highlight of the season was finishing sixth and seventh in every boat class in a stacked field at Eastern Sprints before sweeping away the competition in dominant fashion at the Colonial Athletic Association Championship.

Ohio State University

Second Place in the Big Ten Conference.
Currently ranked Number 12 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Currently the only program to win three national titles on the trot, Ohio State has a strong legacy of success. Head coach Kate Sweeny is new to the role in only her third year but went to four NCAA Championships as a Buckeye Athlete and knows the program well. In her two post-COVID years at the helm, Sweeny has finished in the top ten at NCAAs both times, notably last year when the First Varsity Eight was just four tenths of a second away from the Grand Final.

Like many other Big Ten programs, Ohio State has a strong history of recruiting inexperienced walk-ons and turning them into contributing athletes with all three American rowers in the First Varsity Eight having rowed together in a Novice Eight two seasons ago.

Season So Far

Ohio State have had a mixed set of results all season. In the First Varsity Eights, defeats to unselected Harvard and a pair of losses to an unfancied Indiana crew are contrasted against wins over Duke and SMU, both of which they will meet again this weekend. In the lower boats, this pattern was repeated. The Second Varsity Eight had regular season losses to Iowa but wins over SMU and Brown followed by an impressive display at the Big Ten Championship as they comfortably led the field in Indianapolis.

Princeton University

First Place in the Ivy League.
Currently ranked Number 1 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Having won the Ivy League Championship six times in a row and the team event at each of the last three events, the Princeton Tigers are a strong force in collegiate rowing. Last season was an impressive one where they won the Varsity Four event and placed third in the Varsity Eight. This led them to a third placed finish in the all-important team event.

Head coach Lori Dauphiny is a stalwart of the rowing world having led her Tigers to every NCAA Championship since its inception in 1997 – placing in the top ten twenty-two times and the in the top five in eleven times. Despite this success she is yet to win the overall crown, this year presents a great opportunity to rectify this.

Season So Far

The top ranked team in the country, Princeton have had a brilliant season. Undefeated in the first eight including breaking the almost four-year unbeaten streak of the Texas Longhorns. The season also includes two wins each over Yale and Penn, giving the Tigers a total of five wins over eights seeded in the top five. In the second eight it has also been a great year as they have only fallen to undefeated Yale but in the Four there have been more challenged as they place only third at the Ivy League Championship though they went unbeaten through the regular season.

Rutgers University – New Brunswick

Fourth Place in the Big Ten Conference.
Currently ranked Number 15 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

After missing out for eighteen successive years this will mark Rutgers’ fourth NCAA Championship selection in succession. Head coach Justin Price was instrumental to this turnaround having only joined the program two years before the Scarlet Knights broke their selection drought.

The squad is modern in its recruiting with plenty internationals as well as Graduate Transfers. Two more novel examples are Emma Waters and Cornina Coughlan who are both transfers from Ireland having done their undergraduate studies at NUI Galway and the University of Limerick respectively.

Season So Far

By the seeding released by the selection committee, Rutgers were the last team to gain an invitation from the committee. Losses in all three events to Harvard at the Ivy League dust-up early in the season spelled trouble but they reversed the outcome with a win on points at Women’s Sprints positioning themselves in position to earn their invite to the NCAA Championship with a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships.

Southern Methodist University

First Place in the American Athletic Conference.
Currently ranked Number 13 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Representing a relatively small university in Dallas, Texas, the SMU Mustangs have recently risen to the top table of collegiate rowing. Having not won a Conference title or appeared in a NCAA Championship prior to the pandemic, they have since swept every event at the American Athletic Conference Championship and placed eleventh and twelfth at NCAAs, as good as any AAC team had done on the biggest stage.

Some of this success will be attributable to Kim Cupini’s strong international recruiting, leading to the rowers in the Varsity Eight at Conference Championship being three Kiwis, three Britons, an Aussie and a Texan.

Season So Far

The racing resume from the Mustangs is rather thin on results having only two regular season events being attended by the squad. In the early April racing they beat Indiana twice, Rutgers and Duke at the Big Ten Invitational in the Varsity Eight while the Second Varsity Eight matching those results and adding Michigan to the list of Qualified Teams beaten. In their second race they headed West to the Pac-12 Invite, and while they fell to Stanford and California, they did get the better of a previously exciting Iowa squad. The Conference Championship was not expected to be challenging given UCF and Tulsa being the best of a bad bunch in the AAC and the Mustangs took care of business in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 

Stanford University

First Place in the Pac-12 Conference.
Currently ranked Number 4 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Since taking over the Openweight Women at Stanford in the 2017 season, Derek Byrnes has taken the Cardinal to the top spot but hasn’t quite reached the promised land. One sixth-place finish followed by two fourth places prior to the pandemic were followed by two historically close second places in 2021 and 2022. In both years they finished equal on points with Texas, only missing out based on the Varsity Eight’s narrow clinching of the tiebreaker.

Season So Far

Stanford have made it through the season with fairly strong results. After losing narrowly to Texas at the San Diego Crew Classic they would not lose again in the First Varsity Eights racking up wins over Brown, SMU, most of the Big Ten and all of the Pac-12 along the way. In the lower boats the run since Crew Classic was similarly successful, even if the record sheet isn’t quite as spotless with the Second Varsity Eight losing to Washington at the Pac-12 Championships and the Varsity Four dropping a heat to Brown at the Big Ten Invitational at the start of April. These results put them ready to try and make the final step in New Jersey this weekend.

Syracuse University

Second Place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Currently ranked Number 10 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Based in upstate New York, Syracuse is surrounded by Ivy League programs but itself competes in the ACC. On the back of two successive appearances at NCAAs, they have made themselves comfortable with those at the top of the collegiate rowing pyramid. 

Head coach Luke McGee took over in the autumn of 2018 after leading the US Men’s National Team. This is his first job coaching a women’s team after previously serving as an assistant with both Brown and Washington’s men’s teams.

Season So Far

The poster child of this program has been the first eight. Over the length of the season, they have beaten Penn, Rutgers, Northeastern and Duke twice each plus a win over the whole field at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. However, they had less success in their lower boats as they both placed third at the Conference Championship. This led them to miss out on the Team title, so if they want to place well at the National Championship they will need to have a strong performance across the board.

United States Naval Academy

First Place in the Patriot League.
Received Votes in the most recent Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Uniquely placed in the rowing world as a service academy, all of the athletes on this team are required to join the US Navy upon graduation, though to make up for that all Graduates have their entire schooling paid for.

Led by Joe Schlosberg for the past eight seasons, the Mids missed out on the Championship for the first time in his tenure last year. The position of a Service Academy also limits the level of international recruiting which can be seen in the entirely American line-up at the Patriot League Championship.

Season So Far

By nature of their automatic qualification, they did not need to amass a significant volume of high-quality wins over the course of the year as they had very few wins across the season with no wins against opponents that have qualified for the NCAA Championship with the most notable win being against the Tennessee Volunteer first eight who have since parted ways with their head coach. Their upset win over Boston University at the Patriot League Championship was led by the Varsity Eight with both the Second Varsity Eight and the Varsity Four losing to the Terriers at Lake Quinsigamond.

University of California, Berkeley

Third Place in the Pac-12 Conference.
Currently ranked Number 9 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The California Golden Bears are truly upper states people of Rowing. Having won four national titles since the 1997 Inception of the NCAA Championship in its current form and most recently a pair of titles in 2016 and 2018. On the West Coast, Al Acosta has built a solid program finishing in the top two spots in each of his first four years but slipped to finish only sixth, ninth and sixth in the last three Championships. They will be looking to head back towards Acosta’s early career results and head back up the rankings.

Season So Far

This season has been a challenging one for the Golden Bears. Starting off with an underwhelming sixth place at the San Diego Crew Classic they went on to comfortably lose their Duals against Stanford and Washington before finishing third place behind both of them at the Pac-12 Championship. In the lower boats the results were similar although the Second Varsity Eight beat Washington at both the Crew Classic and the Cal-UW Dual but fell to the Huskies when it mattered most at the Pac-12 Championship. These results do not inspire much confidence so it will be interesting how they stack up against East Coast Rivals.

University of Michigan

First Place in the Big Ten Conference.
Currently ranked Number 11 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The Michigan Wolverines have been one of the protagonists in the NCAA arena for a while. Lead by Mark Rothstein since before they were even a Varsity Program and for all 27 seasons in Division 1. They have won eight Big Ten titles with ten times as runners up. At the National Championship level they have finished as high as second place in 2001 and 2012.

This year’s squad is quite young as there is only one Senior in the First Varsity Eight, two in the Second Eight and a Graduate Student in the Four. This squad will be hoping to set a strong foundation to build from going into the future as they move up the ranks.

Season So Far

This season has been one of ups and downs for the Wolverines as they underperformed early in the season losing to Duke and Virginia but responded well beating Duke the following week in Sarasota, Florida. The back half of the season consisted of a few dual races in which they lost to Texas and beat Louisville, both rather expected results. Coming into the final race of the Big Ten Championship, they had struggled in the lower and non-NCAA boat classes but their emphatic win in the Varsity Eight managed to propel them to the top of the team standings.

University of Pennsylvania

Third Place in the Ivy League.
Currently ranked Number 6 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The Penn program is on a real upwards swing at the moment. After qualifying for the National Championship for the first time ever just twelve months ago, they return to the big dance again this year. Head Coach Wesley Ng was a former Division Three Coach of the Year, and this year was named Ivy League Coach of the Year. Previously Ng was a Coach with the United State U23 Team and had won National Titles at the Division 3 level.

Season So Far

This season the Quackers have had a great set of outings this year as the First Varsity Eight have lost to only two crews: Princeton and Syracuse. In the Ivy League Championship Final they pushed the number one Princeton crew all the way, finishing just 1.6 seconds behind. 

In the lower boats, only Yale and Princeton beat the Second Varsity Eight so far this season, who were both seeded first and second by the committee.

University of Southern California

Fourth Place in the Pac-12 Conference.
Currently ranked Number 18 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The USC Trojans have been selected for their third NCAA Championship in head coach Josh Adam’s tenure in Los Angeles. A Navy veteran, Adam has previously served in the coaching staffs at Washington State, Indiana and Minnesota.

The squad at USC is very international: the stroke of the First Varsity Eight, Zoe McCutcheon rowed at Royal Enniskillen Grammar in Northern Ireland with two Estonians, an Italian and a Dane among those sat behind her and a Canadian in the cox’s seat. The Second Varsity Eight has representation from Spain, Australia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Season So Far

The Trojans should count themselves lucky to be selected to the National Championship. They were well off the pace at the San Diego Crew Classic and behind Columbia at the Ivy League Invite. They also lost to Oregon State and UCLA in the Afternoon Session at Dexter Lake. They finished fourth at the Pac-12 Conference Championship, well off the pace of the three big hitters in all three NCAA boats and even behind Oregon State in the Second Varsity Eight.

University of Texas at Austin

First Place in the Big 12 Conference.
Currently ranked Number 2 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

As two-time defending National Champions, the Texas Longhorns have high expectations. Entering the year on the back of two unbeaten seasons in the First Varsity Eight, Dave O’Neill’s program has had a dramatic rise in fortunes since O’Neill took over in the 2015 season. Before that point, they had not had a full team representing Texas at the NCAAs but at every Championship since that point, Texas has placed in the top ten, gradually working their way up the rankings before winning the whole thing in 2021 and 2022.

The squad has a great deal of international racing experience. The Coxless Four that won gold at the U23 World Championship in 2022 was made up entirely of Texas Athletes while there were three Longhorns among the top two boats in the eights race at that event.

Season So Far

Like many regular seasons before it, it was a great set of results for the Longhorns they swept the board at the San Diego Crew Classic, Duals against Michigan, Virginia as well as the Big 12 Championship. The only blip in their season came on a Saturday morning in late April when they raced Princeton and Yale on Lake Carnegie in New Jersey. The first eight lost their unbeaten streak falling to Princeton by 0.8 seconds while the second eight lost to both Yale and Princeton. The four too dropped the race to Princeton by a narrow margin. These losses, and their narrow margin predict a close set of races as the Longhorn return to New Jersey this weekend.

University of Virginia

First Place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Currently ranked Number 8 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

Under the leadership of Head Coach Kevin Sauer for the past 27 seasons, the Virginia Cavaliers have qualified for 22 of the 23 NCAA Championships and finished in the top seven each time. This consistency merited great results in 2010 and 2012 as they secured the National title.

Unusually for a team of this quality, it is remarkable local as all nine of the individuals who raced in the First Varsity Eight at the Conference Championship have listed hometowns within the United States. 

Season So Far

For the First Varsity Eight this season has been a mixed bag, wins came over Michigan, Ohio State and Rutgers, thought they lost to Princeton, Penn and Texas. The most notable loss was in the Grand Final at the ACC Championship where Syracuse got the better of them, but due to the Cavaliers’ strength in the lower boats they came away victorious on the team rankings. Those lower boats have also had a mixed showing as the second eight lost against Ohio State, and the Four beat Penn. How all three do will be crucial if they are to maintain their record of never finishing outside the top seven.

University of Washington

Second Place in the Pac-12 Conference.
Currently ranked Number 5 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The Washington Huskies have five NCAA Championships in their history plus seven more national collegiate championships from prior to the inauguration of the NCAAs. The program is currently led by two-time Olympic coxswain Yasmin Farooq who can claim credit for two of those National titles for the Huskies.

The squad in Seattle is a very international on with only three American rowers in the Varsity Eight at the Pac-12 Championship and only three more in the Second Varsity Eight. The recruiting brand of the Huskies remains strong, and they will hope they have brought in the right individuals to return them to the top of the tree this weekend.

Season So Far

The schedule of events for the Huskies was rather short this year as they competed only twice against Collegiate opposition in the Regular Season. At the first of these: the San Diego Crew Classic, they were a little underwhelming as they were well off the pace of Stanford and Texas in the first eight while the second eight was also behind the California Golden Bears. In the other race of the regular season, the first eight beat California again while the second eight lost narrowly to California. However, this turned by the Pac-12 Championship as the Huskies won the entire second eight event, getting the better of California and Stanford, while the first eight was behind just the Cardinal.

Yale University

Second Place in the Ivy League.
Currently ranked Number 3 in the Coaches’ Poll.

About the Program

The Yale Bulldogs have been led by Will Porter since the 2000 season and in that time, they have finished in the top five at the National Championship six times and in the top ten seventeen times. Despite this they have never won the overall crown. In 2007, 2008 and 2010 the first eight won that event but the lower boats made them miss out on the overall event and last season it was the reverse, the second eight won the event at NCAAs but the first boat could only manage second place in the petite final, so the Bulldogs placed fifth overall in the team rankings.

Season So Far

This season’s results have been somewhat more of the same for Yale. The Second Varsity Eight has gone unbeaten on their way to the Ivy League Championship. Meanwhile the First Varsity Eight has shown signs of improvement with wins over Ohio State, Duke, Syracuse and Indiana but a loss to Princeton and Texas was followed by a disappointing finish at the Ivy League Championship behind Penn and only just ahead of Brown. They will need to turn the tide of these results if they want to improve their placing at the NCAA Championship.

Prediction

With close racing all year and changeable hierarchies among the three events, the Championship looks set to be full of exciting racing. In the Varsity Four, Texas, Yale and Brown look likely to be competing for the trophy. The Second Varsity Eight event is probably Yale’s to lose but the showpiece First Varsity Eights event looks likely to be a slugfest between Princeton and Texas with Stanford pushing from behind. How this will shake out for the all-important team’s event will be dependent on the lower position and the lower boats, but I would expect the National championship to have orange ribbons, but whether they will be the vivid orange of Princeton or the burnt orange of Texas is anyone’s guess.

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