As the Collegiate rowing season moves along, eyes are beginning to turn towards the Conference Championships in May and the trips to the National Championships that may follow. This week offered the first opportunity to secure a spot for some men’s teams in the south of the country, but for most this was another opportunity to test themselves against high quality opposition, either at large invitationals or in head-to-head dual racing.
IRA Heavyweight Men’s Division 1
Week 3 Polls
After last weekend’s racing there was a fair bit of movement on the polling from the men’s coaches. Harvard’s upset of Brown promoted them two spots on the rankings as they climb to sixth, while the narrow margin of Dartmouth’s loss to Yale has moved the Big Green up to number five. The biggest beneficiaries of the racing out west were Stanford as their unbeaten weekend moves them up four places, while Northeastern’s inability to win a race in the first eight sees them slide down by four spots.
The racing in Virginia allowed Holy Cross to rise four spots after a strong performance on Easter Sunday, while Navy’s tough day at the office has them falling out of the top twenty.
Week 4 Duals
The dual racing this weekend had the most exciting racing and provided us with some great upsets. Notably, #9 Princeton manged to get the better of #6 Harvard by open water in the first eight despite losing each of the four races proceeding it. This result will buoy the Tigers with confidence as they get the win against their first top-ten opposition so far this year.
Elsewhere, #2 Yale took care of business against #14 Penn and #20 Columbia winning with a double-digit margin and #4 Syracuse defeated #12 Cornell and #21 Navy. Despite the result this will be a positive outlook for the Midshipmen as they finished within a second of Cornell, pointing to Rob Friedrich having made the changes to get the Navy boat going faster.
The final race of Saturday came in Providence, Rhode Island where #7 Brown hosted #10 Northeastern. The home side took an early lead, having half a length on the Huskies, but the men from Boston, came through and secured the upset by less than a second, giving the Brown Bears their second upset defeat in as many weeks.
SIRA Championships
Down in Tennessee, the SIRA Championships offered four Division One Varsity programs an opportunity to secure their spot at the National Championship in June while also facing off against some of the best Club level competition East of the Mississippi.
In Sunday’s grand final #22 Colgate were the class of the field sealing the victory and the IRA bid comfortably ahead of a three-way tussle for the remaining medals. It took a photo finish to separate them, but Jacksonville finished ahead of FIT with the club rowing team from the University of Virginia just missing out on the podium.
NCAA Women’s Division 1
Week 3 Polls
There was a continued stability at the top of the rankings again this week but in the mid-pack there was a fair bit of movement. Michigan rebounded back up two places after a strong performance at the Big Ten Invitational in Florida, as too did SMU. Duke, on the other hand fell after having a more disappointing set of the results compared to their earlier results. Virginia managed to move above Penn without racing by virtue of their win over Michigan looking more impressive.
Ivy League Invitational
In New Jersey, there was a gathering of high-quality programs at the Ivy League Invitational. Thunderstorms threw a wrench in the plans as much of the racing was rejigged to a very busy Sunday morning. #4 Princeton were only able to race once but put a decent margin into #9 Virginia and will be happy with their outcome.
#6 Brown went unbeaten across their three races, as did #10 Penn, who got an upset victory over the #9 Virginia crew who jumped over them in this week’s poll. Further down the rankings, Columbia will be very happy with their performance as they beat two ranked teams and were reasonably close to sixth-ranked Brown.
Week 4 Duals
Away from this invite, the three highest ranked teams in the country all had dual races against top-fifteen opposition. #3 Yale and #15 Harvard faced off on the Charles in their traditional grudge match with the favoured Bulldogs taking the win by almost ten seconds.
It was a similar margin for #2 Stanford as they defeated local rivals #6 California who will be disappointed by the distance the Cardinal managed to put into them.
#1 Texas hosted #11 Michigan in Austin and while the Wolverines were able to keep overlap at halfway, the Longhorns stormed away in the second half to win by 11.2 seconds, a demonstration of force from the defending National Champions.
Coming Up Next Weekend
Next weekend is another one full of exciting dual racing. #1 Texas travel up to New Jersey to take on #3 Yale and #4 Princeton in the highest ranked match-up we are likely to see before NCAAs. Not to be left out, the storming men’s team from #8 Princeton will take on #2 Yale and #12 Cornell on the same course. Also in the Ivy League, the struggling men’s team from #7 Brown will travel to #5 Dartmouth to try to get back in the habit of winning.
If that Dual Action wasn’t enough, #1 Texas are stopping off in Earlysville to take on #9 Virginia on Monday.
Away from the dual racing this weekend will also have the Lake Wheeler Invitational where many high-level programs will take each other on in North Carolina including #8 Syracuse, #10 Penn and much of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12.
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