The showpiece event of women’s collegiate rowing, the NCAA Championship is the date circled on every calendar of the hundred-plus varsity rowing programs across the United States. On the Division 1 level, twenty-two teams had been selected and all the highs and low of the season fell away, only one event mattered, right here at the Camden County Boathouse in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
This Championship was billed to include some close and surprising racing and we didn’t have to wait very long to see the fruits of that. In just the first race of the Division 1 championship, the previously undefeated Princeton Varsity Eight lost in their heat to Washington setting up a more difficult route through the Semi-Finals for the Tigers. In the third heat, Stanford gave a massively dominant performance to finish well ahead of the others for no apparent reason other than to make a statement to their competitors.
In Saturday’s Semi-Finals, there was even more exciting racing.
In the first race, Princeton righted the wrong, finishing ahead of Penn and Texas as the three qualifiers were split by just over a second. In the other A/B Semi-Final it was Stanford and Washington who dominated the race with Yale edging out Syracuse and Michigan to take the final spot in the Grand Final.
In the lower boats, the biggest story was the only unbeaten boat in the country finally falling as the Yale Second Varsity Eight placed third in the Semi-Final and while the qualification was comfortable, the loss of the unbeaten record may have been cause for concern for the Bulldogs’ coaches.
Coming into Sunday’s finals, there were four programs who placed all of their boats in the Grand Finals: Princeton, Texas, Yale and Stanford, while Washington missed the finals only in the Varsity Four and remained mathematically in contention for a National Title.
The first final of the day came in the Varsity Four and it was the Texas Longhorns who reigned supreme, taking the lead in the second 500 and never relinquishing it. Yale were a cut above Brown as the Ivy League rounded out the podium. Stanford were just behind the Bears in fourth while Princeton came across the line, well off the back in sixth place.
The Second Varsity Eight Grand Final was one fraught with drama and intrigue. Stanford won the race ahead of Pac-12 rivals Washington and California and the much-fancied Yale had to settle for fourth place. Pre-event favourites Princeton and Texas crossed the line in fifth and sixth to round out the final, but this was where the controversy lay. The Texas crew, prior to the first 500m was blocked and interrupted by a large gaggle of geese causing them to drop back by around a length on the rest of the field. The race was enthusiastically protested by the crew after crossing the finish line and while the protest was denied on the water, the spectre of a formal protest held over the results for the rest of the regatta as uncertainly and rumour circled.
Leading into the final race of the day, the deciding First Varsity Eights Grand Final, all five programs had a route to the National Championship still open but control lay firmly in the hands of the Stanford Cardinal, needing only a second place finish to secure the team crown.
That did not limit them as they led the Grand Final from the front, cruising to a 2.4 second win over conference rivals Washington with Princeton rounding out the podium. Penn continuing their announcement finished fourth, while Texas beat Yale to 54 points for fifth place.
After the racing, there was still the question of the Second Varsity Eight race. Texas Head Coach Dave O’Neill withdrew the formal protest, telling Junior Rowing News that the narrowness of a route to the Championship and not wanting to make everyone do a re-row led him to decide to withdraw the protest.
As this news filtered around the team area, the Stanford team ran out on to the dock in celebration as they secured their first National Championship since 2009 after two years of missing out by the narrowest of margins. Washington secured an unexpected second-place finish while Princeton were disappointed despite securing the first back-to-back top-three finishes for the first time in their history.
In the lower divisions of NCAA Rowing, the National Championships were held on the same course, with champions being crowned on Saturday. In Division 2, Cal Poly Humboldt swept both the Varsity Eight and the Varsity Four to claim the National Title for the first time since 2014. In Division 3, the combination of gold in the first eight and silver in the second eight lead to the Wellesley to bring their second consecutive National Championship back to their Boston suburb.
With that the racing concluded, marking the end of the collegiate rowing season, with the exception of those competing at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships next weekend. For some their dreams were realised, for others they were shattered. Some will return, hungry for more next year, while others leave their schools having competed at the highest level, looking back with fond memories.
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