Spring has sprung in the United States and that means the return of Collegiate Rowing to the lakes and rivers across the pond. It was a warm winter, so many programs were able to get on the water far earlier than expected – possibly offering an increased level of competitive balance with those who can row year-round. But for the next ten weeks teams from across the country will be focused on reaching the National Championship stage in the first weekend in June. For the men, they will once again be racing on Lake Mercer in Princeton, New Jersey at the IRA Championship Regatta. The NCAA relocate to Bethel, Ohio for the openweight women’s national championship on Lake Harsha.
Men’s Racing
The men’s racing season began at the start of March on Lake Las Vegas, where wind restricted the racing to early Saturday morning. Twice-defending national champions California led the way on the restricted schedule comfortably defeating all that came before them by upwards of fifteen second margins. The closest battles of the morning’s racing tended to involve the Drexel Dragons. In their first race they were behind the crew from Oregon State but after a re-row they came out ahead by around a length. In the afternoon session, the Philadelphia squad were in an even tighter battle, finishing less than 0.7 seconds ahead of UC San Diego line-up. These crews may only see each other again at the National Championship as they hail from far corners of the continental United States, it will be a useful measuring stick to see how these crews develop.
The Dual racing season began in Philadelphia this Saturday, again involving Drexel, as they would take on local rivals La Salle. The La Salle Explorers would come out on top as they walked through Drexel, the defending Dad Vail Championships, as La Salle look to build on their programme-best performance last season.
Women’s Racing
For the women, the dual season started earlier but also on the Schuylkill as Saint Joseph’s narrowly defeated visitors Delaware. However, the first race with potential Championship implications week later in Chula Vista, California as Minnesota ended their spring break with a race against their hosts Gonzaga with the gophers defeating the eight-time West Coast Conference Champions by a three second margin.
The largest race so far this season was in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the Cardinal Invitational as ten top programmes joined to open their racing season. It provided the first ranked matchup of the season, which would turn into the first major upset as #18 Indiana would defeat #13 Duke. A bold statement from the Hoosiers as Megan Cooke Carcagno’s Duke squad have often been accused of peaking too early in the season. Whether this is a correction of sorts from the blue devils or a statement of intent from the Indiana crew remains to be seen but there seems to be an upset in the pecking order from last year.
From other crews in Oak Ridge, strong performances came from Clemson, Alabama and Wisconsin but with many coaches taking the opportunity to switch around their line-ups, there was a high level of variance in some of the results.
Elsewhere this weekend, the University of Central Florida started their first season in the Big 12 and the Mara Allen era in style with dominant wins over Jacksonville and UConn while UC San Diego were the class of the field at the Hornet Invitational in California. For many programmes coming out of spring break and onto the final stretch of the academic year, it’s exciting to see how racing will unfold this season.
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