NCAA women’s rowing is back in full swing, and last year’s champions Stanford atop the polls after some early racing. Notably, this is the last year where COVID 5th years will be eligible to race, which has dramatically helped the likes of #4 Texas, #2 Washington (UW), and #1 Stanford’s NCAA campaigns over the last few years — attested by the domination of the 5th years at Washington’s annual Class Day regatta, which provides a day of official internal racing amongst the UW class years. NCAA Racing is due to be especially exciting and especially close this year, as across all divisions there is sure to be a reset and many upsets.
Ivy-Big 10 Dual
Camden, New Jersey’s Cooper River came back to life again this weekend as #5 Yale, #19 Harvard Radcliffe, and #8 University of Pennsylvania (Penn) faced #11 Ohio State, #12 Syracuse, #13 Indiana, and #14 Rutgers. It should be of no surprise that the women of Yale set out to dominate the Ivy-Big 10 Dual. Off the backs of two top-5 finishes in a row at NCAAs and an incredible fall season at Head of the Charles, the women of Yale will be looking toward what is shaping up to be an exciting spring racing season. Seeded 5th in the CRCA polls, Yale will undoubtedly be looking to destroy any expectation and begin a triumphant Spring season, despite a few athletes from Paraguay, Greece, and Canada out for Olympic gap years. Yale came away from the weekend with all wins, having raced Indiana, Ohio State, and Rutgers.
Ohio State put a good challenge against Yale, finishing a close four seconds off Yale’s varsity in incredibly tough wind and heavy rain. Ohio State, who seem to have fallen short of their expectations at last year’s NCAAs, have looked to come back stronger and showed early season strengths against some of Penn and Yale’s boats. At the end of 2023, the women from Ohio ended the NCAA 12th, compared to their 2022 result of 8th. This racing season, Ohio will surely look to crack back into the top-10 and show their prowess against some strong competitors from the Big 10 and beyond.
Syracuse also began their season strong, coming off an impressive Spring campaign in 2023, and are looking to do the same again. Syracuse put up an impressive result against Ohio State, Indiana, and Radcliffe, with their varsity only falling to Penn’s crew.
Finding an unexpected rise in the 2023 season ending 6th in the team trophy, Penn will again be looking to come back for even better this season. Early season results indicate they should be encouraged, coming away with a decent number of wins across the boats.
Also featuring in this opening race was the women of Harvard Radcliffe, who are in an interesting position this year after long-standing Head Coach Liz O’Leary’s departure from this program and the recent completion of a boathouse renovation. It will be fun to see how the team, and its recruitment into the next few years, will respond to these big changes under new coach Claire Ochal. With new life breathed into its system, Radcliffe are certainly ones to watch, even as they reckon with one of the strongest women’s rowing conferences in the NCAA in recent years, the Ivy League. Although this early race did not post the best results for Radcliffe — falling to Penn by over 20 seconds in the varsity — yet they are sure to find speed as the season progresses and showed promise in the minor boat categories.
UCLA, USC, LMU
Also meeting this weekend was West Coast competitions of #16 University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Loyola Marymount University. There was close racing between USC and UCLA as a strong USC just narrowly defeated UCLA in the Varsity, although the UCLA boat was the winner of the day in the 2V and V4. These crews will use this race as a stepping point to build toward the San Diego Crew Classic in two weeks’ time where they will undoubtedly meet some very strong competitors.
Next up
#3 Princeton will race #6 Brown and University of Rhode Island in a highly-anticipated race next weekend (March 30). Always fierce competitors, Lori Dauphiny’s women of Princeton will battle Brown, under the guide of the Murphy duo on Princeton’s home course.
The Big 10/ACC Double Dual will see Ohio State and #15 Duke face the mighty #9 Michigan, the first of their spring campaign, on Ohio’s home water.
Also coming up next weekend is the Doc Hosea Invitational, where Penn and Rutgers will return to Camden to meet Northeastern, George Washington University, and more, in hopefully better racing conditions.
On April 6, all eyes will be on the San Diego Crew Classic, a staple of the Spring season for many West Coast programs: #7 Cal, Stanford, UW, and Texas — rending this a race weekend well-worth following along the livestreams.
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