With less than a month and a half to go until conference championship season, some teams are well underway with their spring racing, as others only saw their very beginning. In the CRCA Coaches’ Poll, most remained steady in the top 10, bar #2 Princeton and #3 Washington, who have now swapped places after the last week’s Princeton-Brown matchup. #13 Duke climbed a few places while #14 Rutgers slipped, as #18 Oregon State also moved up two spots.
San Diego Crew Classic
The US’ sunniest race on the regular season calendar saw a weekend of drama as the San Diego Crew Classic continues to be a staple race for West Coast programs. Last year, even Oxford Brookes made the trip to California to see some early international competition (ultimately falling to Texas and Stanford by 9 and 6 seconds, respectively). Even though missing this year from the mix was Stanford, this year’s Crew Classic saw some class racing from a strong field that will without a doubt shake up the CRCA poll.
Dave O’Neil’s #4 Texas team posted some fast times and decisive wins, besting #7 Cal and #3 Washington in the Varsity 8’s Jessop-Whittier Cup Invitational by 6.8 and 15 seconds respectively, even though they are rumored to not have their full varsity crew out due to injury. Their 3v fell to Cal ultimately and will surely have received some words ahead of the final, as they did close the margin slightly to 2.7 seconds. Despite falling short of their expectations last year, Texas will be looking to come back stronger than ever. This crew and this program are not to be underestimated, and will expect to out-place last year and crack back into the top-3. Texas’ varsity is currently stroked by a graduate transfer from Yale, Denmark’s Mette Køchs-Nielsen, and is notably powered by two-time U23 gold-medal holder Anna Jensen in the 6-seat. The Crew Classic is a testament that Texas should not be overlooked — it has been a stronghold of women’s rowing over the past few years — the depth of their squad will surely shine this year.
However, #3 University of Washington always have something up their sleeve. At third in the Coaches’ poll, the UW women will be quite disappointed with giving up 15 seconds to Texas. Since their NCAA sweep in 2019, UW have not quite been able to reach their same standard following COVID. Much like the Texas boat, UW also features a Yale graduate transfer in their boat, 25-year old Christiana Congdon. UW will want to find as much speed as they can over the next month.
#7 Cal saw their first big test at the Crew Classic against their top-5 rivals, and definitely sent a message that they are ones to watch. In the heat, they were just short to Texas by a second, yet didn’t pull it off on finals day. They will be encouraged with these results after a few forgettable years as they look to break into the top-5. Cal’s win in the 3V speaks loads to the depth of their squad and the team’s overall potential.
Cayuga Cup
Up in Saratoga, New York, #5 Yale, #8 Syracuse, and unranked Cornell met again on a classically rainy and windy weekend upstate. Syracuse have proven their strength this year, and will look to have the strongest season they’ve posted in decades. Their early season results have been incredibly encouraging, although falling short in a close race to ever-steady Yale. The Yale varsity bested Syracuse by an incredibly close margin of .7 seconds and put 28 seconds into Cornell, and 14 seconds and 36 seconds in the 2v, respectively. The Syracuse V4+ walked away with Cuse’s only win of the day.
Yale, although a relatively young team having just graduated over 15 seniors, continues to post impressive early season results across the board. Big things await the women guided by Will Porter.
#12 Ohio State, Minnesota, #16 Indiana, #18 Oregon State
Ohio State met a host of crews on their home water, and in some extreme tailwind conditions, posted a blazing time of 5:58.5, defeating Minnesota by 10 seconds in the varsity. Indiana bested Oregon by a small margin of 1.4 seconds (6:00.4 and 6:01.4).
#19 Harvard Radcliffe, Northeastern , BU, Dartmouth
In some close racing early Saturday morning, on the Charles, Radcliffe’s varsity posted a narrow victory against Northeastern (1.2 seconds), and were able to open up greater margins against Dartmouth and BU. Similar results were reflected in other boats, with Radcliffe finding the most success throughout the morning across the board winning in every category. This race comprised of three local teams and one visiting (Dartmouth), so home crowds were surely out in full force for their respective teams. Dartmouth’s first race of their spring season may not have ended how they had hoped, as they try again to move up the ranks of the Ivy women’s conference to find some success as the men’s side of the program has.
Next Up
On April 13th, The Ivy Invite will see Princeton, #6 Brown, #10 University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Harvard face off. The Ivies (bar Yale), will host some Big-10 and West Coast rivals, including Rutgers and USC.
On the same weekend, the #11 women of University of Virginia will host Yale, Syracuse, Cal, and Stanford in what should be another incredibly exciting weekend of racing as some of the top cross-coast teams square off. Yale and Stanford posted incredibly close times at Head of the Charles in the fall, so this race will be very exciting to see how each team has moved since the fall, and who has moved more.
Texas will also travel north to race #9 Michigan as sights will begin to centre on the countdown to conference championships.
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