Off the back of last week’s intense racing, which marked the end of the regular season for many teams, the CRCA Coaches Poll had a big shake up — #1 Texas and #2 Stanford switched their top spots from the weeks previous. Stanford, last year’s champs, fell to a strong crew from Texas, and have their work cut out for them. The rankings will be the icing on the cake. The rest of the top 20 was relatively consistent, except #12 Ohio State climbed two places, as did #14 Duke, which left # 16 University of Virginia to fall four places in the ranking. Alabama cracked into the top 20, at #18.
This weekend was relatively quiet as teams begin their final preparations ahead of their respective conference championships. The week saw the beginning of the Division 3 league championships to kick off championship season and the final races of the regular season for others. This regular season has been particularly exciting to follow along with, and this weekend was no exception, showing that this is truly anyone’s race. Conference championships will be the stepping point for some teams, and the final point for others, but all will go in with the same goal: to come out on top.
Windermere Cup
#7 Washington’s Windermere Cup always brings lots of excitement and a fun weekend of rowing, kicking off with Friday evening’s Twilight Sprints down the famous Cut. Having invited the likes of the Australian and British national teams in recent years, this year saw the Italian National Team and the University of Wisconsin make the trip to Seattle. The Women of Washington came out on top this year, defeating the boat from Italy and the Wisco badgers by 5 seconds and 18 seconds, respectively. The regatta always serves as an indication of the strength of the UW women — despite some rocky results at the San Diego Crew Classic and in the Cal Dual, UW will be hungry for more and motivated off an impressive Windermere Cup.
Princeton – Penn Dual
Ahead of their Ivy League Championships in two weeks, #11 Penn and #3 Princeton went head-to-head on Carnegie Lake, NJ. For their final regular season race, Princeton took home wins in all boats, to cap off an undefeated regular season. Penn gave Princeton their all, with a late charge in the varsity to end 3 seconds behind, 6:23 to 6:26. This impressively close result for Penn might rattle Princeton — the Ivy League Championship is still anyone’s for the taking, especially with two weeks to prepare.
Liberty League Championships
The Ithaca Bombers out of Ithaca College secured their place as in the automatic qualifier (AQ) in the Division 3 NCAAs set to take place in Bethel, Ohio in a month’s time. They are currently sat at No. 6 in the D3 polls and will look toward breaking into a grand final, but for now should be very pleased with securing their automatic spot. The Bombers defeated no. 13 William Smith and no. 14 Rochester Institute of Technology to secure the AQ. Only 15 teams attend the D3 championships, unlike Division 1, to which 20 teams will receive an invite.
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