Williams coach Justin Moore, fresh off of leading the Ephs to the Division III Rowing Championships title last spring, now has made a splash on the international scene after leading the United States’ 8-plus women’s team to a gold medal at the World Rowing Junior Championships in France.

The triumph caps a year during which Moore coached Williams to victory in last fall’s Collegiate Eight at the Head of the Charles competition, and then led the Ephs to conference and regional titles before capping an undefeated season by claiming the Division III crown. It was Williams’ fifth NCAA championship in eight years.

The U.S. junior eights team overtook New Zealand nearly midway through the 2,000-meter eights race last weekend in Brieve-la-Laillairde, then pulled away to win by 4.3 seconds.

“The race unfolded exactly as I hoped it would,” said Moore, following his debut as a national team head coach. “The women went off the line at 46 strokes per minute. This is two beats higher than where we traditionally practiced, but they were determined not to be left behind in the first 500 meters.”

Moore begins his 11th year at Williams this fall after leading the Ephs to their fourth straight Division III title in May. Williams’ first title came in 2002.

In a sense, by traveling to Europe with the national junior team, he was practicing what he regularly has encouraged student-athletes to do during his tenure at the school. In fact, nine of the juniors and seniors on Williams’ 2009 championship team had participated in the college’s Junior Year Abroad program, during which they spent the fall semester of their junior year studying in another country.

“The fact that we allow our women to study abroad in the fall of their junior year has paid huge dividends for us,” Moore said in an interview last spring. “We get a lot of interest from rowers who look at the Ivies, but get excited about being able to combine competitive rowing with being able to engage in a foreign academic setting. I think it also helps us to develop depth.”

One of this year’s Williams seniors, Katherine Robinson, enjoyed her own international competitive success earlier this summer as a member of the United States’ lightweight women’s quadruple sculls team that won a silver medal in July at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in the Czech Republic.

Robinson teamed with rowers from Oregon State and Virginia to place second behind Germany in the event.