The NCAA News - News and Features

May 25, 1998

National Collegiate Women's Rowing

Washington's strong finishes may lead to second women's rowing title

Event: 1998 National Collegiate Women's Rowing Championship.

Overview: Defending champion Washington edged Virginia by only 2.8 seconds in the I Eights at the May 2 Windermere Cup regatta. A week earlier, Brown beat the same Virginia boat by five seconds to give Washington good reason to feel uneasy about repeating a championship run .... Washington, the top-ranked team in the West region, has relied on a strong finishing stroke on its varsity squad this year that was never more apparent than in a race against No. 2-ranked California last month. After taking a boat-length lead in the first 1,500 meters of the race, Washington convincingly pulled away in the last 500 meters to finish nearly eight seconds ahead of California. Since 1981, the Washington varsity eight has won 17 of 18 races over California .... Brown served notice that it will contend for this year's championship by winning the varsity eight at the 25th annual Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges regatta May 10, breaking the seven-year grip that 1997 championships runner-up Princeton had on the event's team title. Brown defeated Virginia by almost a length over 1,950 meters through a crosswind that kicked up whitecaps. Brown's two varsity eights finished the season with 7-0 records, registering wins over an impressive lineup of opponents that included Princeton, Rutgers, Boston U. and Cornell. Brown's average margin of victory was a commanding 14.2 seconds for the first varsity boat and 13.5 seconds for the second. Brown's closest varsity races were against Princeton and Virginia, winning by 6.7 and 4.6 seconds, respectively.

Field: The championship is composed of 296 total competitors and provides for three events (I Eights; II Eights and Fours), each covering a 2,000-meter course. Eight teams will be selected, and each team is required to field two boats of eight rowers each and one boat of four rowers. In addition, eight eight-women boats and eight four-women boats from institutions not represented in the team competition will be selected. Individual rowers are not permitted to double at the championship. A minimum of 38 of the 296 berths will be allocated to participants from Divisions II and III.

Dates and site: The championship will be May 29-31 at Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia, and hosted by the University of Central Florida and the Lake Lanier Rowing Club.

Information/results: Results are available on the NCAA Fax-on-Demand System. The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode number 1915); request numbers are 1846 for dates and sites, 1847 for racing schedule, 5136 for day one results, 5137 for day two results and 5138 for day three results. Championship results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championship results will be published in the June 8 issue of The NCAA News.