As quickly as this season is going, so are the opportunities for crews to show their speed to qualify for the NCAA’s. There were a few schools that helped themselves this week, while next week will be the last chance for most schools as the regular season is winding down. We will take a look at how each of the conferences are shaping up for their championship, but let’s take a look at this past weekend’s action.

Washington #1, Cal #2

The Washington Huskies made the trip down the coast for the annual Washington-Cal dual at the Redwood Shores, and the top two teams put on a show. In the V8, the racing was tight for most of the first half with Cal holding a slight edge. Cal was then able to put on a surge to establish more than a half length lead that Washington was unable to answer, and the Cal Bears won by three seconds to hang onto the Simpson Cup.

The 2V8 was just as exciting, but this time it was the Washington Huskies who won by three seconds. And, as you would expect from two top programs, the V4 was a 3.5 second margin going to Washington. Look for Washington to hang on to the top spot in the rankings despite losing the V8. The teams will meet again at the Pac12 in three weeks.

Ohio State #4, Michigan St #15, Duke #19, Notre Dame, San Diego

Ohio State and Michigan St hosted a double-dual in Columbus, Ohio, where the Buckeyes took on Duke in one session, and Notre Dame in the other session. Michigan State, who raced the opposite session from Ohio St, had San Diego race with them in both sessions with their V8 and 2V8.

The Buckeyes made quick work of both Duke and Notre Dame, winning all races by open water. This is the last race for Ohio St before the Big Ten Championships. Duke, however, found success against Michigan St., winning the V8 by 5.7 seconds, the 2V8 by 2.5 seconds and the V4 by 2.7 seconds. Notre Dame also pulled off the upset in the V8 by nearly 3 seconds and the V4 by 2.7 seconds. The Spartans did pull out a win in the 2V8 over the Fighting Irish by one second.

Michigan St will probably have to be at least in the top four at Big Ten Championships to give themselves a chance at the NCAAs. Duke has certainly giving themselves a chance to make the NCAAs as they head to Indiana for some good crossover racing, where they will need to cash in on their opportunity. Notre Dame is starting to make a run like they did last year, but this season they are starting their run from a little further back, so they are going to need some big wins next week.

Yale women in action

Yale #5, Harvard-Radcliffe #16, Northeastern

Yale hosted on the Housatonic against two Boston schools, Harvard-Radcliffe and Northeastern. The Elis took the V8 race in a hard-fought race as Northeastern was right with Harvard-Radcliffe. Yale won the race by a touch more than a length over Harvard-Radcliffe and Northeastern another four seats back. Yale won the 2V8 more comfortably, winning by two lengths over Harvard-Radcliffe and the Huskies just another three seats back. Yale completed the sweep by winning over Harvard-Radcliffe with some open water and Northeastern was back by open water.

Virginia #9, Princeton #10

The Princeton Tigers traveled to Lake Monticello to take on UVA. In the V8, Princeton put the attack on and pulled away from the Cavaliers to win by a surprising nine second win. UVA, however, won the 2V8 and V4 by nine and nineteen seconds respectfully. Both schools will have one more race weekend before heading in their conference championship where Virginia and Princeton will probably be the top seed in the V8 events.

Brown #11, Cornell, Navy

The race for the Dunn Bowl was held on the Cayuga Inlet where Brown swept all three NCAA events by ten to twelve seconds, winning the Dunn Bowl for the 2018 season. The competition between Navy and Cornell was much tighter with Navy taking the V8 and V4 by nearly a length in both, while Cornell took second in the 2V8 by three-quarters of a length over Navy.

Dartmouth racing in Boston Saturday

Dartmouth #20, URI, Boston College, Bates (D3)

The four New England schools met in the Basin on the Charles River. The wind was a gusty headwind but blowing around 10 mph. The Big Green from Dartmouth took control of the race in the V8 to win by open water. Rhode Island and Bates had a good hard race with URI finishing second, ahead of Bates by three seconds and BC open water back. The 2V8 and the V4 were again won by Dartmouth by double digits, but it was Boston College who took second in both events. Bates was third in the 2V8, a length ahead of the Rhodys.

Kelly Cup

Five of the Philadelphia area schools got together on the Schuylkill in great racing conditions. In the V8, Drexel and Temple battled it out for the top spot as Drexel won by two seats with Villanova, Thomas Jefferson (D2) and St Joe’s rounded out the field. The 2V8 was another tight race, but Temple came out on top over Drexel this time. The V4 found the Owls and the Dragons going at it one more time and it was Drexel winning by a little open watering.

Cherry Hill Invitational

Bucknell played host on the Cooper River to ten other schools including long distance traveling schools like SMU and Jacksonville. It was in-state school Rutgers though that made a clean sweep of the V8, 2V8 and the V4, winning by roughly two lengths in all the events. SMU and Bucknell rounded out the top three in the V8, while UConn and SMU were second and third in the 2V8. The V4 had UConn beating out Jacksonville for second place by two seconds.

Mason Invite

On the Occoquan, nine schools ran three heats of three, where just the winner went to the A Final, second to the B Final and third to the C Final. As it turned out, the most exciting race of the day for the fans was in the third heat of the V8 where Delaware (first in the heat), Villanova (second in the heat), and Eastern Michigan (third in the heat) finished 1.8 seconds apart. In the finals, it was Kansas who took home the top spot by a length over GW, and then Delaware. The 2V8 was won by GW by five seconds over Villanova and another half a length to Kansas. St. Joe’s won the V4 by a solid length over Delaware and one more length to Kansas.

My Fast Five New this week are my top five in each of the NCAA events for the D1 schools.

NEXT WEEK’S RACES TO WATCH

Longhorn Invite Cal #2, Stanford #6 Princeton #10, Wisconsin #13, Syracuse Dale England Cup Eastern Sprints Tuesday, May 1-Yale #5, Brown #11

Division 2 Rowing

Barry at SIRA last weekend

The D2 picture for the NCAA’s is quickly coming into focus, so let’s look at where schools stand as there will be some good racing coming up to determine the final spots to the NCAA’s.

There are three regions for the D2 schools and the top ranked team will get an AQ, with one more team bid chosen as an At-Large, and then the next two fastest V8’s will be selected to join the NCAA party.

Starting out in the West Region, Central Oklahoma has a strong grip on the top spot and will be looking to finish their season strong. In the Central Region, FIT and Barry are battling for the AQ while the other should be getting the At-Large bid. The East Region be a three-school battle between Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Pierce and Assumption where they will be racing each other this coming weekend. The two remaining At-Large eights are looking to be coming out of the West Region.

Barry #2, FIT #3, Nova Southeastern#8 @ SIRA Regatta

The races were held in Oak Ridge with the top two schools from the Central Region battling for the top spot in that region. Barry and FIT qualified for the A-Final in the Open Women’s V8, and it was FIT finishing second in the event to the Wisconsin Lights while Barry finished fifth, ten seconds between the two Florida schools. Nova Southeastern won the B-Finals in the V8.

In the V4 event, both Barry and FIT raced in the A-Final, and Barry in fourth finished ahead of FIT in fifth by three seconds. Nova Southeastern’s V4 placed second in the B-Final. All three of these schools will be “lacing it up” the next two weekends.

UC San Diego #4, San Diego St (DI)

UC Sand Diego raced up a division this past weekend again and racing SDSU…. again. SDSU swept all the events again but UCSD had a much better race in the V8, cutting the margin down to SDSU in half from the previous week.

Western Washington #6, Stanford - lights

Western Washington raced a very talented lightweight 8 from Stanford and seemed to put together their best race of the season despite Stanford winning the V8 and V4 by nine seconds. With Western Washington starting to find some boat speed and desperately wanting to defend their NCAA title, they will be a dangerous team to race down the stretch.

NEXT WEEK’S RACES TO WATCH

Western Intercollegiate Rowing Championships (WIRA) Sunshine State Conference New England 10 Challenge

Division 3

Bates racing in Boston

Bates #1, Boston College (DI), Dartmouth (DI), URI (DI) – Saturday

President’s Cup – Bates, Bowdoin, Colby - Sunday

Bates took their number one ranking and raced on the Charles River against three DI schools with their two Varsity Eights. In the V8, Bates finished third to URI, three-quarters of length down, with Dartmouth winning by open water. In the 2V8, Bates finished third again with BC being the runner up to the Big Green.

Bates then headed home to host the 22nd President’s Cup where they had a rare warm sunny day in Maine during the month of April, which is highly appreciated up there. Bates continued to show off their number one ranked speed, winning both the V8 and 2V8 by several length of open water.

Little Three Regatta – Wesleyan #2, Williams #3, Amherst

This was the 50th annual for the Little Three Regatta, and what a race in the V8 event. Wesleyan and Williams racing like top-three schools that they are, Wesleyan won the V8 by three seats over Williams before Williams came back to win the 2V8 by open water. This saga between these two rivals will continue to very end of the season.

Hamilton #4, St Lawrence, Union

Racing in a double-dual format, Hamilton made quick work of both St Lawrence and Union by winning the V8 and 2V8 by open water on the historic Erie Canal in Rome, NY.

Ithaca College #6, WPI #9, and other D3 schools

Ithaca came into this eight-school event as the highest ranked school, and it showed in V8 as they cruised to a ten second victory over WPI. However in the 2V8, it was WPI who won the top spot over William Smith by seven seconds and then Ithaca another seven seconds back.

WPI #9, Tufts #11, William Smith #12, Clark, Skidmore

With good race conditions and a light tail, WPI and Tufts battled all the way down the course with WPI getting to the finish line flag first with a six-seat victory ahead of Tufts. William Smith finished third off the pace. In the 2V8 WPI took the win by a foot over Tufts with William Smith in third.

Northwest Conference Championship – Puget Sound #7, Pacific Lutheran #8, Lewis & Clark, Mills, Pacific

Racing into a moderate headwind at Puget Sound, PLU was able to knock off Puget Sound in the V8 to reverse a result from back in March. Puget Sound was able to repeat a victory over PLU in the 2V8 race. This event was a big race for these two schools as they are both probably NCAA “bubble teams,” and only one of these two schools could be the “last team in” for the NCAAs. This is the last time these two schools will race each other, and while each of them have one race left each, selection between these two schools is going to take careful examination of their whole season.

Preview

I want to start off with next week’s action with a quick preview with two of the first four AQ’s for D3 schools being decided this coming weekend. One conference championship will be the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), with participating schools. Wellesley #5, WPI #9, Clark, Coast Guard, Mt Holyoke, Simmons and Smith.

The other conference championship is the Mid-Atlantic, which includes Washington College #13, Byrn Mawr, Cabrini, Franklin & Marshall, Johnson & Wales, St Mary's, and Stockton.

Lightweights

Wisconsin lightweight women

Stanford #1, Western Washington (D2)

Stanford continues to race well, week after week, showing good maturity with their consistency. The Cardinal won the V8 and the V4 both by nine seconds against a good Western Washington squad.

Muri Cup/ Beanpot - Boston U #2, Harvard-Radcliffe #6, MIT #7

Boston U continued their winning ways as they took the V8 by a surprising eight seconds over Harvard-Radcliffe and MIT another length back. The V4 was another BU victory winning comfortably, with Harvard-Radcliffe second and MIT third.

SIRA – Wisconsin #3

Wisconsin’s Lights went down to Oak Ridge to race in the SIRA. Racing in the Open Women’s V8, the Badgers made the A-Final and took home first place with a six-second win over FIT and Kansas St. Wisco also had an entry in the Open 2V/Ltwt V8 race where they finished third behind winner Kansas St.

Princeton #4, Georgetown #5

Georgetown came up to Princeton and raced like they had circled this date for a long time. Having a front row seat for this one, I could really appreciate how hard these two schools raced each other. Georgetown grabbed the lead in the V8 by 500m gone and had about a 3-seat lead. Princeton pressed the Hoyas for the lead, but Georgetown was unwilling to oblige as they answered each moved with a slightly bigger move to increase the lead by a seat or two.

Georgetown probably had their biggest lead as they hit the finish line to a two-second victory. Next up was the V4 and this race was even better. This is the kind of race that reminded me of when you are seat racing two rowers who are so evenly matched. The lead must have changed hands multiple times, and when it looked like one school had the advantage, the other school would come back.

For most of the race, no lead was bigger than three seats before Georgetown was able to increase the margin in the last 250m to win by 1.5 seconds. In the 2X, Princeton has been the dominant school and they took off again from the start to win easily.

NEXT WEEK’S RACES TO WATCH

Eastern Sprints – BU #2, Wisconsin #3, Princeton #4, Georgetown #5, Harvard-Radcliffe #6 WIRA – Stanford #1

This Week's Poll Results

Sprints League Women's Poll

USRowing Collegiate Poll

cMax Rankings

2018 CRCA/USRowing Coaches Poll - presented by Pocock Racing Shells