Championship season is upon us, and the pinnacle of the championship mountain for collegiate women is the NCAA championship. This year's event marks a new day in women's rowing with the advent of an automatic qualification system. For those who are unfamiliar with this change, here is a little history lesson. The "AQ" was a result of the NCAA coming to the realization that, yes, rowing is a team sport. Who knew? At the event's inception in 1997, rowing was considered an individual/team sport. The championship consisted of 12 "full" teams (V8+, 2V8+, and V4+) along with four other teams that brought one V8+ each, and then a batch of at-large bids in the V4+ as well. In 2009 the field was expanded to 16 teams and rowing officially became a team sport.
With this change, rowing became the only team sport without an automatic qualifier for its championship event. The NCAA requires at least 50 percent of the competing institutions qualify though automatic qualification. With only 16 teams, this would have meant a very strange "row in" qualifier to comply with the NCAA rule. To avoid this situation, and with some help from a little known ruling regarding football, the decision was finally made to expand the field to 22 teams, making the 2013 NCAA rowing championships the largest event in the championship's history. (A little known fact, rowing is the largest NCAA even in terms of the number of participants. That was the case before the field was increased to 22 teams=mega event!).
The debate over the AQs is largely settled, although it remains to be seen if it has the positive (or negative) outcomes that debaters have cited – but love or hate the idea of an automatic qualifier, one thing is for sure, women's rowing is changing fast, and hopefully expansion will follow. Some may argue that some of the faster teams and power conferences may be hurt by this change, but we can all agree that more people rowing is never a bad thing.
Enough with the history lesson, lets focus on the here and now. The NCAA championships make its return to "Windy Indy" for the first time in 10 years. Back in 2003, Radcliffe won the event followed by Brown in second in an extremely deep field, at a regatta unfortunately etched in memory by pretty much unrowable conditions in the semifinals. Both programs return to the NCAA championships this season, joined this time by many new comers to the national stage. Gonzaga, Marist, Navy, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island are making their first trip to the NCAAs, but likely face an uphill battle when it comes to making an impact on this year's event.
With last year's DII champ Humboldt State out of the picture, who will climb to the top of that mountain? Western Washington looks to reclaim their title, but a top-ranked and very quick group from Barry University is in the hunt for their first national title. For the DIII title will anyone be able to catch Williams and end their 7 year run? Check out the break down for each division below:
DI:
Despite plenty of new names at the event this year, the perennial powers will very likely continue to reign supreme. In the varsity 8, Virginia will look to retain their title, but will face a daunting challenge from the Pac-10 and Ivy League. Virginia's first 8, like last season, has made its way through the spring mostly unscathed, with the exception of the Crew Classic. Virginia hopes to be able to produce a similar result to their championship run last year. The Washington Huskies have had a very successful season, beating Cal in the Simpson Cup for the first time since 2003 and placing second at Pac-10s. From the Ivy League, Princeton has yet another very strong group of women which was demonstrated at the Ivy League championship.
However, the 800-pound gorilla in the room this year has been and is going to be the lady Trojans of USC. USC's varsity 8 had it's coming out party at the San Diego Crew Classic and they haven't looked back since. At the Pac-10 championships USC took the varsity eight by almost 6 seconds, which is no small feat by any metric at that event.
When it comes to the team points trophy, the field gets even tighter. One of the strongest teams from top to bottom this season has been the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Ohio State was able to capture all three of the NCAA events at the Big Ten championships by an average of ~9 seconds. Could this be the year that Ohio State takes their first NCAA team title… could be, although you can bet that UVA, USC, Washington, Princeton, and Cal will have something to say about that. Of course you can never count out Brown for the NCAAs (7 titles). They have an ability to peak seemingly on the day of NCAAs, and though they may seem to be a bit outmatched this season, that has been said before about the Bears, so don't count them out.
DII:
The DII field is getting tighter and tighter every season. Last year at the NCAA championships, WWU lost their 7-year hold on as national champions to Humbolt State. At the 2013 NCAA championships the odds on favorite is Barry University, but will they be able to handle the pressure as the favorite? Will Western Washington be able to reclaim their title? With Humbolt State failing to qualify this year, the only thing that is certain is that there will be a new DII champion this season.
DIII:
Going all the way back to 2006, no one has been able to overtake William's reign as the DIII champ. Three different coaches, eight classes of new athletes, and the Williams machine keeps on chugging. At ECACs Bates was within two seconds of Williams 1V8+. Will they be able to close the gap and rid themselves of runner up title? Could Bates end Williams run for 8 in a row, as Humboldt State ended WWU's run for 8 last season? Right now, it looks like history will continue for Williams 8th title in a row, but anything could happen.
I will leave you with this, which seems apropos for women's rowing at this point in time: "Live long and prosper." See you in Indianapolis!
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's NCAA coverage is brought to you in part by:
row2k's NCAA coverage is brought to you in part by: