Racing in once-again fast conditions on Mercer Lake, the NCAA crowned new DI champions today, with only one crew, the Stanford 2V, repeating as champs from last year.

1V Eight

The Yale 1V, which had been running hot all weekend, found their absolute top gear this morning, leading at every marker to take the win by about six seats ahead of a previously undefeated Stanford crew, with Texas, who had been pushing into Stanford late in the race, finishing third.

"Violet Barletta is as good of a stroke as I have ever seen," said Yale coach Will Porter. "She is dynamic. The crew is very talented and tough and they love to race hard. They could not wait for the final. They wanted to get in there and go at it."

The Yale 1V celebrates

If Stanford was disappointed to come up short in the marquee race, it didn't show -- the team was delighted to win the team event.

"It was a tough race for them in that I think they were a little wound up, but they did exactly what they needed to do to put the team where the team needed to be," said Stanford head coach Derek Byrnes. "Yale's ridiculously fast. We knew that, we were under no illusions. We knew we had to go with them early, and once you lose that little bit of traction, I feel like you can start to scramble."

The Stanford 1V outlasted Texas at the line

Texas coach Dave O'Neill concurred. "All of our crews raced really hard and did all they could," he said. "There might be a hint of disappointment from some, and that can be expected when you're so close to winning. However, those crews that finished ahead of us were outstanding, and I'm confident we did the best we could have done."

It's Yale's first win in the 1V since 2010.

2V Eight

In the 2V eight, the Stanford crew, stroked by Nora Goodwillie, had built nearly a length lead by the 1000m mark, and then shut the door, holding off Washington and a fast-closing Princeton crew for the win.

"That group is lethal, they're just tenacious," said Stanford's Byrnes. "We started trying to build that boat sometime in the winter, it was not going well. [Three-seat] Lucy Burrell, a senior, she just willed that thing into existence. We had a kid that just came back, [two seat] Fiona Mooney, who missed a bunch of racing this year, but was back for this weekend. She is the heartbeat of the team."

The Stanford 2V ahead of Washington (5) and Princeton (4)

"They have been fighting with our 1V for the last two or three weeks, really hard. [Asst Coach] Molly Hamrick did a bang up job with them, she's such a great coach."

Four

In one of the closest races of the day, Stanford came from behind in the third 500m to pass the leading crew from Washington to start the podium run for the Cardinal. Washington held on to second place, and Texas was third.

"We changed a little bit of our strategy out there," said Stanford's Byrnes. "They are a group that likes to just lead out, and we shifted a little bit today, so when they got to the 1000, they just took off."

The Stanford Four

"I would say I probably owe [Marin girls coach] Sandy Armstrong beers for life," added Byrnes. "Three of the women in there were from Marin, and they'll tell you that all the time. To build that boat, the bow seat, Charlotte Jett, had to switch sides. She was a starboard and a pretty strong kid, we switched her about six weeks ago, and she's been slowly ramping up and getting used to it."

"She's actually a highlight for me for the day. Yesterday, she caught a couple dingers. That's to be expected, especially with the chop, and the women around her were just so supportive. They just talked about, to catch one that's fine, just be composed enough where you can get yourself going again. And today, she just did great!"

Team

Since the COVID pause in 2020, either Texas or Stanford have won the NCAA DI team championship each year, with Stanford's most recent win coming in 2023.

"We have a group of women who have been here and have developed technically, physically, emotionally, and they've also developed into phenomenal leaders," said Byrnes. "We talk all the time on our team about 'putting the We before the Me.' The goal is to come in here and win the team title. There are a bunch of seniors on our team who we think were in a position to win it last year, and they walked away from last year pretty bitter."

Stanford

"It would have been awesome to sweep, but as we were talking about it over the last couple days, something always happens at NCAAs. It's never a linear path where you're just going to move on from each round to each round, and everything's going your way."

"We have a very small team by NCAA standards, around 42 student athletes, so everyone has to play a role. When we go to our conference championship, every kid is has to fill a seat so we can fill every boat. We bring the whole team here to NCAA to watch them cheer on their teammates and the kids that are racing take a lot of pride in racing for the women who aren't able to race."

Yale

In addition to the stellar result in the 1V, Yale added a 5th place in the 2nd Eight and 4th place in the Four to finish 2nd as a team, their highest placing in the overall standings since 2004.

"Building a team takes time and it never goes the same way from year to year," said Yale's Porter. "This team really set the tone from the start it was about the work and mutual respect. Over the year they came to really vibe well. Our best athletes did not want the spotlight and they always looked to elevate others."

Texas

Texas placed third, and coach Dave O'Neill was pleased. "We know how hard it is to get the team onto the podium, and we never take it for granted. The year as a whole was a fantastic experience, and everyone deserves a ton of credit. I was impressed every step of the way. Whether it was development of athletes, leaders stepping up, embracing the training, managing injuries and the stress and disappointment of selection. I'm really proud of this team and this ultimate result."

Texas has finished in the top three at NCAAs in seven of the last eight years.

NOTES FROM THE COURSE

Who took the confetti cannon from last year???

If you had any trouble keeping up with the many weather-related schedule changes at the NCAAs this weekend, you were not alone -- virtually no communications went out with regards to schedule updates, and families, spectators, and even SIDs were relying on information from the coaches to stay up to speed.

Washington took fourth in the team points race on the strength of two second-place finishes to nab the reinstated fourth place team trophy. After snubbing Princeton at the podium last year, the NCAA decided to go back to awarding fourth place trophies for *all* sports. The NCAA stuck Princeton's reinstated 2024 fourth place trophies in the mail last fall, and the coaches gave them out at the boathouse or packed them up individually to snail mail to any rowers who had graduated.

Championship Crowd

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