Last weekend, for the first time, we saw all 11 D1 rowing conferences compete on the same weekend. The weather certainly had an impact on schedules, and made for some tough racing as well.
PAC12
This was one conference championship featuring the top three teams in the country, who all had enough team speed throughout their program that any one of them could win the title. With high winds and thunderstorms being predicted in the afternoon, the racing schedule was adjusted to start an hour earlier, and then reversed with the V8’s starting off the racing schedule.
Cal's V8 came into the championship undefeated, but knew this would be their toughest challenge to date. It was the Golden Bears who grabbed the early lead, but Stanford and Washington were within a few seats. By the halfway point Cal's lead was still just three seats, with Washington four seats ahead of Stanford. The Cardinal had a strong third 500 with them drawing level with the Huskies. In the last 500, Cal was able to hold their 3-4 seat lead to win the V8, Stanford second and Washington third in what may have been the best V8 race at the Pac 12's. With the fierce racing up front, USC and UCLA finished for fourth and fifth about three lengths back.
The 2V8 race had the worst of the racing conditions with high winds and extremely rough water. Off the start it was Washington and Stanford, who got out together dropping the rest of the field in the first 500. In the third 500, in barely rowable conditions, Washington was able to gather the crew together the most and was able to move out to an open water lead. Cal, who was back quite a bit in the first 1000, rallied in the second half of the race, going head-to-head with Stanford, but it was the Cardinal that managed to fight off Cal for the silver medal by two seats.
The V4 was won by Washington wire-to-wire, and with the weather making it tough on the racing, it spread out the field from first to last. Stanford took second again ahead of Cal, who finished third.
The Pac-12 AQ apparently goes to the overall winner of the regatta, including the non-NCAA boats, so in the end it was Washington winning the PAC 12 with 39.5 points, Stanford with 39 points and Cal with 38.5 points (the NCAA events were tighter, with all three teams earning 36 points – so if it were the NCAA where the V8 would be the tiebreaker, the AQ would go to Cal). Washington won the AQ while Stanford and Cal were awarded with At-Large bids to the NCAAs. USC, who was ranked 13th going into the weekend, finished 4th in the V8 and 7th in the 2V and V4, which was not enough to secure an At-Large bid to the NCAAs.
Big 12
Texas rolled into Oak Ridge, Tennessee as the defending Big 12 Champions and left with their fifth straight title in dominant fashion once again.
In the V8, Texas led from start to finish, winning by several lengths over the field. The race for second was between Oklahoma, who seems to be getting closer to making back to the NCAAs, and Alabama who have made a big leap in boat speed this season. In the 2V8, it was the Longhorns again, but the battle for second saw Kansas St take the silver ahead of Alabama. The V4 event was the one race that Texas was somewhat challenged by Alabama before moving away to an open-water win with Kansas St third.
Texas is the only school going to the NCAA's from the Big 12, but this may be a conference that will be looking to get an At-Large bid in the near future.
Big Ten
The Big Ten had been gathering in Indianapolis for the last several years, and moved to Devil’s Lake in Baraboo, Wisconsin where they can comfortably fit eight lanes across. Coming into the Big Tens it had been Michigan and Ohio St battling for supremacy of the league, but the depth of conference would make for some exciting racing. Also facing weather concerns, racing was moved up to an early morning start.
In the V8, Michigan grabbed the early lead with Iowa pressing the Wolverines. The Buckeyes, with the patent strong middle of the race, moved past the Hawkeyes and put the pressure on the Wolverines, but Michigan was able to hold off Ohio St with Iowa third a half length ahead of Rutgers.
The 2V8 was the one race where the winning school in Michigan won by a little bit of open water. Ohio State finished second ahead of Indiana and Wisconsin. In the V4, in another classic battle between Ohio St and Michigan, the Buckeyes finished a half length ahead of the Wolverines, with Indiana and Wisconsin finishing third and fourth respectively.
The Big Ten title gave the Wolverines the AQ to the NCAAs while the depth of the Big Ten was rewarded with another five At-Large bids with Iowa, Indiana, Ohio St, Rutgers and Wisconsin all extending their season.
Ivy
The Ivy League had been awarding the AQ for their league to the winner of the V8 event, but changed in 2019 to award it to the highest team points. Brown, Princeton and Yale came to the event ranked 7th, 8th, and 9th, and it seemed all season these schools were fighting for position in the polls. Radcliffe came into the event on the NCAA "bubble" and needed a strong performance to make the NCAAs.
In the V8 finals, the Princeton Tigers sprung out to their usual quick start to take control of the race. Brown and Yale were battling for second about a length back by the time they reached the 1000. The margins held about the same as the crews approached the last 500. Brown tried to close the gap but Princeton stayed strong to win by almost a length. Meanwhile in the last 500, Yale fell off the lead pace but held onto third ahead of a closing Radcliffe crew.
The 2V8, which over the years has been dominated by Brown, saw a great race between Brown, Princeton and Yale as all three crews almost level but Princeton with the slight advantage. The Tigers put on a strong move in the third 500 taking control of the race with Yale moving into second. In the closing 500, Brown made a charge past Yale but came up a half a length short against Princeton giving the Tigers another win on the day. Brown finished one second ahead of Yale with Radcliffe overlapping with the Bulldogs.
The last NCAA event in the V4 saw Brown, Princeton and Yale battling it out one more time. By the 1000, Princeton had a slight lead over Brown and Yale back three-quarters of a length. The Tigers would continue to lead as Brown pressed the Tigers but Princeton held on to win all three NCAA events. Brown was a third of a length back and Yale third. This gave Princeton the AQ while Brown, Yale and Harvard-Radcliffe would all receive At-Large bids.
ACC
The ACC conference is making a habit of looking like they will be sending one to the NCAAs, and then a second team shows up with a strong showing to vault themselves into the NCAAs. Getting to the results, the V8 final put on a good show with UVA winning by one length over Duke, and Syracuse another three-quarter length back to take third.
In the 2V8, it was UVA and Duke again going one, two with host school Clemson taking the bronze beating out Syracuse by a length. The V4 event was won by Duke in an open-water victory over Syracuse and UVA back another 2 seconds for third.
UVA took home the ACC title for the 10th year in a row and Duke earned an At-Large bid for their strong performance.
Atlantic 10
Last year's conference championships came down to the winner of the V8 race between URI, GW, and UMass to determine who would win the conference championship and the AQ for the A-10s. This year, URI made it a clean sweep of the three NCAA events to win their 5th A-10 title in a row.
In the V8 the Rhodies won gold by a length over GW, who has been gaining speed over the last few years. Fordham raced well and finished third, three seats ahead of the Dayton Flyers. The 2V8 race was the best race of the day with URI having to hold of the Colonials, who were six seats back of URI and four seats ahead of UMass. The V4 was the Rhodies biggest margin of victory, winning by two plus length. GW finished second yet again and Duquesne took third.
AAC
While most conference championships have a primary race course to which they return each year, the American Athletic Conference have raced in the northeast, southwest, and the west coast, reflecting the geographical diversity of the conference, which has teams that reside in both Pacific (SDSU) and Atlantic (ODU) coastal towns. This year the championship was held in Oklahoma City allowing Tulsa the chance to have an easy drive for a change.
The weather forecast was calling for high winds which caused the racing schedule to move up to Friday morning – which resulted in the unprecedented inability of Sacramento State to compete, who were notified of the switch to Friday racing on Thursday, but since they were in finals, had purchased Friday flights to the championship and were unable to get new flights when the change was made. (This was unfortunate but arguably somewhat avoidable, as an official Friday contingency plan had been in place for some months.) Despite moving the races, the crews still needed to deal with 15-20 mph crosswinds that gusted to 40 mph.
In the V8 was it was SMU who grabbed the early lead and slowly moved away from the field to finish open water ahead of UCF for the Mustangs first AAC win in the V8 event in program history. Tulsa finished third ahead of Temple.
The 2V8 race saw UCF return the favor by beating out SMU by a half length with Temple third. The V4 was also won by UCF by open water with Tulsa beating out SMU for the silver medal. In the end it was UCF securing their 5th straight title with SMU coming up four points short for the conference title.
CAA
The Colonial Athletic Association racing on the Cooper River had a good day for racing in the final-only format. Drexel and Northeastern had a tight race in the first 1000 before the Dragons were able to push out to the victory of the Huskies to win the V8 event. Eastern Michigan finished third in the V8 ahead of Delaware.
Northeastern, however, won the 2V8 by two-seconds over Eastern Michigan with Villanova finishing third a half length ahead of city-rival Drexel. The V4 was taken by Drexel by two-thirds of a length over Northeast and Villanova winning another bronze medal.
In the end, it was Northeastern who won their sixth straight title just a few points ahead of runner up Drexel.
MAAC
The MAAC conference championships saw a dominant performance by Marist who won the V8 and 2V8 by two plus lengths over the field, launching them to a MAAC title and a trip back to the NCAAs. Jacksonville was runner up to the Foxes in the V8 and 2V8 while winning the V4 event. Stetson took third in the V8, Robert Morris was third in the 2V8, and Drake took third in the V4.
Patriot League
Navy made it five straight Patriot League titles by sweeping all three NCAA events by about a length in each event. Bucknell, who appears to be getting faster again, had a strong performance, finishing second to the Naval Academy in all three events. The V8 had a blanket finish for the silver medal with BU taking third, a half a seat from Bucknell and two seats in front of Georgetown. In the 2V8, it was Georgetown a half a seat ahead of BU to finish third. In the V4, it was Georgetown again ahead of BU for the bronze medal by a length.
West Coast
Gonzaga was another school to make it their fifth league title in a row as they won the V8 by a length over San Diego and took the gold in the 2V8 ahead of Loyola Marymount by four seats. Loyola Marymount took the bronze in the V8 and the gold in the V4. San Diego took home the bronze medal in the 2V8 and the silver medal in the V4 ahead of Gonzaga.
My Fast Five
Here are my top five as we head into the NCAAs.
V8+ | 2V8+ | V4+ | |
1 | Cal | Washington | Washington |
2 | Stanford | Stanford | Stanford |
3 | Washington | Michigan | Ohio State |
4 | Princeton | California | Texas |
5 | Texas | Virginia | Michigan |
See the selected crews for all three divisions here:
Best of luck to all the teams in all divisions at the NCAA as the Women's NCAA Rowing Championships provides one of the most competitive rowing races of the year.
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05/29/2019 6:44:38 PM
All AAC crews knew of the Friday contingency months in advance. Sacramento State planning a Friday afternoon arrival was a dubious decision at best and a clear roll of the dice. Given the constantly changing long term weather forecast, how much in advance could one expect a decision on the contingency to be made? Even if the decision was made on say Tuesday afternoon, do we think it would have been a reasonable expectation for Sacramento State to alter their plans to a Thursday arrival? If they could do that, they could have planned to be there on Thursday in the first place. Somebody at 6000 J Street needs to take ownership and stop foisting all the responsibility onto the conference.
05/29/2019 2:43:49 PM