Racing ramped up quickly once the day started in Sarasota, as crews wasted no time at all in their quest to go fast and move on to Saturday.
With a repechage round scheduled in all events in the afternoon, no crews were eliminated in the morning racing, but some clear markers were put down by the favorites right away, forcing some teams to facing that extra 2k in one or more event that will at the very least complicate their chances for the overall team title and perhaps affect their final spot in the standings.
The order of events today went D3, then D1, and finally D2, so we will go through them in that order here--and then cover who may have gotten back into the mix through those afternoon reps.
D3 Heats Put Bates, Wellesley & Ithaca Ahead
Tight racing for D3 across the board in the heats this year: top seed Ithaca made it through in the 1V, but was nudged into second place by a determined WPI crew which came in seeded 4th, and which had been a length back of IC at the NIRC just a few weeks ago.
WPI Head Coach Jason Steele was pleased afterward: "The trajectory of our 1V over the past two week suggested we would be prepared to bring our best performances of the season to Sarasota. We'll rest up tonight and hope that trajectory stays on track."
In the 2nd 1V heat, Bates won, flipping the script on 2nd place Wellesley. These two crews have traded wins this season, all of them a handful of seats one way or the other, but today it was Bates with the edge as the most important weekend of the year got underway.
The Bates 2V, which is the top seed in that event, won out in their heat as well, in another positive indicator for the Bobcats.
"We knew the heats were going to be hard fought races," said Bates Head Coach Peter Steenstra, "so we went into them fully committed to progressing straight to the grand final."
The D3 team race has promised to be tight all year, and it is on already amongst Bates, Wellesley, and Ithaca: along with Bates into both Grands, the Wellesley 2V, which won heat #2, and Ithaca College's 2nd Eight, with the upset they scored over Tufts, joined their 1V in going direct to the Grand.
In the afternoon reps, the Williams 1V, WPI 2V, and both Tufts crews made the most of the second chance. racing to put their full teams into the Grands, but the extra round may prove telling in tomorrow's D3 Finals. St Mary's (MD) and Pacific Lutheran will race each other in both Petite finals where St. Mary's does still have a shot at its best ever team finish in this, the Seahawks' first ever NCAA appearance.
D1 Favorites in Control After Day 1
A few of the D1 heavyweights lining up today had not raced each other in a fair while: #1 Texas had not faced Washington since since late March at the Crew Classic, Stanford raced a limited schedule and even had to cancel their Cal dual due to COVID, and even Princeton had hungry California and Michigan crews to either side which the Tigers had not yet faced this year.
All of that created some heady anticipation for the opening round races, and the D1 1V's delivered, right from the first strokes of the Texas-Washington heat:
Washington, finally back to full strength after a difficult season of injury and illness, gave top-seeded Texas everything they had, leading the Longhorns to the 1000 meter mark. It was, as commentator Lindsey Shoop noted, the first time Texas had really trailed anyone all season, but it did not last: Texas dropped the hammer on the Huskies in the third 500 and strode out to win with the fastest time of the day. Both advanced, sending 3rd place Pennsylvania to the Reps along with Rutgers and Southern California.
"The first eight does a great job under pressure," said Texas Head Coach Dave O'Neill, "and that was definitely called upon today. We expected Washington to be fast, and they certainly were."
Princeton's blazing start in heat #2 accomplished what Washington's did not: a wire-to-wire win, and the Tiger's opening salvo made for the fastest 1st 500m split of the morning. Behind the Tigers, California advanced in a seeding upset over Michigan (#10 over #7). The Wolverine 1V raced the reps along with Duke and Gonzaga, 4th and 5th in that heat.
In heat 3, Stanford looked loose and happy on the start dock--complete with a quick little dance by coxswain Caroline Ricksen in her seat--and the Cardinal then stormed out to a commanding lead by the halfway mark over Ohio State, who also advanced. Oregon State outlasted Syracuse after a tight battle for third for the first three-quarters of the race--indeed Syracuse had run with the leaders off the line before fading back--and both headed to the rep along with BU and Jacksonville.
The race of the morning--at least in D1--came down to Brown and Yale in the last 1V Heat. The two Ivy foes, separated by feet at most for the bulk of the first 1250, quickly sent the rest of the pack to the reps and focused on each other. Yale held the slightest of edges until Brown made a late third 500 move that proved decisive and they took the win. The two crews had rowed to a similar margin and finish at Ivies, but now surrounded by schools from other conferences, their next level speed became clear. Only SMU, just a length back in third, could even hang that close with Brown and Yale; Virginia, Gonzaga, and Rhode Island trailed.
The 2V eights were not nearly as close for the four winners--top-seed Texas, Yale's Ivy Champ 2V, Washington, and Stanford--but the races were clearly starting to become consequential for the team championship as the 2V's raced. SMU outlasted Michigan to advance, which for the record was a double-bucket over single-bucket win, and Princeton's #13 seeded 2V may have scored the upset of the morning by running with Stanford and knocking Brown into the reps just 2 weeks after losing to Bruno at Ivies. If nothing else, Princeton's upset (#13 over #5) was a smidge better than #11 Virginia getting through #6 Penn just one race before. California was the eighth 2V to make it through to the semis, putting Ohio State into the reps.
By the end of the 2V heats, both Brown and Ohio State faced a 2V rep to get back into it, and California would join them by the end of the Fours heats, where the Bears' V4 would be nudged into third by Princeton and Brown.
The big margins at the front of the fours heats belied how competitive the semis and finals are likely to be. The four winners in this round all rowed to a tight spread of final times, ranging from Washington's 6:52 to Texas' 6:56, with both Princeton and Yale clocking 6:54 and change, and none of them really pressed in this round. Once again, the drama was for that second qualifying position: Brown edging California, Michigan outlasting Virginia, Ohio State over SMU, and Yale upsetting Southern California in a race that proved a real dogfight for most of the way.
As the dust settled at the end of the first session, five teams had secured the morning's big prize, putting all three boats into the semis without needing to bother with the reps: Texas, Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Washington.
"We had a good day," said Texas' Dave O'Neill, "and every boat is pleased with how they performed. Today was only the first step. This regatta can be a grind. Managing all the efforts and emotions is important, so I think we're in a good spot."
Yale, whose entire Athletic Department skipped 2021, is happy to be back in the mix this year, according to Head Coach Will Porter, who said that his team is "so grateful to be back here racing."
Qualifying all the boats is a big step, but just the first of many according to Porter.
"We are just trying to go race by race and day by day. This is a long regatta and every race is tight. Tomorrow is a new day with bigger challenges. We'll see what we can do."
Lori Dauphiny, whose team prospects got a big boost with the performance of that 2V, called today "a fast day of racing for all!"
"We are pleased to move on to the semi finals in all 3 events," she added. "There are so many amazing teams here and it is encouraging to be back together again.
Headed into the reps, three schools were just one boat away from being in the mix again with Princeton and the others: Brown and Ohio State in the 2V and California in the four--and all three got it done in the afternoon session.
Penn was on a good run here in the afternoon, winning Reps with both their 1V and 2V to move on, but the the V4 taking fourth slowed their roll: the Penn 4 was in the hunt, but found themselves in a tough race for 2nd in a rep where Virginia's four got away early and left USC, Oregon State, Duke and the Quakers to fight for the last remaining spot--snapped up by the Women of Troy in the end.
Even though Penn is out of the running for the team Championship, they are still making the most of their team debut here at the NCAAs:
"It's incredibly special to earn the team bid," said Head Coach Wesley Ng. "There have been so many people chipping away at getting better for so long that it makes me emotional thinking of that combined effort. Penn is a place that cares deeply about rowing and we are going to keep working on writing our story."
Two other teams did pull off the trick of getting more than one boat through the reps: Michigan in the 1V and 2V and Virginia in 1V and that V4. That gives D1 a total of 10 schools with a chance to keep moving on in all three boats in tomorrow's semis, but this afternoon's extra 2k in the Florida heat may prove telling by weekend's end for the five that used the reps to make it through.
D2: Mercyhurst Makes the Most of the Morning
The D2 morning racing--in 3 boat heats amongst the 6 schools--switched to an old school "win and you're in" progression and we saw an immediate change in intensity as the crews now needed to win to avoid the reps and advance directly to tomorrow's Grand Final.
In both heats of the eights, fans were treated to fierce battles for first:
In Heat 1, defending champ Central Oklahoma and Mercyhurst battled away from 3rd place Seattle Pacific, with Mercyhurst using an attack in the 2nd 500 to break away and advance.
In heat #2, the action was on the other side of the course, between Jefferson and the 8-time D2 champion Western Washington, which left Embry-Riddle behind in third. Jefferson, who had pushed Mercyhurst all the way to the line at the Dad Vail for silver, turned on the same jets here to take the win.
In the Fours, it was another Dad Vail medalist--the Embry-Riddle Four that won the D2/D3 event in Philly--which made short work of Seattle Pacific and Jefferson in the first heat to win and advance.
"Our goal for the morning was to execute our race strategy," said Embry-Riddle Head Coach Dan Schenk, "and both boats did it perfectly."
The second heat of the Fours, which happened to be the final race of the morning, was where the folks left on the beach really got their money's worth, as Mercyhurst, who trailed in the opening stages of what looked to be a two boat race between Central Oklahoma and Western Washington reeled in both to win that lone spot on offer in the semis.
Mercyhurst's four did not get the lead until late in the race but, once they did, they had given their team prime position for the title race: Mercyhurst was the only school to through to the final in the morning with both the eight and the four.
Mercyhurst Head Coach Adrian Spracklen called the Four's win "particularly gratifying."
"The spring has been a hard season where we have come up against one obstacle after another," he added. "Our race plan went as planned: not knowing the other two crews would go off that fast we went into it as a time trial against ourselves. The eight did what they needed to do and appreciate not having to go through the reps. Tomorrow is another day and anything can happen, but we excited to be able to compete for a national championship."
And here is how it went In the Driver's Seats of each Mercyhurst boat:
Hear from the Coxswain's following two big wins from the eights and fours! Both boats are straight to the Grand Final!
- Mercyhurst Rowing (@HurstRowing) May 27, 2022
Competing for a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOMORROW! pic.twitter.com/BEX804MNes
In the reps, the battle was on to see who could join Mercyhurst in the two four boat finals that will decide the D2 champion tomorrow When the reps wrapped with Central Oklahoma missing the cut in its eight and Western Washington getting through in the Eight but not the Four, the D2 Championship had become a two school race: Mercyhurst and Florida's own Embry-Riddle.
The Embry-Riddle eight, which had held back perhaps in the morning went out hard to win the Rep and, while Western Washington ultimately caught them to take first, the effort won them a spot as the only school beside Mercyhurst with both crews through to the Grand, in just their second trip to NCAAs.
"The girls feel good about the reps and finals," Coach Schenk said. "and we're ready to get after it!"
While Central Oklahoma is now out of position to score enough points to defend their title, the Broncos certainly had their shot at top-seeded Mercyhurst, lining up with them in both morning heats and giving the Lakers a solid fight. Tomorrow's Grand Finals promise exciting racing for the D2 crown.
Notes from the Course
Play along! NCAA Rowing Bingo! pic.twitter.com/65xOARVVtf
- Megan Kalmoe (@megankalmoe) May 27, 2022
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