The NCAA Rowing Championships, 2015: RR Recap and Review

And they're off! (Photo: M. Davis)
The 2015 NCAA Championships were arguably the most exciting to date, and featured a Division I finale that pitted the defending champs against an undefeated crew. Meanwhile, both Division II and Division III crowned new champions, while newcomers also made a lasting impression. Let's take a closer look.

Division I
What more can we say about Ohio State? The Buckeyes sealed the first-ever trifecta, three-peat, whatever you want to call it, in the most dramatic way possible: they found a way to beat an undefeated California varsity eight by roughly five tenths of a second after a fantastic race by both crews, to keep cap an undefeated season of their own. And, as they tweeted shortly thereafter, it was no small task taking down the Golden Bears.



Even if the Bears' varsity eight had pulled off a victory over the Buckeyes, the standings would have still favored Ohio State, but the Buckeyes' top crew posted a record of 15-0 for the season, and while an NCAA title is an NCAA title, it always feels better in rowing when you win the varsity eight, too. Congrats to 2014 RoRy Coach of the Year Award winner Andy Teitelbaum and the whole staff at OSU on the historic victory (interesting stat on Buckeye assistant coach Madeline Davis: every season that she has coached to date, going back to her days as an assistant coach with Al Acosta and the Stanford lightweights, has ended in a national title).



Not to be ignored were the runners up, the Golden Bears, who had a fantastic season in the first year of Al Acosta's tenure—Acosta crossed the San Francisco Bay after a very successful stint with the Stanford lightweights, and showed that he was ready to take the reins of one of the nation's top programs.



Another standout performance this year came from Washington. The Huskies were the only team other than Ohio State to land all of their boats in the grand finals (and the only program in the country that saw every one of it's crews—both men's and women's—racing for medals this year)—and things were very interesting going into the varsity eight final in Sacramento.



However, though the Huskies battled well throughout the regatta, the top-end speed of the competition proved a little too much for Washington, as they finished sixth overall in the grand final, landing them at fourth place in the team standings. What of the other crews in the finals? Well, as expected once Dave O'Neill took over at the beginning of the 2014-2015 season, it looks like there's still more reason why you don't mess with Texas. The Longhorns, in their first-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships, not only fit right in with the nation's top programs, finishing seventh in the points, but also landed their varsity eight in the grand final, edging Pac-12 powerhouses Stanford and Washington along the way to claim fourth place.



Also, looking ahead to next season, watch out for the Stanford Cardinal, who will be losing very few of their top athletes to graduation this year, and could be well positioned to challenge Cal for the Pac-12 title next season. Lastly, had Brown been able to make the final in the women's varsity eight, it might have been one of the closest championships ever—the Bears were our preseason no. 1, and they didn't miss by much. A tough heat that put them into the reps may have been their undoing this season, though they still managed to make the podium as a team, taking third in the points.

Divisions II and III
In 2013, Barry nearly pulled it off, but suffered a setback last season. Not so for the Buccaneers this year. Not only did they win the team title (the first-ever for Barry), they did it in style, taking both the varsity eight and the varsity four to firmly stamp their dominance on DII rowing at the national level in Sacramento. Hats off to head coach Boban Rankovic (in just his second year) and the Bucs squad!

And, switching gears to DIII rowing, Bates ended a streak of near misses with a great team performance to claim their first NCAA title for the program (ever the bridesmaid no longer!). While Trinity was not to be denied in the varsity eight, Bates hung on well to take second, and given their victory in the second varsity eight, the team championship was theirs. It's been great to see the recent shakeups at the DII and DIII level, as parity continues to be the name of the game in women's collegiate rowing.

More links:
Complete 2015 NCAA Rowing Championships results
Complete final NCAA Division I standings for 2015
The home of rowing on NCAA.com

What's on tap for next season? We can't wait to find out!

-RR

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s up before 4:30am. So, wh
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

Image
This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland.  As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just ove
Read more

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor
Read more