Virginia Women's Rowing Team Receives NCAA Invitation
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May 17, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia women’s rowing teamisone of 10 teams selected to compete in the fourth NCAA Women’s RowingChampionships scheduled for May 26-28 in Camden, N.J. The competitionwilltake place at Cooper River Park.
The other team selections include Boston University, Brown,California-Berkeley, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State,Princeton and Washington.
As a team selection, Virginia will send three crews to the NCAAChampionships. The 10 schools competing for the team title will haveonecrew in each of the contested races – the first varsity eight, thesecondvarsity eight and the varsity four.
Nine additional schools received at-large invitations toparticipate in the first varsity eight competition. Those schoolsincludeCalifornia-Davis, Northeastern, Oregon State, Southern California,Syracuse, Wesleyan University, Williams College, William Smith and Yale.The nine schools receiving at-large invitations in the varsity eight canwin that competition, but without an entry in all three races areineligible for the team title.
Brown won the 1999 NCAA Women’s Rowing Championship by beatingVirginia in the first varsity eight, the final event of the competition.UVa took a three-point lead into the final event after winning thesecondvarsity eight and finishing second in the varsity four. The firstvarsityeight race was tight for the first 1,000 meters before Brown pulled awayover the final 500 meters. Virginia and Brown both finished with 56pointsin the team competition, but the team championship went to Brown basedonthe NCAA tiebreaker of highest finish in the first varsity eight.
UVa’s victory in the second varsity eight marked the secondconsecutive year the Cavaliers won the national championship in thatevent.Virginia was one of just three schools to have boats in all three grandefinal races at last year’s NCAA Championships.
UVa finished third at the NCAA Championships in 1998 andfinishedfourth in the team competition at the first NCAA Women’s RowingChampionships in 1997.
The women’s rowing team is in its fifth season as anintercollegiate sport at UVa.