UVa Has Impressive First Day At NCAA Rowing Championships

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May 26, 2000

CAMDEN, N.J.– – The University of Virginia’s second varsity eight, varsity four and first varsity eight all had impressive performances Friday (May 26) on the first day of the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships at Cooper River Park. UVa’s second varsity eight and varsity four advanced directly to Sunday’s (May 28) grande finals, while the Cavaliers’ first varsity eight advanced directly to Saturday’s (May 27) semifinals.

“I’m really pleased with our performance today,” said Virginia head coach Kevin Sauer. “We’ve had to deal with injuries and sickness, and we’ve had a lot of changes in the first and second varsity eights. It’s amazing what they did today, but this is just the first step.”

Virginia’s second varsity eight won its heat with a time of 6:34.60. Princeton finished second at 6:38.39 followed by California-Berkeley (6:42.20), Ohio State (6:53.10) and Boston University (7:07.50). UVa has won the national championship in the second varsity eight each of the last two years.

Brown won the other heat of the second varsity eight with a time of 6:29.89. Michigan finished second in that heat (6:34.00) followed by Washington (6:36.60), Harvard-Radcliffe (6:49.60) and Michigan State (7:02.10).

The top two boats in each heat advanced directly to Sunday’s grande final.

Virginia finished a close second to Brown in its heat of the varsity four. Brown won the heat with a time of 7:19.39 and UVa was second at 7:19.70. Boston University finished third in the heat (7:22.29) followed by Harvard-Radcliffe (7:27.10) and California-Berkeley (7:31.29).

Washington won the other heat of the varsity four with a time of 7:19.10. Princeton finished second at 7:22.5 followed by Ohio State (7:30.0), Michigan State (7:35.5) and Michigan (7:37.39).

The top two boats in each heat advanced directly to Sunday’s grande final.

Virginia won its heat in the first varsity eight with a time of 6:22.79 and Michigan was second at 6:25.50. Harvard-Radcliffe finished third in the heat with a time of 6:25.60 followed by Michigan State (6:26.70), Boston University (6:35.20) and Wesleyan (7:10.79).

Washington won the second heat of the first varsity eight with a time of 6:23.60 followed by Princeton (6:28.10), Southern California (6:35.10), Ohio State (6:38.29), Northeastern (6:43.50) and William Smith (6:46.39).

Brown won the third heat of the first varsity eight with a time of 6:18.20 followed by California-Berkeley (6:26.20), Syracuse (6:35.79), Oregon State (6:39.89), California-Davis (6:47.20), Williams (6:52.00) and Yale (7:24.39).

The top two boats in each heat advanced directly to Saturday’s semifinals.

Brown and Virginia both finished with 56 points in the team competition at last year’s NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships, but the team championship went to Brown based on the NCAA tiebreaker of highest finish in the first varsity eight.

UVa finished third at the NCAA Championships in 1998 and fourth in 1997.