Virginia's First Varsity Eight Advances To Grande Final At NCAA Women's Rowing Championships

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May 27, 2000

CAMDEN, N.J.– – The University of Virginia’s first varsity eight advanced to Sunday’s (May 28) grande final with a second place finish in its semifinal heat on the second day of competition at the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships at Cooper River Park on Saturday (May 27).

UVa’s second varsity eight and varsity four advanced to Sunday’s grande finals in those competitions on Friday (May 26). Virginia is one of five teams to have boats in each of Sunday’s three grande finals. The others are Brown, California-Berkeley, Princeton and Washington.

In Saturday’s first varsity eight semifinal competition, Virginia finished second to Brown in its heat. Brown finished with a time of 6:25.79 and Virginia had a time of 6:29.50. Princeton finished third in the heat (6:31.79) followed by Boston University (6:33.50), Syracuse (6:45.39) and Northeastern (6:45.79).

Washington won the second semifinal heat of the first varsity eight with a time of 6:26.29. California-Berkeley was second (6:30.70) followed by Michigan (6:31.29), Harvard-Radcliffe (6:34.70), Michigan State (6:37.70) and Ohio State (6:39.50).

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

Brown is the defending team champion. 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.

Virginia has won the national championship in the second varsity eight competition each of the last two years.