UVa Begins Competition At NCAA Women's Rowing Championships

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May 24, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Ga. – The University of Virginia women’s rowing team finished third in its opening heats of the first varsity eight, the second varsity eight and the varsity four Thursday (May 24) on the first day of the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships at Lake Lanier.

Washington won the first heat of the first varsity eight with a time of 6:19.09 and Southern California finished second in 6:19.89 to advance directly to Friday’s semifinals. Virginia was third with a time of 6:31.49 followed by Iowa (6:34.55), Rutgers (6:39.72), Ithaca (6:49.79) and Wesleyan (7:00.74).

Michigan won the second heat of the first varsity eight with a time of 6:28.09 and Syracuse was second (6:31.19), while Brown won the third heat (6:26.78) with Princeton finishing second (6:31.73). All four of those boats advanced directly to Friday’s semifinals.

UVa and the other first varsity eights not finishing in the top two of any of the three heats move to a repechage competition to determine the other crews that will advance to the semifinals.

Virginia’s second varsity eight and varsity four crews both finished third in their heats on Thursday. They will compete in repechage competitions on Friday in an attempt to reach Saturday’s grand finals in those events.

Advancing directly to Saturday’s grand final in the second varsity eight were the top two finishers in each of two heats. Michigan won the first heat with a time of 6:39.30 and Harvard was second at 6:44.05. Brown won the second heat (6:40.55) with Washington second (6:41.25) and Virginia third (6:41.55).

Advancing directly to Saturday’s grand final in the varsity four were the top two finishers in each of two heats. Michigan won the first heat with a time of 7:31.26 followed by Iowa (7:32.96) and Virginia (7:38.56). Brown (7:26.93) won the second heat and Washington (7:29.04) was second.

Virginia finished third in all three grand final races to finish third in the team competition at last year’s NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships in Camden, N.J. Brown won the team championship for the second consecutive year by winning both the first varsity eight and the second varsity eight competitions, while Washington finished second as a team and won the varsity four competition.

Virginia finished second in 1999, third in 1998 and fourth in 1997 at the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships.