Virginia Women's Rowing Team Receives NCAA Invitation

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May 18, 2004

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The University of Virginia women’s rowing team is one of 12 teams selected to compete in the eighth NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships. The championships are scheduled for May 28-30 at the California State University, Sacramento Aquatic Center in Sacramento, Calif.

The other team selections include Brown, California, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Princeton, Washington, Washington State, Wisconsin and Yale. Virginia joins Brown, Princeton and Washington as the only schools to receive team invitations to each of the eight NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships.

As a team selection, Virginia will send three crews to the NCAA Championships. The 12 schools competing for the team title will have one crew in each of the contested races – the first varsity eight, the second varsity eight and the varsity four.

Four additional schools received at-large invitations to participate in the first varsity eight competition. Those schools include Notre Dame, Southern California, Tennessee and Texas. The four schools receiving at-large invitations in the first varsity eight can win that competition, but without an entry in all three races are ineligible for the team title.

Virginia finished sixth as a team at last year’s NCAA Championships in Indianapolis. UVa finished fifth in the first varsity eight, seventh in the second varsity eight and eighth in the varsity four. Harvard won the team championship at last year’s championships with Brown finishing second and Washington third.

Virginia has finished in the top seven in the team competition at each of the seven previous NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships. The Cavaliers finished fourth in 1997, third in 1998, second in 1999, third in 2000, seventh in 2001, fourth in 2002 and sixth in 2003.

The women’s rowing team is in its ninth season as an intercollegiate sport at UVa.