NCAA Rowing Championships, 2016: RR Recap and Review

Golden Bears claim top honors at NCAAs

The 2016 NCAA Rowing Championships in Sacramento, California, were the best kind of agonizing.

While there were a number of very close races throughout the weekend, the semis in the varsity eight were predictably outstanding—so much so that a Texas team that was clearly a step ahead of last year's Longhorns squad ended up finishing one place worse in the standings, with their varsity eight missing the final by the smallest of margins.



But if the semis were a battle all the way to the line, then they were the perfect prelude to the finals, where the top two teams in the country really showed their mettle. Coming out the the semifinals, only three teams managed to place all their crews in the medal rounds: Virginia, California, and the defending champion, (The) Ohio State. And, while there were no undefeated crews in the varsity eight entering the fray this year, it was no less dramatic than last year's showdown between the Golden Bears and the Buckeyes.

That drama was due at least in part to the tremendous performance of these crews' lower boats: Cal came into the varsity eight final looking to be the first team ever to win all three events, while Ohio State had nearly toppled Cal in the second varsity eight, and collected a significant contribution from their varsity four, which took fifth overall.

However, much as in 2015, it was the Buckeyes who prevailed on the grandest stage in the varsity eight, moving (characteristically) from the middle of the pack in the early stages of the race to take the victory by what at the NCAA Championships must be considered a broad margin of roughly two seconds. The pressure, then, was on California to hold off the rest of the field, which surged forward in the second half of the race—Cal needed to place as highly as they could in order to win the all-important points battle and claim their first national championship since 2006.

It was anything but easy, but that's just what they did.


Huge congrats to head coaches Al Acosta (winning the NCAA title in just his second year at the helm—yes, credit to Dave O'Neill for building the program into a perennial contender, but a tremendous accomplishment for Acosta nonetheless to continue to push the program forward), and Andy Teitelbaum—both coaches were on the cusp of something no team has ever done before: Cal nearly swept the event, and Ohio State was just three points away from their fourth straight national title (also winning their third straight varsity eight championship along the way). Kudos, indeed.



Meanwhile, at the Division II level, Barry took home the title (as we predicted), while Wellesley claimed their first championship in Division III after some very exciting racing throughout the season with rivals Williams and Bates—our favorites to take the crown this season.

Good race all crews!

-RR

Popular posts from this blog

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

RR Interview: Nick Trojan's New Feature on Yale Men's Rowing

Image
Nick Trojan's latest feature documentary is twice as long as his previous work—but leaves you wanting more, just the same.  There’s a new feature in Nick Trojan’s series, taking an inside look at top-tier college rowing programs in the US. This time, Trojan focused his project on Yale and the legendary coach Steve Gladstone, blending outstanding camerawork with one of rowing’s most compelling stories.  Having uploaded the video to YouTube only two weeks ago, it’s already approaching 70k views. And for good reason.  RR sat down recently to talk through it all with Trojan in an exclusive interview, from origins to development and finally a finished product—as well as what might come next. Here’s what we learned. Navigating shifting waters Elite rower turned filmmaker Nick Trojan’s new feature, titled simply, “Yale Men’s Rowing,” was years in the making.  “The initial idea was to do the same kind of rinse-and-repeat that we had done with Harvard and Cal,” Trojan says, “but I think wha
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland. As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just over
Read more

Best Rowing Drills: 5 Favorites of Olympic Champion Esther Lofgren

Image
Lofgren training in the single (Photo courtesy of Esther Lofgren) Olympic gold medalist Esther Lofgren is no stranger to success on the water. In addition to her podium-topping performance with the U.S. women's eight in London, Lofgren also won two world titles (2010, 2011), with her first international medal—a bronze—coming in the women's straight four in 2006. Here, Lofgren shares some insight into the drills that have helped her progress technically along the way.
Read more