Women's Crew Receives Bid To NCAA Championship
May 20, 2000 | Women's Rowing
BOSTON, MASS. - The Terrier women's crew, buoyed by an excellent performance at the Eastern Sprints on May 14, received one of the 10 team bids to the NCAA Rowing Championships to be held May 26-28 at the Cooper River Park in Camden, New Jersey.
This marks the second straight year B.U. will be sending a varsity eight, a second varsity eight, and a varsity four to the NCAA's. The Terriers will be joined in Camden by defending national champion and highly-favored Brown, California, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Princeton, Virginia, and Washington.
"We are really happy that the entire team is going," said head coach Holly Hatton. "It's going to be a great experience for everyone. "I think if the varsity boat rows as well as it did at the Eastern Sprints, they can be a strong candidate at the NCAA's," the coach went on. "They rowed two great races at the Sprints. In the morning heats, they rowed the second fastest time of any boat."
In finishing second in the heat and qualifying for the Grand Finals, the Terriers were timed in 6:56.00. Brown, which won the B.U. heat, rowed a 6:50.70. Brown went on to win the Grand Finals with a time of 6:34.20, more than nine seconds faster than runner-up Princeton, which was clocked in 6:43.60. After the Terriers' morning time of 6:56.00, the next fastest time was Radcliffe's 6:59.30.
In the afternoon Grand Finals, the Terriers finished fifth with a time of 6:50.00, only four-tenths of a second slower than fourth-place Virginia, which was clocked in 6:49.60.
Hatton does have some concerns about her varsity lineup for the NCAA's. "We have had some injuries, plus we have had the distractions of final exams and graduation (May 21st)," said the coach.
The injuries have been sustained by Jelena Tomic (knee) and Alexis Brady (ribs). "We will be doing some seat racing before we come up with the final lineup for the NCAA's," said the coach.
The second varsity will be facing the same obstacles at the NCAA's that it has had all season, namely they are smaller and not as strong as the boats they have rowed against all spring. When they needed to row fast, though, they did in the morning heats at the Eastern Sprints.
Needing to do well in an effort to assure the Terriers a team bid to the NCAA's, the 2Vs finished second in their morning heat to qualify for the Grand Finals.
In the meantime, Northeastern, which was the other Eastern Region team in contention for a team bid, finished third in its heat, thus having to settle for the Petites.
"We got into the finals and they didn't," said Hatton, summing up why B.U. received the NCAA's third bid from the East and Northeastern didn't.
The Terriers' best chance of earning a medal at the NCAA's might be in the varsity four. This group will be made up of the four freshmen that rowed in the varsity four all spring.
"They have lost only one race this season, and that was to Brown," said Hatton.
What made their accomplishments even more noteworthy is this quartet rowed twice on regatta day. First, they would row in the varsity four and then come back to compete in the novice eight. "This group will be the corps that will bolster our varsity over the next three years," predicted Hatton.
