Huskies claim 5th place

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. — The pain and frustration of not qualifying for the varsity eight grand final at the NCAA women's rowing championships poured out of the Washington boat and into the placid waters of Lake Natoma during a late Saturday afternoon practice session.

By yesterday morning, the Huskies' top crew was re-energized, refocused and ready to win. And that they did — albeit in the varsity petite eight race.

Washington led from start to finish for the first time all season in capturing seventh place overall. That finish, coupled with a second place in the varsity fours grand final and a sixth place for the second varsity eights, gave the Huskies crew a fifth-place team finish with 43 points.

Brown won the team competition for the fourth time in six years with a dominating performance — scoring 70 points, while Ivy League rivals Yale took second (58). Michigan was third with 52 points and Pac-10 champion California was fourth (51). Washington State finished ninth with 28 points.

"It was good to get back onto the water (after yesterday's disappointing race)," said senior coxswain Megan Mach of Seattle. "Yesterday we took all that pain out on the water during practice and cleared our heads. This morning we got up and were ready to go.

"We looked at this as our grand final because our time (6 minutes, 37.8 seconds) matched up with those in the finals."

That time would have been good enough for fifth in the grand final, one-tenth of a second slower than fourth-place Princeton.

The varsity fours made their move at the 750-meter mark, pulling to two seats behind Virginia. But Virginia held off the Huskies and pulled away over the final 250 meters to win by a boat length.

"There was no strategy today for the final; just go and go fast," Huskies assistant coach Sean Mulligan said. "That was our best row of the year. We had a great start, and they put it all together."

Senior Signe Johannes said it was a race of a lifetime.

"We took that fast (stroke) rate all the way to the finish line," the Hoquiam native said. "It was our best race since this current lineup came together about four weeks ago, so to be second in the nation is definitely quite an accomplishment."

In the second varsity eight grand final, UW took the early lead but lost it to Michigan by the 500-meter mark. From there the Huskies began to fade and couldn't hold off an advancing Yale crew, which beat them for fifth by a deck length.

The Huskies junior varsity boat had the most lineup changes this season, but the future is bright for the crew members, Huskies first-year coach Eleanor McElvaine said. The entire crew returns next season.

"They hit it hard and aggressively the first 45 seconds but then had trouble settling down and getting into a rhythm," McElvaine said. "That's just the youth in the boat, but they fought all the way."

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

1, Brown 70. 2, Yale 58. 3, Michigan 52. 4, California 51. 5, Washington 43. 6, Princeton 36. 7, Virginia 36. 8, Ohio State 33. 9, Washington State 28. 10, Harvard 24. 11, Wisconsin 19. 12, Michigan State 18.

VARSITY EIGHTS

Grand Final — 1, Brown 6:32.9. 2, Yale 6:34.6. 3, Michigan 6:37.1. 4, Princeton 6:37.7. 5, Ohio State 6:38.9. 6, California 6:40.1.

Petite Final — 1, Washington 6:37.8. 2, Harvard 6:38.4. 3, Virginia 6:38.6. 4, Tennessee 6:41.1. 5, Notre Dame 6:44.0. 6, USC 6:44.1.

UW lineup — cox-Megan Mach, stroke-Sanda Hangan, 7-Kara Farquharson, 6-Yvonneke Stenken, 5-Allison DePalma, 4-Mary Reeves, 3-Sarah Hubbard, 2-Gemma Edward-Aron, bow-Michael Kohan.

SECOND VARSITY EIGHTS

Grand Final — 1, Brown 6:44.1. 2, California 6:46.8. 3, Washington State 6:47.0. 4, Michigan 6:47.2. 5, Yale 6:50.4. 6, Washington 6:50.41.

UW lineup — cox-Katie Peyer, stroke-Courtney Plitt, 7-Andrea Sooter, 6-Megan Kalmoe, 5-Amanda Jensen, 4-Liz Simenstad, 3-Cara Troelstra, 2-Marah Connole, bow-Olivia Morrow.

Petite Final — 1, Virginia 6:48.8. 2, Wisconsin 6:51.0. 3, Harvard 6:53.7. 4, Princeton 6:54.0. 5, Michigan State 6:54.4. 6, Ohio State 6:55.1.

VARSITY FOURS

Grand Final — 1, Virginia 7:27.5. 2, Washington 7:30.8. 3, Brown 7:32.2. 4,Yale 7:34.4. 5, California 7:39.3. 6, Ohio State 7:39.9.

UW lineup — cox-Eva Anderson, stroke-Alina Tabacaru, 3-Signe Johannes, 2-Katherine Ramos, bow-Analena Shepherd.

Petite Final — 1, Wisconsin 7:32.5. 2, Michigan State 7:34.2. 3, Michigan 7:37.7. 4, Princeton 7:39.5. 5, Washington State 7:41.1. 6, Harvard 7:46.4.