With another early start on Mercer Lake, we had our national champions before 9am. The final round of an incredible season treated us to fast crews in fast conditions in central New Jersey, with the last twists and turns of a phenomenal season.
The first of the major finals, the coxed four set the standard for the day with close racing across the board. Off the start, you could throw a blanket over the field, with just half a second separating the first four crews. Washington was the first to break the field, moving strongly through the second quarter to establish a half-length advantage. The next move came from Stanford as they moved through the field, pushing themselves back at the halfway mark and then making a second push to take the lead with 500 metres to go. The heavy favourites lost their first race of the season yesterday in the semifinals, and they made sure there was no repeat as they won by most of a length over Washington and Texas, who rounded out the medals.
The second eights had less dramatic fights for the lead, as they emerged quickly from the pack with most of a length’s lead, as Princeton led a tight pack behind at the halfway point. Stanford remained comfortable in their lead in the closing stages, with Washington and Princeton fighting behind for silver. Washington got the best of it, with Princeton claiming bronze ahead of Texas and Yale.
Entering the grand final, it was all up in the air as both Stanford and Washington would win the team championship by winning the first eight whereas Texas, Yale and Tennessee would need results to go their way if they wanted to win a ring. Stanford were uniquely chasing a sweep of the three events at this championship, an accomplishment only previously achieved by Yaz Farooq‘s 2017 and 2019 Washington Husky squads.
However, in the opening quarter of the final, Yale established an early lead, making it to the first timing point almost a second faster than the second-placed Tennessee, expanding it to nearly a length as the pre-race favourites Texas and Stanford fought behind. In the third quarter, this fight brought Yale back into action. The high-rating Bulldogs held their advantage through the killer end of the race to claim the boat class championships. Behind them, Texas had a bobble in the final few strokes, allowing Stanford to claim silver and enough points to win the all-important team championships.
In the team championships, Texas edged Washington for third by just one point after the varsity eights races, with Tennessee in fifth.
Among the lower-ranked fields, several programmes had big surges in their results. Rutgers’ eighth place represents their best-ever finish at this regatta, with a similar outcome for UCF after finishing 15th, one year ahead of second-year Mara Allen‘s stated plan for the programme.
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