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National Champions! Brown Women’s Crew Wins 2011 NCAA Division I Rowing Championship
- NCAA Championship Info
- 2011 Championship Preview
- NBC 10 Sports Feature on Brown Women's Crew with Joe Kayata
- Bears Set the Pace on Day One of NCAA Rowing Championships
- Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Advance to Grand Finals at NCAA Championship
- Weiss Wins Elite 88 Award for NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Championship
- Postseason Guide
- Day One - Highlights
- Day Two - Highlights
Gold River, Calif. – For the seventh time in 15 years, Brown women's crew are National Champions. Head coach John Murphy saw his team come from behind and rack up 85 team points, 45 coming in the final race of the 2011 NCAA Championship, to claim their first title since 2008. Incredibly, the Bears' national title was decided by the narrowest of margins in the final race of the day, with the Bears nosing out Stanford in the varsity eight, rowing in 6:28.62, with the Cardinal coming in at 6:28.67.
Brown and Stanford both finished with 85 points. Brown's second-place finish in the varsity eight propelled the Bears into the national team title. Cal finished third with 83 points, followed by Princeton (72), Southern California (72), Virginia (69), Michigan State (55), Washington (54), Wisconsin (44), Ohio State (44), Yale (42), Washington State (39), Michigan (33), Harvard (17), Clemson (12) and Dartmouth (10).
"Our team really went after it today. I can't compliment them enough," said Murphy. "I thought it was feasible coming into today's racing, but there's a certain degree of shock. I'm so proud of this team."
In Brown's first race of the day, the petite final, the Bears trailed both Ivy League-rival Princeton and Ohio State through the first 1,000 meters, but made a strong move in the second half of the race. Bruno pushed past the Tigers with 500 to go and edged out the Buckeyes by just over a half a second. The first-place finish in the petite final, secured 10-team points for Brown's total.
The Bears made their move up the team standings in the grand final of the second varsity eight. From the start, it was Stanford and Brown that jumped out to an early lead and separated them from the pack. Bruno kept pace with the Cardinal for much of the race, and finished just a few seats back, taking second overall with a time of 6:29.41.
Everything was on the line with the 43rd race of the of the 2011 NCAA Championship. Coming into the varsity eight grand final, Brown had 40 points, trailing both Cal (44 points) and Stanford (43 points). The Bears needed to finish at least one spot ahead of Stanford and two places in front of Cal.
Princeton led the varsity eight race from start to finish and was pursued by Cal and Brown for most of the race. Brown's eight made its move from third to second in the final 500 meters, sprinting past Cal and edging out a streaking Stanford crew by five-one hundreds of a second, and take home the national team championship.
FINAL STANDINGS
Team V8 2V8 V4 Total
Brown 45 30 10 85
Stanford 42 32 11 85
California 39 28 16 83
Princeton 48 16 8 72
USC 36 22 14 72
Virginia 30 24 15 69
Michigan St. 33 18 4 55
Washington 21 20 13 54
Wisconsin 24 8 12 44
Ohio State 9 26 9 44
Yale 27 10 5 42
Washington St.18 14 7 39
Michigan 15 12 6 33
Harvard 12 2 3 17
Clemson 6 4 2 12
Dartmouth 3 6 1 10
Sunday Results
Varsity 8 Grand Final
1. Princeton 6:27.12
2. Brown 6:28.62
3. Stanford 6:28.67
4. California 6:30.06
5. USC 6:30.19
6. Michigan State 6:36.12
Second Varsity 8 Grand Final
1. Stanford 6:26.76
2. Brown 6:29.41
3. California 6:31.70
4. Ohio State 6:33.42
5. Virginia 6:37.20
6. USC 6:37.83
Varsity Four Petite Final
1. Brown 7:17.67
2. Ohio State 7:18.32
3. Princeton 7:19.24
4. Washington State 7:24.00
5. Michigan 7:26.72
6. Yale 7:29.57
BROWN'S NCAA BOATINGS
Varsity 8
8 – Tessie Allan
7 – Katherine Rand
6 – Allison Courtin
5 – Tessa Gobbo
4 – Casey Kelsey
3 – Lauren Libfraind
2 – Hope Richardson
b – Louise Breen
c – Ellie Smith
Second Varsity Eight
8 – Laura McLellan
7 – Ali Mittelberger
6 – Camilla Polakoff
4 – Morgan Lee
3 – Petra Weiss
2 – Anne Hooper
b – Beatrice Sims
Varsity Four
4 – Mairi McKellop
3 – Kelly Fennessy
2 – Lauren Meyer
b – Lawren Kieffer
c – Elizabeth Mills
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