Stroke of genius: Yale wins second straight national title
GOLD RIVER, Calif. - It took the final five strokes, but Yale's women's eight rallied to overcome the surprise performance of the regatta to claim its second straight national title yesterday.
The Bulldogs trailed Stanford, an at-large selection competing in the outside lane, until the final 100 yards before prevailing in the varsity grand final in 6 minutes 34.05 seconds at the NCAA Division 1 championships at Lake Natoma.
Stanford finished second (6:34.95) and Brown was third (6:35.25) in the final race of the three-day regatta at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center.
Brown, which won the second varsity eights and placed third in the varsity fours, won its second straight team title - and sixth in the 12 years of the NCAA competition - with 67 points. Washington finished second with 59 points, with California third with 53 points.
"We knew it was going to be a very tight race," said Yale coach Will Porter. "We had to be patient and just keep working until we got an opening and then we took advantage of it."
The varsity eights event began evenly, with all six boats within 1 length.
Washington assumed the first sustained margin before Stanford powered to the front. The Cardinal finished third in the Pac-10 championships but weren't awarded a team position. Only Stanford's varsity eight competed.
"We really had to fight down the entire course to get this," said Porter, whose Elis also finished third in second varsity eights (6:54.14) and sixth in the varsity fours grand final (7:41.82). "Stanford was upset about not being selected as a team. They went out and showed that on the water.
"As far as we're concerned, we could have done a little more early, but we stayed composed through the middle so we could finish like we did."
Harvard, seeded seventh in the varsity eights, expected to advance to the grand final. The Crimson had a strong heat qualifier, but stumbled in the semifinals and were relegated to the petite final.
Harvard dominated the petite race, moving to the front early and steadily increasing its lead before winning by more than three seconds over Virginia in 6:35.30.
"We had a great second 1,000 meters in the first race and a great first 1,000 meters in the second race," said junior Laura Nicholson. "We wanted to put together a whole 2,000 meters. The whole boat felt this was the best race we've put together all weekend."
Harvard also placed fifth (6:56.50) in second varsity eights petite final and sixth (7:52.74) in the varsity fours petite final. Harvard was ninth in the team competition with 26 points.
"The varsity rowed an amazing race today," said Harvard coach Liz O'Leary. "I thought our first race was our best race, our semifinal was strong except for 500 meters.
"So we were 500 meters shy of being in the big one and fighting for medals. We were so close, but I give them a lot of credit for coming back and not letting the semifinals discourage them."
