Ithaca College has become the first school to repeat as NCAA Division III Women's Crew champions by winning their second straight title Friday and Saturday at the NCAA Championships at Lake Natoma, Calif.
Ithaca scored 10 points -- tied with Smith for the lowest score at the championships, but IC won the NCAA title by virtue of a higher finish in Saturday's grand final. The varsity 8 boat placed second in Saturday's grand final; the second varsity 8 boat had placed third in the petite final. Both boats had raced in a heat Friday morning; the varsity 8 won its heat to qualify automatically for Saturday's grand final. The second varsity 8 placed fourth in its seven-boat heat, and then placed sixth in Friday evening's repachage to earn a spot in the petite final.
In Saturday's grand final, Ithaca placed second, overtaking Smith's varsity 8 boat for second place during the race's second 500 meters. Trinity (Conn.) won the gold medal with a first-place finish.
This was IC's seventh appearance in the NCAA Rowing Championships, which were first contested in 1997. That year Ithaca's entry -- a women's four -- placed 10th of 16 teams. A year later, Ithaca qualified a varsity eight for the national championship. That event was also held at Lake Lanier. In 2001 IC competed at the NCAA Championships for the third time. In 2002 they competed in the NCAA's first Division III Rowing Championship (the previous national championship events had included schools from all three divisions) and tied for third. They finished third again the following season before winning last spring's national title.
Ithaca's is the only program to compete in all four NCAA Division III championship events.
"At the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure we would be back in this position" said Ithaca coach Becky Robinson. "As things unfolded, I definitely recognized that Trinity's varsity eight was very strong and clearly ahead of the rest of the crews. We started talking about how else we could win the championship as a team and what we needed to do at the varsity and second varsity eight levels. Our second varsity eight rowed the best race they have ever rowed today. If our varsity eight didn't row its best race, it was definitely close to the best race of the season. That was a secondary goal this year, to get better every single time we performed this season, and they did that today."
Robinson, a 1988 Ithaca graduate and a member of the 1991 U.S. National Rowing Team, becomes the third Ithaca coach -- joining wrestling coach John Murray (1989 and 1990) and women's soccer coach Pat Farmer (1990 and 1991) as the only IC coaches to win consecutive national titles.
Ithaca's varsity 8 boat was made up of
Musnicki, one of five rowers who rowed in the varsity 8 boat each of the past two years (including the 2004 boat that earned a gold medal by winning the grand final), said "This is unbelievable, I can't even describe what it feels like. To be national champions two years in a row, I couldn't have imagined doing this with another group. It was a great race and Trinity (the varsity eight champions) is a great crew. We rowed our hardest and our best, and we're more than pleased with the outcome."
"Last year when we finished [first in the varsity eight competition], we knew we had won the championship. This year, we didn't know and we had to look to the shore at our second varsity eight, who was screaming with joy," explained Selock, another returning rower from last year's varsity 8. "To pull out a team championship feels awesome."
The second varsity 8 boat was made up of
The national championship is the 15th won by Ithaca College and the third in four years (IC won the 2002 NCAA softball championship). Ithaca has also won NCAA titles in football (three), wrestling (three), baseball (two), women's soccer (two) and field hockey (one); the 1998 gymnastics team won the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association championship.
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