Princeton University Athletics
Defending Gold Medalist Open Women Continue Perfect Run Of NCAA Championship Qualifications
May 18, 2007 | Women's Rowing - Open
The Princeton open crew, which thrilled a mass of Orange and Black supporters at last year's NCAA Championship with a dominant, gold-medal winning performance in the grand final, was one of 12 teams invited to the 2007 NCAA Championships, which will be held May 25-27 at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"We are one of only three schools who have qualified for the NCAAs every year," 2006 national coach of the year Lori Dauphiny said. "This is not an easy feat. I am very proud of what the team has done to get us there. As defending national champions in the varsity eight and bronze medal winners in the team championship, the rowers are ready to give it their best shot."
Twelve full squads, comprised of two varsity eights and a varsity four, were invited to the championships, as well as four at-large varsity eights. The NCAA championships awards gold medals to winners of the first varsity eight, the second varsity eight and the varsity four, as well as an overall team championship. The Tigers, currently ranked ninth nationally and coming off a third-place finish at Eastern Sprints, were among the schools that qualified all three boats. Three other Ivy League schools qualified a full team, Eastern champ Yale, silver medalist Brown and Harvard, while Dartmouth was one of the four schools that received an at-large bid.
The other schools that will compete at NCAAs as a full team are California, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Southern California, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington. Stanford, Central Florida and UCLA will each send one varsity eight squad.