No. 5 Princeton Women's Open Rowing Team Heads To NCAA Rowing Championships

Friday, May 29

Gainesville, Ga.

10:24 AM

Princeton University

NCAA Championships

Captains Whitney Wise, Laoise O'Donohue and Katherine DiPaola

Photo by: © row2k Media

No. 5 Princeton Women's Open Rowing Team Heads To NCAA Rowing Championships

May 28, 2026 | Women's Rowing - Open

PRINCETON – The No. 5 Princeton Women's Open Rowing Team races in the NCAA Rowing Championships this weekend (May 29-31) on Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Georgia.

Princeton earned a trip to NCAAs after winning the Ivy League's automatic qualifier at the Ivy Rowing Championships two weeks ago.

Racing begins on Friday with the varsity eight rowing in heat four at 10:24 a.m. The second varsity races at 11:12 a.m. The varsity four's heat is at 11:48 a.m. The top three in each heat advance to the A/B Semifinals.

Princeton's first varsity comes in as the No. 4 seed, trailing only Tennessee, Texas and Stanford. The Tigers' second varsity was selected as the No. 4 seed behind Stanford, Texas and Virginia. The Varsity Four is the No. 11 seed in the 22-team field.

With just the first varsity race remaining at Ivies, Yale led 22-20 for the NCAA automatic qualifier.

The Tigers needed the 1V to win.

And for the ninth consecutive time, that's exactly what the boat of Lindsay Saunders, Amalka Delevante, Joely Cherniss, Anna Cowell, Michaela Ulicna, Ellie Smith, Cate Sauer, Laoise O'Donohue and Phaedra van der Molen did.

Princeton used a strong push after the 500m mark and took the lead for good, crossing the line first at 6:09.9, 3.5 seconds in front of Yale (6:13.5), who's only loss this season was to No. 4 Tennessee.

The victory gave Princeton a 44-43 advantage for the Sally P. Shoemaker Trophy and the Ivy League's NCAA AQ. It's also the 11th time that the first varsity has won Ivy gold in the last 12 regattas.

Princeton's second varsity and Varsity Four C also won golds.

O'Donohue, van der Molen, and Saunders nabbed first team All-Ivy while Nicole Dunn and Natalie Meyers were second team All-Ivy honors.

This season, head coach Lori Dauphiny's crew began by taking down No. 7 Brown for the Class of 1987 Trophy. A few weeks later, the team followed up with victories over No. 17 Harvard and Cornell for the Class of 1975 Cup and No. 8 Syracuse.

Princeton suffered its first losses of the campaign to No. 4 Tennessee and No. 3 Yale. The Tigers did cross in front of No. 8 Virginia. Princeton's second varsity finished with a quicker time than Yale as did its varsity four, its third varsity (6:58.2) and varsity four C (7:46.0).

Dauphiny's team headed to the Midwest and defeated No. 16 Ohio State and No. 17 Michigan before finishing off the regular season with decisions over No. 11 UCF and No. 20 Penn.

Princeton has raced in every single NCAA regatta dating back to 1997. Since 2010, the Tigers have finished outside the top 10 in the team standings just twice, finishing as high as third four times (2023, 2022, 2013 and 2010). Dauphiny's group was sixth in the standings last year and had the second varsity nab a bronze medal.

The Tigers have had four boats win NCAA national titles in the 1997 2V, 2006 1V, 2011 1V and 2022 V4.