Yale Has All Three Crews In Petite Finals
After the first two days of the NCAA Championship at the Indianapolis Rowing Center at Eagle Creek, Yale women's crew very much remains in position for another top-10 national finish. The Bulldogs will have three crews in the petite finals on Sunday, all with the opportunity to finish higher than their seed.
"We are holding at our seed," said Will Porter, The Friends of YWC Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We want to close it out tomorrow."
Yale went toe-to-toe with some of the nation's powerhouses in Saturday's semifinals and very much held its own.
After a two-hour delay to clean the course of debris, the varsity eight was first to race. The Bulldogs had three of the top four seeds in their semifinal but put up a strong fight before finishing sixth with a time of 6:42.866. Yale, seeded ninth, finished less than a second behind fourth-place Princeton, who was seeded second, and fifth-place Rutgers. The Tigers had a time of 6:42.153, while the Scarlet Knights crossed the line in 6:42.433.
Washington (6:32.931), Stanford (6:33.781) and Ohio State (6:33.848) advanced to the grand final.
The Bulldogs race Brown, Princeton, Iowa, Rutgers and Virginia in the petite final, slated for 11 a.m. on Sunday.
The second varsity eight's semifinal also was loaded. Washington (6:52.663), Ohio State (6:52.776) and Texas (6:53.464) advanced to the grand final. The Longhorns edged California (6:54.402) for the final spot.
Yale, seeded 10th, finished a strong fifth with a time of 7:04.061. Indiana (7:11.462) was sixth.
The Bulldogs race Indiana, Princeton, California, Brown and Wisconsin in Sunday's petite final at 10:36 a.m.
Yale's 10th-seeded varsity four also finished fifth in the semifinals, posting a time of 7:51.528.
Washington (7:35.938), Texas (7:39.866) and Michigan (7:42.590) comfortably qualified for the grand final.
Princeton (7:47.847) was fourth. The Bulldogs finished less than a second ahead of sixth-place Brown (7:51.975).
In Sunday's petite final at 10:12 a.m., Yale faces Brown, Duke, Princeton, Rutgers, Indiana and Virginia.
The Bulldogs have finished in the top 10 in 14 of the last 17 years.
Yale also has a chance to be the Ivy League's highest finisher for the third straight year. For the first time, there are no Ivy schools – Brown, Princeton and Harvard are also in the 22-team field – in any of the three grand finals.
YALE BOATINGS
Varsity Eight:
Bow – Victoire Lienau (Sr., Paris, France)
2 – Claire Dirks (So., Toronto, Ontario)
3 – Ella von der Schulenburg (Jr., Zurich, Switzerland)
4 – Jenna van de Grift (So., San Diego, Calif.)
5 – Arwen Neski (Sr., Ashley Falls, Mass.)
6 – Anna Matthes (Fy., Belmont, Mass.)
7 – Margaret Hedeman (Fy., Concord, Mass.)
Stroke - Daisy Mazzio-Manson (Jr., Wellesley, Mass.)
Cox – Aparajita Chauhan (So., Seattle, Wash.)
Second Varsity Eight:
Bow – Katie Gleason (Jr., Sudbury, Mass.)
2 – Alexia Rojas (Jr., Tampa, Fla.)
3 – Lane Unsworth (Sr., San Francisco, Calif.)
4 – Claire Grundig (Jr., San Carlos, Calif.)
5 – Phoebe Campbell (Fy., North Molton, Great Britain)
6 – Margaret Saunders (Jr., Arlington, Va.)
7 – Lucy Edmunds (Fy., North Yorkshire, Great Britain)
Stroke – Katie King-Smith (So., Oxford, United Kingdom)
Cox – Hannah Malzahn (Sr., Edmond, Okla.)
Varsity Four:
Bow – Margaux Paradis (Jr., San Francisco, Calif.)
2 – Riley Eversole (So., Oakland, Calif.)
3 – Sera Bulbul (Sr., Geneva, Switzerland)
Stroke – Anna Scott (Fy., Denver, Colo.)
Cox – Alin Pasa (Fy., Westport, Conn.)
SPARES
Grace Galloway (So., Sydney, Australia)
Hannah Johns (Fy., Longmeadow, Mass.)
Report filed by Tim Bennett (timothy.bennett@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity