Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships

Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - Printable Version

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Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - fullmetal - 05-26-2023

Updated results page

The 2023 NCAA women's rowing championship kicked off today in Camden, NJ. For the D1 schools, heats were contested today, followed by semifinals tomorrow morning, and finals on Sunday morning. This year, the progression will not include repechage races, which I think makes for more interesting heats, fairer racing in the semifinals/finals, and better overall regatta logistics (since fewer races have to be run). This means that top three finishers in each D1 heat advance to tomorrow's AB semifinals, and everyone else is relegated to the CD semifinal. There are two AB semifinals, each of which will advance the top three finishers to the A final (aka grand final), which is the top and only final that will award medals. The lower three finishers in each AB semifinal advance to the B final for places #7 through #12.  Similarly, the lower three finishers from the heats move to the CD semifinals, where the same top/bottom split in results sends crews to either the C final or D final.

In any case, this morning's heats were livestreamed and are available here:
https://www.ncaa.com/video/rowing/2023-05-26/di-dii-diii-rowing-2023-day-one-morning-session-full-replay-33467

Timestamps for Stanford's races are as follow:
1V: 1:06:15
2V: 2:02:44
V4: 2:48:45

Stanford entered the regatta with the 1V ranked #3, the 2V ranked #5, and the V4 ranked #4.

The heats were seeded in "snake order:" https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/rowing/d1/2022-23D1WCR_ChampionshipProgressionOptions.pdf

All three of Stanford's boats followed the same race strategy: get out in front first, fast, and finish the race. It didn't seem like Stanford had to burn through a lot of energy to finish first, but they also did not appear to obviously sandbag their heats (to slow down or hold back energy). This tactic is hard to ascertain from outside the boat, however.

In their 1V race, Stanford finished ahead of kal and Brown. I didn't expect kal to beat Brown (was Brown sandbagging?), but that has to feel nice for kal since the west coast bears have had their tails uncharacteristically kicked around a bit this season. Golden Bears over the Brown Bears, ha. In fourth place (in the same heat), long-time powerhouse Ohio State finished behind Brown and thus failed to make the top semifinal, which is...probably the first time this has happened in a long, long time. Ouch.

Stanford's 2V has had a long road this season leading up to their heat victory over Washington. A couple of weeks ago at the Pac-12 championship regatta, it was Washington who booked a 2.6sec win over Stanford. I didn't see the race, so I'm not aware of any extenuating circumstances in that race, but this morning, it was Stanford who beat Washington by 4.3 seconds in their heat.

Finally, Stanford's V4 stormed out to a close win over Princeton in their heat. Princeton took their rate up at the end, either trying to nip Stanford or rehearsing their sprint, but it wasn't enough either way, though they did close the gap noticeably. The V4 is a hard boat to race: half the athletes to cover the same full distance with a coxswain on board (110 lbs or more). It's definitely a boat that puts a premium on first gear acceleration.

Wire-to-wire wins for all three boats is a great way to start the weekend!

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - fullmetal - 05-26-2023

Semifinal predictions

1V: I think Stanford has an easier semifinal, but these tend to have a way of blowing up when boats in places three and four start throwing the kitchen sink at each other trying to get that last spot. As they get faster, the second place boat gets pressured, and the first place boat can see the charging crowd behind them. It'll take some nerves to handle, but Stanford should not have to gas out to make it. It's about time the chips fell their way...I think the last two years have seen Stanford in some brutal semifinals from which they might not have fully recovered before the A final.

2V: I don't expect Stanford to beat the undefeated Yale 2V, but I think Stanford should advance, and probably ahead of Penn's 2V. Whatever happens, I'm just hoping for advancement and the best grand final performance thereafter.

V4: Stanford beat kal by a lot at Pac-12s, so this will probably end up being Stanford and the two Ivies in that semifinal: Yale and Brown, who were less than a half second apart from each other at the Ivy League championship. But maybe kal pulls a rabbit out of their hat and beats the Ivies...no skin off our back. I hope Stanford can advance and save their legs for the A final.

It's tough to figure out who is or isn't sandbagging, if anyone at all is even considering such a thing. But having seen Stanford expend a lot of effort over the last two years to win their semifinals outright has been bittersweet as their grand final performances didn't quite match their semifinal performances. I feel like the team will go out and race the first thousand, after which who knows what the crews choose to do internally.

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - cardcrimson - 05-26-2023

(05-26-2023, 03:31 PM)fullmetal Wrote: V4: Stanford beat kal by a lot at Pac-12s, so this will probably end up being Stanford and the two Ivies in that semifinal: Yale and Brown, who were less than a half second apart from each other at the Ivy League championship. But maybe kal pulls a rabbit out of their hat and beats the Ivies...no skin off our back. I hope Stanford can advance and save their legs for the A final.

Mixed rooting here, have a friend who's daughter is rowing for Cal's V4's. Hope they make the finals, at least. . . .

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - fullmetal - 05-26-2023

(05-26-2023, 07:48 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:
(05-26-2023, 03:31 PM)fullmetal Wrote: V4: Stanford beat kal by a lot at Pac-12s, so this will probably end up being Stanford and the two Ivies in that semifinal: Yale and Brown, who were less than a half second apart from each other at the Ivy League championship. But maybe kal pulls a rabbit out of their hat and beats the Ivies...no skin off our back. I hope Stanford can advance and save their legs for the A final.

Mixed rooting here, have a friend who's daughter is rowing for Cal's V4's. Hope they make the finals, at least. . . .

I'm pretty confident that Stanford will end up ahead of kal however the results shake out, so let's hope the Ivies stumble!

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - terry - 05-27-2023

Thanks for the updates!

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - Canalejas - 05-27-2023

Looking at the results page, it looks like Stanford has advanced all three boats to their Grand Finals! They will be joined there by Princeton, Texas, and Yale.

It seems that Washington missed out on advancing their V4 boat to the Grand Final by 1.3 seconds. But they'll be there in the 1V8 and 2V8.

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - cardcrimson - 05-27-2023

(05-27-2023, 08:47 AM)Canalejas Wrote: Looking at the results page, it looks like Stanford has advanced all three boats to their Grand Finals! They will be joined there by Princeton, Texas, and Yale.

It seems that Washington missed out on advancing their V4 boat to the Grand Final by 1.3 seconds. But they'll be there in the 1V8 and 2V8.

And my friend's daughter's cal V4 team missed by about a second as well. Hope they take down UW in the lower finals. . . .

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - fullmetal - 05-27-2023

Summary: Job well done. The three Stanford boats are moving on to their respective A finals with generally very little extra energy spent.

Day 2 livestream replay: https://www.ncaa.com/video/rowing/2023-05-27/di-dii-diii-rowing-2023-day-two-full-replay-33469

1V: 33:51
2V: 1:10:32
V4: 1:57:51

1V: In the first semi (not Stanford's), the qualifiers were Princeton, Penn, and Texas in that order, with about one second separating them all. I don't think anyone was expecting Texas to finish behind Penn, and it was only recently that Princeton had even beaten Texas in their late April dual. Many people thought Texas could rediscover their magic and reassert dominance. Or, maybe all three boats were just staying side-by-side in some sort of Prisoners Dilemma compact to not expend too much energy before the A final. Syracuse was five seconds behind Texas, which is a decent margin. Who was playing games, and did anyone of those three really blow out their legs trying to keep up? Uncharacteristically, kal finished at the back of the pack, behind even SMU, and they looked tired crossing the line.

In Stanford's semifinal, it was Stanford winning, followed by Washington and Yale, with about three seconds between each boat. Michigan and Virginia had some overlap on Yale and were threatening at the line, so Yale was pushed at the end. Their higher stroke rate at the line does indicate a bit of urgency. In the A final: three Ivy League schools, two Pac-12 schools, and one defending national champion Big 12 school...it's been a while since the Big 10 was shut out of the A final.

2V: Stanford won their semifinal about four seconds ahead of nearly dead-heated kal and Yale. This is interesting because Yale's 2V is essentially undefeated this season (as they were last season) and was top seeded coming into the regatta, but in this semifinal, they were consistently rowing at a higher stroke rating and still not quite as fast as Stanford or kal. While Yale's rating gave them an early lead, Stanford understroked them and moved ahead of Yale by the 1000m mark (halfway). I don't think that bodes well for Yale's chances of repeating as 2V champions tomorrow.

In the other semifinal, Washington, Texas, and Princeton advanced in that order. Washington's 2V is fast; they beat Stanford at the Pac-12s, though in the heats, Stanford reversed that result. I didn't expect the Texas 2V to finish behind Washington; at the San Diego Crew Classic in late March, Texas swept every Pac-12 crew in all boat classes. In that late April dual, Princeton's 2V was 0.1 sec faster than Texas. I don't think Princeton took it up at the end; maybe those late race moves will cost Texas and Washington tomorrow.

In both semis, there was about a 5-6 gap between third place and fourth place, so while there may have been early pressure on the qualifying spot, there likely wasn't pressure toward the end of the race. Sometimes this happens halfway through, sometimes this happens 2/3 of the way through the race...this does affect how energy is conserved in a race going forward. And a lot of this is internal boat strategy that will never be made public, so speculation will always be just that. Three Pac-12 boats, two Ivy League boats, and one Big 12 boat...good to see the Pac-12 represented.

V4: In the first semi, Yale won, with Stanford and Brown following. Stanford came out strong, but Yale committed to a slightly higher stroke rate and pulled even at the halfway mark. Yale held onto that rate to win by a little over four seconds. Stanford may or may not have been pressed by the battle for third happening between Brown and kal. kal started strong in third but crossed fourth, two seconds behind Brown and just out of the A final, so they will only have one (2V) boat in an A final. Credit to Brown for rowing a steady race and chasing down kal over the length of the course.

In the other final, the top four boats were Texas, Princeton, Virginia, and Washington at the line, separated by a little over a second apart each in that order. Virginia sprinted through Washington in the last 400m, which will probably cost them tomorrow, but the Cavs' ticket to the A final is booked, and Washington has nothing but regrets to fuel tomorrow's race for 7th. In the 4+ boat class, you'll note that the coxswains are at the front (the bow) of the boat, laying down in the compartment with just their heads sticking out. This makes it difficult for coxswains to notice when crews behind them are mounting a charge. In an eight where a coxswain is sitting up and can turn their head around, a coxswain would make a call to the crew to match any sprints from trailing crews, but in a 4+, this gets tough. I have to imagine that the Washington four would have been able to hold off Virginia if the coxswain could have made the right calls in time.

One race to go, for the season, and for some, their collegiate careers. Last race, fast race!

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - cardcrimson - 05-27-2023

(05-27-2023, 12:25 PM)fullmetal Wrote: Summary: Job well done. The three Stanford boats are moving on to their respective A finals with generally very little extra energy spent.

Day 2 livestream replay: https://www.ncaa.com/video/rowing/2023-05-27/di-dii-diii-rowing-2023-day-two-full-replay-33469

1V: 33:51
2V: 1:10:32
V4: 1:57:51

1V: In the first semi (not Stanford's), the qualifiers were Princeton, Penn, and Texas in that order, with about one second separating them all. I don't think anyone was expecting Texas to finish behind Penn, and it was only recently that Princeton had even beaten Texas in their late April dual. Many people thought Texas could rediscover their magic and reassert dominance. Or, maybe all three boats were just staying side-by-side in some sort of Prisoners Dilemma compact to not expend too much energy before the A final. Syracuse was five seconds behind Texas, which is a decent margin. Who was playing games, and did anyone of those three really blow out their legs trying to keep up? Uncharacteristically, kal finished at the back of the pack, behind even SMU, and they looked tired crossing the line.

In Stanford's semifinal, it was Stanford winning, followed by Washington and Yale, with about three seconds between each boat. Michigan and Virginia had some overlap on Yale and were threatening at the line, so Yale was pushed at the end. Their higher stroke rate at the line does indicate a bit of urgency. In the A final: three Ivy League schools, two Pac-12 schools, and one defending national champion Big 12 school...it's been a while since the Big 10 was shut out of the A final.

2V: Stanford won their semifinal about four seconds ahead of nearly dead-heated kal and Yale. This is interesting because Yale's 2V is essentially undefeated this season (as they were last season) and was top seeded coming into the regatta, but in this semifinal, they were consistently rowing at a higher stroke rating and still not quite as fast as Stanford or kal. While Yale's rating gave them an early lead, Stanford understroked them and moved ahead of Yale by the 1000m mark (halfway). I don't think that bodes well for Yale's chances of repeating as 2V champions tomorrow.

In the other semifinal, Washington, Texas, and Princeton advanced in that order. Washington's 2V is fast; they beat Stanford at the Pac-12s, though in the heats, Stanford reversed that result. I didn't expect the Texas 2V to finish behind Washington; at the San Diego Crew Classic in late March, Texas swept every Pac-12 crew in all boat classes. In that late April dual, Princeton's 2V was 0.1 sec faster than Texas. I don't think Princeton took it up at the end; maybe those late race moves will cost Texas and Washington tomorrow.

In both semis, there was about a 5-6 gap between third place and fourth place, so while there may have been early pressure on the qualifying spot, there likely wasn't pressure toward the end of the race. Sometimes this happens halfway through, sometimes this happens 2/3 of the way through the race...this does affect how energy is conserved in a race going forward. And a lot of this is internal boat strategy that will never be made public, so speculation will always be just that. Three Pac-12 boats, two Ivy League boats, and one Big 12 boat...good to see the Pac-12 represented.

V4: In the first semi, Yale won, with Stanford and Brown following. Stanford came out strong, but Yale committed to a slightly higher stroke rate and pulled even at the halfway mark. Yale held onto that rate to win by a little over four seconds. Stanford may or may not have been pressed by the battle for third happening between Brown and kal. kal started strong in third but crossed fourth, two seconds behind Brown and just out of the A final, so they will only have one (2V) boat in an A final. Credit to Brown for rowing a steady race and chasing down kal over the length of the course.

In the other final, the top four boats were Texas, Princeton, Virginia, and Washington at the line, separated by a little over a second apart each in that order. Virginia sprinted through Washington in the last 400m, which will probably cost them tomorrow, but the Cavs' ticket to the A final is booked, and Washington has nothing but regrets to fuel tomorrow's race for 7th. In the 4+ boat class, you'll note that the coxswains are at the front (the bow) of the boat, laying down in the compartment with just their heads sticking out. This makes it difficult for coxswains to notice when crews behind them are mounting a charge. In an eight where a coxswain is sitting up and can turn their head around, a coxswain would make a call to the crew to match any sprints from trailing crews, but in a 4+, this gets tough. I have to imagine that the Washington four would have been able to hold off Virginia if the coxswain could have made the right calls in time.

One race to go, for the season, and for some, their collegiate careers. Last race, fast race!

Great write up, thanks! The only bummer for me, well for my friend, was that Brown overtook Kal's V4 pretty early, and held on to knock them to the Lower Finals. Stanford did great, though.

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - bnarver - 05-27-2023

I remember there being repechages for Div. I boats. At least, I thought there were. Assuming I'm correct, when did this change?

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - Canalejas - 05-28-2023

https://results.regattatiming.com/backoffice/webpages/results/points.jsp?raceId=578

It looks like #134 just came home!!!

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - cardfan77 - 05-28-2023

Well done! Go Stanford!

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - Canalejas - 05-28-2023

Race Results:

V4:
1. Texas
2. Yale
3. Brown
4. Stanford
5. Virginia
6. Princeton

IIV8:
1. Stanford
2. Washington
3. California
4. Yale
5. Princeton
6. Texas

IV8:
1. Stanford
2. Washington
3. Princeton
4. Penn
5. Texas
6. Yale

Team Points:
1. Stanford 129
2. Washington 120
3. Princeton 113
4. Texas 110
5. Yale 110
6. Penn 92
7. Brown 91
8. California 89
9. SMU 85
10. Virginia 80

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - terry - 05-28-2023

[tweet]https://twitter.com/StanfordRowing/status/1662851504531992581[/tweet]

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - Canalejas - 05-28-2023

Stanford winning and Texas finishing 4th has to be good for the Directors' Cup race, right?

As is Stanford advancing to the Softball CWS while Texas lost its super regional.

And here's hoping that the men's golf team makes today's cut while Texas' does not.

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - pauloalto - 05-28-2023

Day 3 finals replay now available

https://www.ncaa.com/video/rowing/2023-05-28/di-rowing-2023-day-three-full-replay-33470

Grand Finals

Fours: 1:20:00

II Eights: 1:43:00

I Eights: 2:07:00

RE: Stanford Women's Rowing: 2023 NCAA championships - fullmetal - 05-28-2023

STANFORD WINS!!!

Third time's the charm...being runners-up for the past two seasons by virtue of 1V placement tiebreaker surely had to sting, but the women finally won the team championship (as well as both individual eights events championships), and they did it outright. What a nerve-wracking morning lol.

After the V4 race, it felt like this year would follow the script set by Texas over the last two years. Stanford's V4 got walked through by Brown in the second half unfortunately, giving up a bronze medal. But a 4th place still gets you team points, and Stanford competed all the way through.

The 2V8 race was interesting, as the first crack in the Texas mystique appeared. Texas didn't appear to have their legs, and it was Washington and kal out of nowhere following Stanford's charge down the course. Fast-stroking Yale didn't have the power to match, and their aura of invicibility coming into this weekend was finally put to rest when the Pac-12 swept the 2V8 podium. The 6th (last) place Texas finish was quite puzzling. If Stanford had a bad 1V8 race and Texas won, the team trophy would again return to Austin. Surely the Texas 1V8 would dominate again, so went the thinking. After all, Texas had smoked all comers early this season in San Diego, and they were back-to-back defending national champions. Of note in this race, some of the crews (specifically Texas) encountered geese in their lanes unfortunately, which caused some bobbling in the boat. Texas hit a lot of geese who didn't have the sense to get out of the way. Apparently geese were caught in a rigger and had been dragged through the water for a bit, not to mention the impact on the oars and rhythm of the crew. There was talk of an official protest that could have resulted in a rerow for the entire race, but that ended up not happening.

The 1V8 race kicked off with Texas and Princeton immediately down on the field. Perhaps their semifinal effort had taking more out of them than they realized. Princeton was also behind; Princeton, Penn, and Texas had advanced out of the same semifinal with only 1.05 seconds from first through third place. Back to the A final: though the start, Stanford was right up there with the rest of the pack. Slowly Stanford built out their lead, advancing over Washington, Princeton, and Penn (who somewhat quickly fell off the pace after the starting strokes).

Stanford marched out through the finish line, pressed but unfazed by Washington and Princeton throwing the kitchen sink at them. There were no last minute heroics from the Huskies or Tigers, no effort that would close the gap to Stanford. The Stanford women just put their foot down and took the race from the start through the finish. It was a race perhaps 364 days in the making, and that dedication showed. It was an impressive race and perhaps not one that I expected given the race results from the last two years. To be sure, this weekend was all about Stanford leading wire-to-wire...it was just the final where I feared they might have gassed out. They didn't. They held the line, and it was Texas instead who had done too much in the semifinals.

Women's rowing is a brutal sport, with more parity than men's rowing and full of pitfalls. There are any number of ways in which a season can be derailed. There are any number of ways in which a multi-day regatta can end up with a bad last race. Stanford executed their plan and walked away, champions.

(05-27-2023, 10:26 PM)bnarver Wrote: I remember there being repechages for Div. I boats. At least, I thought there were. Assuming I'm correct, when did this change?

They changed the progressions starting this year. I think the idea was to make the heats more competitive as well as perhaps a realization that repechage winners were severely disadvantaged by a fourth race on their legs.