06-17-2018, 12:37 AM
Late to the game, but I was following the results in real-time.
Given the results from earlier this season, I'd say the Stanford boats performed to their limits, though I was sorry to see that the Texas varsity eight overtook Stanford in the second half of the grand final. (The kal varsity eight likewise overtook Washington in the second half.) I wasn't sure if the Stanford varsity would finish so highly, and it was great to see them make the grand final. Both the 2V8 and the V4 finished 4th in their semifinals, which put them just out of grand final qualification by ~3 and ~4 seconds respectively--close, and tough.
Did the Stanford varsity burn too much gas winning their Saturday morning semifinal to advance (over Texas and Princeton)? Maybe -- all the finals were moved from Sunday to Saturday afternoon because of the impending tropical depression forecast (and conditions were reportedly unrowable on Sunday). Rowing two high-stakes races on the same day is pretty tough and places a premium on recovery and slightly different physiologies.
The fourth-place team placement was amazing. I didn't expect Ohio State to lose their across-the-board strength, and Virginia nearly clipped Stanford but for the virtue of the varsity eight placement as tiebreaker. Maybe the shortened schedule helped Stanford's lower boats. Whatever it was, most of the dice that weekend landed in Stanford's favor, and the ladies probably had some of their best races on championship weekend.
Given the results from earlier this season, I'd say the Stanford boats performed to their limits, though I was sorry to see that the Texas varsity eight overtook Stanford in the second half of the grand final. (The kal varsity eight likewise overtook Washington in the second half.) I wasn't sure if the Stanford varsity would finish so highly, and it was great to see them make the grand final. Both the 2V8 and the V4 finished 4th in their semifinals, which put them just out of grand final qualification by ~3 and ~4 seconds respectively--close, and tough.
Did the Stanford varsity burn too much gas winning their Saturday morning semifinal to advance (over Texas and Princeton)? Maybe -- all the finals were moved from Sunday to Saturday afternoon because of the impending tropical depression forecast (and conditions were reportedly unrowable on Sunday). Rowing two high-stakes races on the same day is pretty tough and places a premium on recovery and slightly different physiologies.
The fourth-place team placement was amazing. I didn't expect Ohio State to lose their across-the-board strength, and Virginia nearly clipped Stanford but for the virtue of the varsity eight placement as tiebreaker. Maybe the shortened schedule helped Stanford's lower boats. Whatever it was, most of the dice that weekend landed in Stanford's favor, and the ladies probably had some of their best races on championship weekend.