05-30-2021, 11:19 AM
That one hurt. As per script, Stanford took a steady start and then burned hard in the middle thousand with a higher stroke rate. The problem with that is that you don't have as much gas left in the tank to fight off other crews' sprints, and just as with the V4 and 2V events, another boat decided to turn the screws in the last 500m of the race and pass Stanford. This time though, it was Texas rather than Washington, who struck from half a length down and finished six seats up. Washington was sitting down a length on the Texas-Stanford deathmatch through most of the race, and they weren't able to keep pace with either Texas or Stanford coming to the finish line.
It is a crazy, courageous tactic to go out hard and row from ahead knowing that you're burning your fuse early. It hurts every part of your body a lot. And it almost worked. Stanford took second place in all three events with margins of defeat ranging from about 1-1.5 sec. If any one of those second-place finishes had been a win, the championship would have been Stanford's. But it was not to be today, and while Stanford did best Washington in the 1V, Texas lived up to their pre-regatta #1 seed and took home the championship. This is their first national championship in women's rowing, and it is Texas head coach Dave O'Neill's first championship with Texas...but not his first championship ever, as he won a few while coaching California for...over a decade? He joins former Stanford head coach Yaz Farooq (current Washington head coach) as the only two women's rowing head coaches to win championships with at least two different programs.
The second-place finish is Stanford head coach Derek Byrnes's best NCAA finish since taking over the program in 2017 and also the best finish since a 2011 second-place program finish. Given the amount of youth in the three NCAA lineups, the future is bright for Stanford (though the same is actually true of Texas--they also have a lot of freshmen in their NCAA lineups). With the extra covid eligibility, it is impossible to predict attrition for any program, but I would assume Stanford rowers would be more inclined to move on with their lives in natural progression. (Texas actually has a redshirt senior and a graduate student rowing in their 1V...)
I'm surrounded by Texas fans in my personal life, so I'll be sure to give them heartfelt congratulations on finally ascending the summit (I knew the program in its down years). But I've always been Stanford-first, and right now on this forum for a few minutes more, I'll think of what could have been. It was a great season that came up just 1-1.5 sec short.
It is a crazy, courageous tactic to go out hard and row from ahead knowing that you're burning your fuse early. It hurts every part of your body a lot. And it almost worked. Stanford took second place in all three events with margins of defeat ranging from about 1-1.5 sec. If any one of those second-place finishes had been a win, the championship would have been Stanford's. But it was not to be today, and while Stanford did best Washington in the 1V, Texas lived up to their pre-regatta #1 seed and took home the championship. This is their first national championship in women's rowing, and it is Texas head coach Dave O'Neill's first championship with Texas...but not his first championship ever, as he won a few while coaching California for...over a decade? He joins former Stanford head coach Yaz Farooq (current Washington head coach) as the only two women's rowing head coaches to win championships with at least two different programs.
The second-place finish is Stanford head coach Derek Byrnes's best NCAA finish since taking over the program in 2017 and also the best finish since a 2011 second-place program finish. Given the amount of youth in the three NCAA lineups, the future is bright for Stanford (though the same is actually true of Texas--they also have a lot of freshmen in their NCAA lineups). With the extra covid eligibility, it is impossible to predict attrition for any program, but I would assume Stanford rowers would be more inclined to move on with their lives in natural progression. (Texas actually has a redshirt senior and a graduate student rowing in their 1V...)
I'm surrounded by Texas fans in my personal life, so I'll be sure to give them heartfelt congratulations on finally ascending the summit (I knew the program in its down years). But I've always been Stanford-first, and right now on this forum for a few minutes more, I'll think of what could have been. It was a great season that came up just 1-1.5 sec short.