PENNSAUKEN, N.J. – The Washington women's rowing team finished second at the 2023 NCAA Championships Sunday at Cooper River, marking the Huskies' highest team finish since winning the 2019 national title.
 
The Huskies, seeded No. 8 in the first eights and No. 4 in the second, finished second in both of those two grand finals. Stanford, which won both of the eights finals, captured the overall team title for the first time since 2009, when the Cardinal won at the same venue under current UW head coach Yasmin Farooq.
 
Washington also finished second in the fours petite final, good for eighth place overall. Stanford totaled 129 points to earn the title, with UW compiling 120. Princeton was third with 113, while two-time defending champion Texas tied Yale for fourth with 110 points (Texas was awarded fourth place based on the tie-breaker – finish in first eights final).
 
"Everything we do is built towards this moment," said Farooq. "The results that you saw on the water today are really the results of our entire roster of 65 women. None of this happens without all of those women back home and, specifically, the work that the first varsity eight and the second varsity eight did together all year."
 
The Huskies have now finished in the top-four at NCAAs 15 times in 26 years, including five titles and five runner-up finishes. Washington has made the podium all six times under Farooq and have never finished outside of the top-10 in the 26-year history of NCAA Rowing Championships.
 
Heading into the final race of the regatta, the first eights grand final, Washington needed to finish two or more places ahead of Stanford, and at least one spot ahead of Yale to win the national championship.
 
But the Cardinal, which had tied on points for the NCAA title each of the last two years, but lost each based on the tie-breaker, took the lead from the start of the race
 
At the 500-meter buoy, the Stanford shell led, but UW, Princeton and Penn were all within one second of the lead. By 1,000 meters, the Cardinal had stretched the lead a bit, but Washington remained in contention, just over one second behind.
 
The places held through the final half of the race, with Stanford finishing with a time of 6:17.154. Washington was 2.404 second behind, in 6:19.558, while top-seeded Princeton ran third, another 2.6 seconds back.
 
"Today's battle was 'disrupting with love' as our coaches told us to do. Anything is possible on race day, especially when you have love backing you up in your corner," said fifth-year senior captain McKenna Bryant. "That race was full of belief and love and control. Nothing more to it."
 
"I saw execution of what we've being working for all year long," added fifth-year senior coxswain Nina Castagna. "We started this season further behind than we have in past years. Yaz had told us in one of our first meetings that it was going to take every day, every single practice and every stroke that we had until the very last day."
 
"It was satisfying," said stroke rower Ella Cossill, another fifth-year athlete. "I feel like we left everything out there."
 
The second eights race was even tighter. In that one, California had the early lead, but Stanford, Yale, and UW all moved past the Bears before the 1,000-meter mark. At 1,500 meters, the Cardinal held the lead by about 1.3 seconds ahead of Washington.
 
The finish was as close as any race in the regatta as less than three seconds and one boat-length separated the top-four. Stanford won with a time of 6:24.851 with the Huskies second, 1.326 seconds behind in 6:26.177. Cal was third in 6:27.539, just ahead of Yale (6:27.779).
 
In the women's four petite final, where the teams were racing for places seven through 12, Cal's four took the lead from the start and, despite a closely packed field, held it the entire 2,000 meters.
 
In fourth place at 500 meters, UW's four spent the majority of the race in third place, behind the Golden Bears and Michigan.
 
At the end, the Huskies managed to track down Michigan for second place in the final few strokes of the race, finishing in 7:23.187, about six-tenths of a second ahead of the Wolverines (7:23.781). That finish gave the Huskies 15 points in the team championship pursuit.
 
Texas won the fours grand final, with Yale and Brown second and third, respectively.
 
The regatta marked the end of the college careers of seven fifth-year seniors on the UW roster, six of whom were on the roster when the Huskies won the NCAA title in 2019.
 
"You never want to be your last," Bryant reflected as her college career came to an end, "but if that has to be my last, I'll take it."


 
WASHINGTON LINEUPS
 
First Eight
Shell: Kit Green
Cox: Nina Castagna (Cincinnati, Ohio/Walnut Hills)
Stroke: Ella Cossill (Waikato, New Zealand )
7: Elena Collier-Hezel (Buffalo, N.Y./Park School/Michigan)
6: Angharad Broughton (Cardiff, Wales, U.K.)
5: Nikki Martincic (Newtown, Sydney, Australia)
4: Mira Calder (Victoria, B.C., Canada/Claremont)
3: Madi Frampton (Tumwater, Wash.)
2: Aisha Rocek (Como, Italy)
Bow: McKenna Bryant (Kent, Wash./Kennedy Catholic)
 
Second Eight
Shell: Dottie Simpson
Cox: Grace Murdock (Roswell, Ga./Milton)
Stroke: Ava Meuleman (Seattle, Wash./Roosevelt)
7: Dimitra Tsamopoulou (Athens, Greece)
6: Abby Adebiyi (London, England, U.K.)
5: Isabel van Opzeeland (Hoofddorp, Netherlands)
4: Grace Vander Griend (Bellingham, Wash./Sehome)
3: Jordan Freer (Lotus, Calif./El Dorado/UCSB)
2: Shakira Mirfin (Invercargill, New Zealand)
Bow: Leah Nash (Chatham, Mass./Monomoy)
 
Four
Shell: Wendell S. Sykes
Stroke: Cait Whittard (St. Catharines, Ont., Canada)
3: Renee Hopper (Preston, Wash./Issaquah)
2: Brigit O'Rourke (West Seattle, Wash./Vashon Island)
Bow: Claire Marion (San Marcos, Calif./San Marcos)
Cox: Carina Baxter (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge)
 
UW's All-Time NCAA Team Finishes
2023: 2nd
2022: 4th
2021: 3rd
2019: 1st
2018: 2nd
2017: 1st
2016: 5th
2015: 4th
2014: 7th
2013: 6th
2012: 7th
2011: 8th
2010: 10th
2009: 7th
2008: 2nd
2007: 10th
2006: 7th
2005: 9th
2004: 5th
2003: 3rd
2002: 2nd
2001: 1st
2000: 2nd
1999: 3rd
1998: 1st
1997: 1st
 
UW's All-Time NCAA Boat Champions
Fours (stroke to bow, coxswain)
1999 (Erin Becht, Anna Mickelson, Kara Nykrein, Kellie Schenk, Mary Whipple)
2000 (Lauren Estevenin, Carrie Stasiak, Heidi Hurn, Adrienne Hunter, Anne Heisburg)
2001 (Margherita Pallottino, Yvonne Stenken, Kattie Baurichter, Teegan Simonson, Maili Barber)
2008 (Rachel Powers, Jennifer Park, Charlene Franklin, Adrienne Martelli, Maggie Cheek)
2017 (Valentina Iseppi, Valerie Vogt, Julia Paulsen, Sophia Baker, Marley Avritt)
2019 (Dimitra Tsamopoulou, Kieanna Stephens, Holly Drapp, Emma Vagen, Dana Brooks)*
2021 (Carmen McNamara-Smith, Fiona Shields, Katherine Slack, Sophia Chaffey, Sachi Yamamoto)
* - NCAA-record time for fours: 6:52.451
 
Second Eights (coxswain, stroke to bow)
2002 (Anne Hessburg, Jenni Vesnaver, Jessica Harm, Shannon Oates, Erin Becht, Sanda Hangan, Margherita Pallottino, Erin Curry, Mandy Nelson)
2017 (Isabella Corriere, Marlee Blue, Maggie Phillips, Carmela Pappalardo, Phoebe Spoors, Karlé Pittsinger, Bella Chilczuk, Anna Thornton, Calina Schanze)
2018 (Marley Avritt, Brooke Pierson, Katy Gillingham, Carmela Pappalardo, Karlé Pittsinger, Julia Paulsen, Jennifer Wren, Jessica Thoennes, Calina Schanze)
2019 (Amanda Durkin, Klara Grube, Lark Skov, Elise Bueke, Holly Dunford, Molly Gallaher, Mackenna Cameron, Skylar Jacobson, Adele Likin)*
2021 (Dana Brooks, McKenna Bryant, Dimitra Tsamopoulou, Molly Gallaher, Taylor Buell, Nikki Martincic, Lark Skov, Joïe Zier, Brittani Shappell)
* - NCAA-record time for second eights: 6:11.262
 
First Eights (coxswain, stroke to bow)
1997 (Alida Purves, Sabina Telenska, Denni Nessler, Kelly Horton, Katy Dunnet, Annie Christie, Jan Williamson, Tristine Glick, Kari Green)
1998 (Missy Collins, Sabina Telenska, Denni Nessler, Kelly Horton, Katy Dunnet, Annie Christie, Rachel Dunnet, Vanessa Tavalero, Kari Green)
2001 (Mary Whipple, Lauren Estevenin, Nicole Borges, Anna Mickelson, Rika Geyser, Adrienne Hunter, Carrie Stasiak, Nicole Rogers, Annabel Ritchie)
2002 (Mary Whipple, Lauren Estevenin, Annabel Ritchie, Anna Mickelson, Heidi Hurn, Adrienne Hunter, Carrie Stasiak, Kara Nykreim, Yvonneke Stenken)
2017 (Phoebe Marks-Nicholes, Chiara Ondoli, Elise Beuke, Brooke Pierson, Katy Gillingham, Brooke Mooney, Tabea Schendekehl, Jessica Thoennes, Annemieke Schanze)
2019 (Marley Avritt, Tabea Schendekehl, Calina Schanze, Sofia Asoumanaki, Marlee Blue, Teal Cohen, Valentina Iseppi, Jennifer Wren, Carmela Pappalardo)*
* - NCAA-record time for first eights: 6:07.284
 
All-Time NCAA Rowing Team Championships
Brown – 7
Washington – 5
California – 4
Ohio State – 3
Stanford – 2
Virginia – 2
Texas – 2
Harvard – 1
 
All-Time NCAA Rowing Boat (V8+, 2V8+, V4+) Championships
Washington – 18
Brown – 14
Virginia – 9
California – 7
Ohio State – 6
Yale – 5
Princeton – 4
Stanford – 4
Texas – 3
Michigan – 2
Clemson – 1
Harvard – 1
Minnesota – 1
USC – 1
 
UW's Pre-NCAA (NCRC) Women's National Championships
Varsity Eight*
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1987
1988
* V8+ winner was considered "national champion" prior to introduction of NCAA regatta
 
Junior Varsity Eight
1981
1982
1983
1987
1989
1994
 
Varsity Four
1987