June 2, 2002
Indianapolis, IN - In their first appearance at the NCAA Championship the Stanford Women's Crew team finished 10th in overall team points after three days of racing. The Cardinal qualified for petite finals in the varsity four and second varsity eight events and for the grand final in the varsity eight event. Coach Aimee Baker says, "The NCAA Championship is a very challenging event and the team gained a tremendous amount of experience on their way to a top ten performance. They should be very proud of their performance."
| "The team gained a tremendous amount of experience on their way to a top ten performance. They should be very proud of their performance." Coach Baker |
The varsity four was made up of four novice and one first year varsity rower. Cox Kasey Aldrete, 4. Umi Jensen, 3 Kenny Ajayi, 2 Taiwo Ajayi, 1. Alison Appling. This boat was put together just before the PAC-10 Championship where they earned a fourth place finish. During the NCAA competition they defeated Syracuse and lead all boats at the 1000 meter point in the semi-final and then qualified to the petite final finishing 12th overall.
The second varsity was made up of four freshman, three sophomores and two juniors. cox Kelly Garneski, 8. Anjali Malhotra, 7. Ashley Maloney, 6. Katy Jackman, 5. Megan Burritt, 4. Jenny McColloch, 3. Marlo Dreissigacker, 2. Susan BeVille, 1. Lilly Liu. The second varsity was the most improved boat of the season. They finished third at Pac-10's after being seeded 5th in the region and secured an NCAA bid for the squad. The boat improved each race at NCAA's despite having stroke Anjali Malhotra suffering from severe dehydration. They had their best performance in the final where they started in 6th place off the line and gained on the entire field in the second 1000 meters of the race just getting touched out at the line by California and Harvard.
The first varsity eight was comprised of two freshman, two sophomores, three juniors, and two seniors. cox Wendy Hoeveler, 8. Sabrina Kolker, 7.Melissa Haury, 6 Missy Fiesler, 5. Sam Magee, 4. Molly Loeb, 3. Clarie Phillips, 2. Marlayna Tuiasosopo, 1. Laurie Benson. All season the varsity eight proved that they could race with the best boats in the country. This was confirmed in Indianapolis as they had two best of season performances to qualify for the grand finals in their first appearance at the NCAA's. Although they did not have a solid race in the finals they earned a 6th place final ranking by defeating many of the top crews in the country during the event.