Heat It Up

GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The Stanford women’s rowing did just what it set out to do on the first day of the NCAA Championships, advancing all three boats to the A/B semifinals.

"It's really important to learn and grow from each race when it comes to the NCAA's or you can find yourself on the outside looking in," said head coach Yasmin Farooq. "We're glad to be in the semifinals tomorrow and we've worked hard to get here. We have a lot of respect for the
competition here and we know that it will take everything we've got."

It didn’t come easy, just as it never does this time of year.

The varsity eight came in as the third fastest on the season. Needing to finish in the top two to advance to the A/B semifinals, the Cardinal did exactly what they needed to do.

Stanford got off to a great start and had the lead over the field at the first 500 meter mark. Virginia started to make its move in the second 500 and passed the Cardinal to go up three seats at the halfway point. The Cavaliers extended the lead to a boat length in the second half of the race, while Stanford moved further away from Washington State to maintain the second spot.

That was all the Cardinal needed to do as they finished in second to advance to the A/B semifinal on Saturday at 9 a.m. The final time for Stanford was 6:29.417, less than four seconds back of UVA and four seconds in front of Washington State.

The second varsity eight came in seeded third in its heat. In order to avoid the repechage they would need to move up the chart and finish among the top two.

Washington, in lane one, and Stanford, in lane three, both bolted off the starting line with tremendous starts. The two teams stayed together throughout the entire race and at each 500 mark were never more than three seconds apart.

Harvard was in lane two and did not get off to as good of start. The Crimson did come back to get within four seconds of Stanford at the 1,000 mark, but the top two boats started to pull away after that and Indiana would eventually pass Harvard for third.

Washington and Stanford were the top two finishers. The Cardinal was 2.412 seconds behind the Huskies with a time of 6:38.546. Both programs advanced straight to the A/B semifinal on Saturday at 9:40 a.m.

"It was a big step for us to go straight to the semifinal so we have fresh legs tomorrow," said senior Courtney Carrabino. "Today was the best race we have had so far. It sets us up for what we need to do the rest of the weekend."

Last up in the morning was the varsity four. Seeded fourth in the six-team race, the Cardinal had its work cut out for it. It was a very tight race in the first 500 meters, with four teams right together within two seconds of each other. Washington State had the early lead but Ohio State would take over in the second 500 meters.

Stanford hung in tight with the top two boats for most of the race, but lost ground late in the race. They still were able to gain a huge advantage over Wisconsin to secure third place with a time of 7:31.599, over 17 seconds faster than the Badgers. The place was not high enough to move on, however, but the good news was they had the fastest time and would be placed in lane one for the repechage.

Motivated to land one of the two remaining spots in the A/B semifinals, the varsity four came through. The Cardinal took the lead early on and even though Notre Dame pushed them the entire way, they found a way to come out on top. The difference between the two boats was less than a second at both the 1,000 and 1,500 meter marks. A good sprint by the Cardinal stretched it out to nearly two seconds at the finish line.

With a time of 7:25.579, the Cardinal advance to the second semifinal race tomorrow at 10:20 a.m.

All three boats will try and finish in the top three of the semifinals to advance to Sunday’s Grand Finals.

“Getting all three boats through is a good accomplishment for us,” said senior Courtney Carrabino. “It really sets up the whole team to do well this weekend.”