No. 8 Rowing Preview: NCAA Championships

WHAT: No. 8 Texas has qualified to compete at the NCAA Championships for a second consecutive year and the fourth time overall in the program's 20-year history. Under second-year head coach Dave O'Neill, the Longhorns earned the Big 12 Conference's NCAA automatic-qualifying bid on May 15 at the Big 12 Championship regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Texas joins California, UCF, Gonzaga, Jacksonville, Northeastern, Ohio State, Princeton, Rhode Island, Navy and Virginia as automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Championships. The at-large selections include Brown, Duke, Indiana, Michigan, USC, Stanford, Syracuse, Washington, Washington State, Wisconsin and Yale.

WHEN/WHERE
Friday-Sunday (May 27-29)
Lake Natoma – Gold River, California

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS FORMAT
The 22 teams are divided into four heats of each race (eights, II eights and fours). The top-two crews in each day one heat advance to that event's A-B semifinals to be contested on Saturday. The remainder of the crews from the day one morning heats moves on to Friday afternoon's repêchage races (two seven-boat repêchages). The top-two crews from the two repêchage races advance to the A-B semifinals. The remainder move on to C-D semifinals contested on Saturday.

The top-three crews in Saturday's A-B semifinals advance to that event's grand final (championship final) on Sunday, while the remainder move on to Sunday's petite final (consolation final). The top-three crews from semifinals C-D advance to Sunday's C final, while the remainder advance to the D final.

The events are scored as follows:

Place	I Eights	II Eights	Fours
1	66	44	22
2	63	42	21
3	60	40	20
4	57	38	19
5	54	36	18
6	51	34	17
7	48	32	16
8	45	30	15
9	42	28	14
10	39	26	13
11	36	24	12
12	33	22	11
13	30	20	10
14	27	18	9
15	24	16	8
16	21	14	7
17	18	12	6
18	15	10	5
19	12	8	4
20	9	6	3
21	6	4	2
22	3	2	1

SEEDINGS

I Eights	II Eights	Fours
1. California	1. Brown	1. California
2. Stanford	2. California	2. Yale
3. Ohio State	3. Ohio State	3. Virginia
4. Princeton	4. Washington	4. Washington
5. Virginia	5. Virginia	5. Ohio State
6. Brown	6. Princeton	6. Princeton
7. Michigan	7. TEXAS	7. Brown
8. TEXAS	8. Stanford	8. Wisconsin
9. USC	9. Wisconsin	9. Stanford
10. Yale	10. Yale	10. TEXAS
11. Wisconsin	11. Duke	11. Michigan
12. Washington	12. Washington State	12. Duke
13. Washington State	13. Indiana	13. USC
14. Duke	14. Michigan	14. Syracuse
15. Gonzaga	15. Gonzaga	15. Washington St.
16. Syracuse	16. Syracuse	16. Indiana
17. Indiana	17. USC	17. Gonzaga
18. Northeastern	18. Northeastern	18. Northeastern
19. UCF	19. Navy	19. Navy
20. Rhode Island	20. UCF	20. UCF
21. Navy	21. Rhode Island	21. Rhode Island
22. Jacksonville	22. Jacksonville	22. Jacksonville

TEXAS LANE ASSIGNMENTS (Friday morning races, all times Pacific)

Complete Day 1 Lane Assignments

9:00 a.m. – I Eights, heat 1

California
TEXAS
USC
Syracuse
Indiana

10:00 a.m. – II Eights, heat 2

California
TEXAS
Yale
Gonzaga
Northeastern

10:48 a.m. – Fours, heat 2

Yale
Brown
TEXAS
Washington State
Northeastern

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Texas sent its varsity eight boats to compete at the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Championship regattas but had not been invited to compete at the Championships as a team until the Longhorns' breakthrough season in 2015. The UT varsity eight placed sixth in its petite final (6:28.65) at the 2003 NCAA Championship but did not reach a final at the 2004 NCAA Championships.

Texas announced its presence at the 2015 NCAA Championships at Lake Natoma and finished seventh overall in the 22-team regatta with 99 points. It marked the top finish by a Big 12 Conference rowing member at the NCAA Championships.

The Longhorns placed fourth in the eights grand final, second in the second eights petite final and fifth in the fours petite final at the 2015 NCAA Championships.

This week's regatta marks the 20^th NCAA Division I Rowing Championship. Brown ranks No. 1 all-time with its seven national titles while Washington and three-time defending NCAA champion Ohio State hold three apiece

California and Virginia are tied for No. 3 all-time with their two crowns, and Harvard and Stanford have claimed one title apiece.

CRCA/USRowing Coaches Poll (May 18)

California
Ohio State
Virginia
Brown
Princeton
Stanford
Washington
TEXAS
Michigan
T10. Wisconsin
T10. Yale
Duke
USC
Washington State
Syracuse
Indiana
Notre Dame
Gonzaga
San Diego
Iowa

SEASON NOTES

TEXAS WINS BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP
Texas swept all five races for the second time in as many league championship regattas and won its second straight Big 12 Championship on May 15 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The Longhorns won their sixth overall Big 12 title with 137 points while Oklahoma placed second with 115 points. UT's April Brown, Gia Doonan, Emily Froehlich, Mariam Soufi, Pippa Loveard and Katie Betsill were selected to the All-Big 12 Conference team following the championship.

UT led the championship from start-to-finish and made a clean sweep of the five races contested – the third varsity eight, second varsity four, varsity four, second varsity eight and varsity eight.

VARSITY EIGHT SELECTED AS BIG 12 BOAT OF THE WEEK
The Big 12 Conference announced April 21 the selection of UT's varsity eight as the Big 12 Boat of the Week.

The award was the first such honor for a Longhorns boat this season and the first since April 29, 2015. The varsity 8+ crew featured coxswain Katie Betsill along with April Brown, Gia Doonan, Emily Froehlich, Sarah Cadman, Pippa Loveard, Victoria Bujala, Mariam Soufi and Fanny Bon.

Texas knocked off the likes of No. 10 Michigan and No. 19 Syracuse in the Invite's first race, where the Horns beat the Wolverines to the finish by over a boat length. UT also defeated San Diego, Harvard and Oregon State.

Texas took third behind defending NCAA champion Ohio State and Virginia in its second race of the regatta's opening day. The Longhorns won another competitive race in the regatta's third and final session. UT knocked off No. 13 Indiana with room to spare and also defeated Michigan State, Clemson, Oregon State, Columbia and Tennessee.

LONGHORNS RIDE MOMENTUM FROM HISTORIC SEASON
Texas' momentous 2015 campaign created another milestone before the Longhorns' first official regatta of the spring. Fresh off of its breakthrough season under its then first-year coaching staff, Texas ranked a then program-best No. 7 in the USRowing/CRCA preseason coaches poll.

UT sat at No. 8 in the following week's poll before moving to No. 9 in the March 29 rankings. Texas vaulted to a program-best No. 6 in the April 6 USRowing/CRCA coaches poll before dropping to No. 8 on April 13. The Longhorns have remained at No. 8 in the ensuing polls.

The Longhorns ranked as high as No. 11 last season before posting a program-best seventh-place team finish at the NCAA Championships, which marked the top finish ever by a Big 12 school in the event. The 2015 season yielded three All-America Longhorns in the form of Gia Doonan, Emily Froehlich and Pippa Loveard, who have all returned this season.

Doonan and Froehlich earned first-team All-America selections and joined Ruth Stiver as the only first-team All-Americans in program history. Loveard earned second-team honors on the Pocock Division I All-America Team.

Doonan also was named the 2015 Big 12 Rower of the Year while Froehlich was selected as the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. The three All-Americans helped the Texas varsity eight boat to a school-best fourth place at the 2015 NCAA Championships.

Last season, Texas won its first Big 12 team title since 2012 and swept the Big 12 Championships for the first time since 2011.

The CRCA (College Rowing Coaches Association) lauded UT head coach Dave O'Neill as its National Coach of the Year, good for O'Neill's third such honor. The CRCA bestowed O'Neill's staff with its National Staff of the Year award, as well.

The staff included assistant coaches Mary Lenington and Mara Allen, special assistant Wendy /Wilbur, rigger boatman James Sands, graduate assistant Danielle Bartz and volunteer coaches Haley Adams and Natasia Giles. Lenington has since been promoted to associate head coach.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Katie Betsill

Fanny Bon

April Brown

Victoria Bujala

Sarah Cadman

Gia Doonan

Emily Froehlich

Pippa Loveard

Mariam Soufi

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics