The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Championship
No. 3 Rowing Preview: Big 12 Championships
05.06.2018 | Rowing
Longhorns go for fourth consecutive Big 12 title and automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
Big 12 Championship
Saturday-Sunday, May 12-13 (complete schedule below)
Melton Hill Lake – Oak Ridge, Tennessee
No. 3 Texas heads to Oak Ridge, Tennessee this weekend for the 10th Big 12 Championship regatta. The eight participating teams will compete for an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships set for May 25-27 in Sarasota, Florida.
The Big 12 Championship features the third-ranked Longhorns along with Oklahoma, Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia in addition to rowing affiliate Alabama, Old Dominion and Tennessee.
FORMAT
The Big 12 Championship begins Saturday afternoon with two heats each of varsity eight, second varsity eight, varsity four, second varsity four and third varsity eight races. Pending Saturday's results, the eight teams advance to their respective grand and petite finals to be contested Sunday morning.
BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
Texas has won seven of the nine Big 12 Championship regattas and claimed the event the last three years in Oak Ridge. The Longhorns swept all five grand finals races at the last three Big 12 Championships.
The Big 12 Championship began as a three-team regatta in 2009 (Texas, Kansas & K-State) before expanding to four with the addition of Oklahoma in 2010. The championship grew to five schools with the league's addition of West Virginia in 2013.
In January of 2014, the Big 12 Conference announced its invitations to Alabama, Old Dominion and Tennessee to compete at the Big 12 Championships beginning in 2015. While all eight participating schools are eligible to win the NCAA automatic-qualifying bid, only Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kansas State and West Virginia can win the Big 12 team title.
RACE SCHEDULE (all times Eastern)
Saturday, May 12 (heats)
2 p.m., V8, heat 1
2:15 p.m., V8, heat 2
2:30 p.m., 2V8, heat 1
2:45 p.m., 2V8, heat 2
3:00 p.m., V4, heat 1
3:15 p.m., V4, heat 2
3:30 p.m., 2V4, heat 1
3:45 p.m., 2V4, heat 2
4:00 p.m., 3V8, heat 1
4:15 p.m., 3V8, heat 2
4:30 p.m. 3V4 (exhibition)
Sunday, May 13 (finals)
9 a.m., 3V8 petite final
9:15 a.m., 3V8 grand final
9:30 a.m., 2V4 petite final
9:45 a.m., 2V4 grand final
10 a.m., V4 petite final
10:15 a.m., V4 grand final
10:30 a.m., 2V8 petite final
10:45 a.m., 2V8 grand final
11 a.m., V8 petite final
11:15 a.m., V8 grand final
Noon – awards
LAST TIME OUT
Texas held off top-10 foes Iowa and Virginia to win the eight-team Longhorn Invite on April 28 at Walter E. Long Lake.
VARSITY EIGHT WINS BIG 12 HONOR
The Big 12 Conference announced May 3 the selection of Texas' varsity eight as the league's Boat of the Week. The boat featured coxswain Ashley Jacobs, Ljiljana Josic, Mariam Soufi, Milica Slijepcevic, Fanny Bon, Aspa Christadoulidis, Alex Watson, Emily Froehlich and Alice Bowyer.
The third-ranked Longhorns defeated No. 8 Iowa and No. 9 Virginia in the varsity eight "A" final to push the Longhorns over the top in the final team standings at the Longhorn Invite. UT trailed Iowa and Virginia in the team standings through two of three scoring races at the Invite before the UT varsity 8+ gave Texas the lead for good.
Earlier in the day, the Texas V8+ defeated Oklahoma, Oregon State and Miami by open water to reach the V8+ "A" final at the Longhorn Invite.
HORNS HOLD STEADY AT NO. 3
Texas opened at No. 3 in the season's first USRowing/CRCA Coaches Poll on March 28, and it has held steady at the third spot in the four subsequent polls. California tops the poll while defending NCAA champion Washington ranks second. Ohio State and Yale round out the top five.
USRowing/CRCA Coaches Poll (May 2)
1 California
2 Washington
3 TEXAS
4 Ohio State
5 Stanford
6 Yale
7 Virginia
8 Michigan
9 Iowa
10 Princeton
11 Brown
12 USC
13 Wisconsin
14 Indiana
15 Washington State
16 Harvard
17 Notre Dame
18 Pennsylvania
19 Duke
20 Syracuse
SECOND VARSITY EIGHT EARNS LEAGUE HONOR
The Big 12 Conference announced April 12 the selection of the Texas second varsity eight boat as the league's Boat of the Week.
The Texas 2V8+ won both of its races over Old Dominion and West Virginia at the Big 12 Double Dual in Norfolk, Virginia. The boat featured All-America coxswain Shannon Barry along with senior Allyson Hite, junior Blair Bartholomew, freshman Sophie Pendrill, senior Courtney Crossley, sophomore Merilynn Finley, sophomore Jill Renly, junior Kendall Chapman and freshman Mick Jonkers.
FROEHLICH, SOUFI HELP USA TO SILVER AT WORLD ROWING U-23 CHAMPIONSHIPS
Texas All-America senior Emily Froehlich and All-America junior Mariam Soufi paced Team USA's women's eight boat to a silver medal last summer at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
Froehlich and Soufi, who occupied seats three and four respectively in the six-boat final, helped the Americans hold off Russia for silver at 6 minutes, 16.440 seconds. Canada won the gold in 6:09.890 while Russia settled for bronze at 6:17.090.
UT juniors Ljiljana Josic and Milica Slijepcevic comprised a women's pair boat for their native Serbia and placed second in the "B" final, or eighth in the world overall, at 7:36.500 at the same event.
Texas head coach Dave O'Neill coached the USA's men's eight and men's four boats at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. He went on to coach Josic and Slijepcevic as a pair for Serbia at the World Championships last September in Sarasota, Florida, the site of this season's NCAA Championships.
A Look Back at 2017
HORNS MAKE HISTORY WITH FOURTH-PLACE NATIONAL FINISH
Texas placed all three of its boats among the top-seven overall finishers and registered a school-best fourth place team finish at the 2017 NCAA Championships.
The Longhorns posted their first top-five team finish at the NCAA Championships after placing seventh in 2015 and eighth as a team in 2016. UT's fourth-place national finish stands as the top showing ever by a Big 12 rowing school at the NCAA Championships.
Texas' I Eight boat matched a school record with a fourth-place national individual finish, and the Four boat notched a program-best fourth-place individual finish. The Longhorns II Eight won its six-boat petite final for seventh place overall.
TEXAS LANDS RECORD ALL-AMERICA HAUL
The Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) announced last June the selections of former Longhorns Gia Doonan and Pippa Loveard and current Longhorns Shannon Barry, sophomore Mariam Soufi and freshman Ljiljana Josic to the 2017 CRCA Division I Pocock All-America Team.
The five student-athletes on a single All-America Team marked a program best for Texas after the Horns landed three student-athletes on the team in 2015 and 2016.
Doonan and Loveard became the first three-time All-America rowers at Texas. Doonan, the 2015 and 2017 Big 12 Conference Rower of the Year, was the first Texas rower to earn three first-team selections to the All-America Team. She earned first-team honors after her sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
The five Longhorns helped UT's varsity eight boat tie a school record with its fourth place individual finish at the NCAA Championships. Doonan, Loveard, Barry, Soufi and Josic also helped the varsity eight to its third straight Big 12 individual title, as Texas won its seventh team title in the nine-year history of the Big 12 Rowing Championship.
Players Mentioned
