The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
SMU
No. 1 Rowing preview: at No. 13 SMU
03.11.2022 | Rowing
The defending national champions open the 2022 campaign in Dallas.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 1 Texas Rowing opens the 2022 season on Saturday and Sunday in Dallas where the defending NCAA Champions will square off with the 13th-ranked SMU Mustangs at White Rock Lake.
When: March 12-13, 2022
Where: White Rock Lake, Dallas Texas
Results: Final results will be made available on TexasSports.com
Dual Schedule
Saturday, March 12
5:00 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 13
9:00 a.m. CT
The Matchup
Texas and SMU last met at the 2021 Longhorn Invite, with the Longhorns collecting victories in all four finals races in which the two teams went head-to-head. SMU finished 11th at the 2021 NCAA National Championship regatta, but the two programs did not face each other during the competition. The Mustangs are the defending American Athletic Conference Champions and head into this weekend's races after completing a pair of exhibitions against No. 16 Wisconsin and Louisville.
A Look at the Longhorns
The defending national champion and six-time defending Big 12 Conference champion Longhorns return four student-athletes who earned CRCA All-American recognition following last year's title run. Rowers Aspa Christodoulidis, Kaitlin Knifton, Francesca Raggi and coxswain Rachel Rane lead the way for Texas, as well as 2021 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Anna Jensen. All five were integral members of the Texas First Varsity Eight that powered past Stanford and Washington over the final 750 meters of the Grand Final to capture the first title in program history.
All told, 16 of the 20 rowers and all three coxswains who competed in the 2021 National Championship regatta are back in the fold.
Also returning from last year's champion First Eight boat are Lisa Gutfleisch and Susanna Temming, while returners from the Second Eight crew will be rowers Katelyn Bouthillette, Amber Harwood, Parker Illingworth, Izabela Krakic, Hannah Medcalf, and Samantha Schalk and coxswain Elizabeth Romero. Back from the Four is coxswain Olivia Fogarty and rowers Marlowe Eldridge, Cassandre Korvink-Kucinski and Lanie Nitsch.
Texas in the Polls
For the first time in program history, the Longhorns open the season as No. 1 in the 2022 Preseason Pocock Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Women's Rowing Polls. Texas received 19 of the 25 first-place votes to retain the No. 1 ranking for the third consecutive poll.
Stanford, the runner-up in the team standings at the 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Championships, ranked second in the poll and received the other six first-place votes, while Washington, Michigan and Virginia rounded out the top five.
Pocock CRCA/USRowing Division I Preseason Rankings – Feb. 16
1. TEXAS (19)
2. Stanford (6)
3. Washington
4. Michigan
5. Virginia
6. Ohio State
7. Brown
8. Rutgers
9. California
10. Princeton
11. Syracuse
12. Yale
13. SMU
14. Duke
15. Alabama
16. Wisconsin
17. Washington State
18. Tennessee
19. Oregon State
20. Indiana
Championship Pedigree
Texas has registered top-eight results in each of the last six NCAA Championship Regattas with program-best results in five, including each of the last four:
2021 – 1st
2020 – No regatta
2019 – 2nd
2018 – 3rd
2017 – 4th
2016 – 8th
2015 – 7th
Defending Champions
Texas enters 2022 as the six-time defending Big 12 Conference Champions. In all, Texas has won 10 of the 12 Big 12 Conference Championships held, placing runner-up in 2013 and fourth in 2014.
Players Mentioned
