Courtesy Cal-Berkeley/NCAA.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – For the fourth time in program history, the Williams women’s crew has captured the NCAA Division III women’s rowing title. In the grand final, the Williams 1V and 2V boats placed second and third, outdistancing runner-up Trinity for the team title. Williams was the only team to send a second varsity eight to the grand final.

In the petite final, all eyes were turned to Trinity’s second eight, racing in lane four. As Williams’ top threat for the team title, the Trinity 2V would need to pull out a strong finish in the petite final to keep their team in the hunt for the team trophy. Bates (1V), the third place team at the 2007 NCAA Championships, made a strong statement early in the race with a nearly a four second lead over the rest of the field with 1,000 meters down. Trinity (2V) and St. Lawrence (1V) made it a close race down the entire course, trading leads but never outdistancing the other crew by more than a second. Trinity made a final push in with 700 meters to go, but St. Lawrence responded and nipped the Trinity 2V by 0.6 tenths of a second to claim second in the petite final, leaving Trinity in third. William Smith (1V), Washington College, and Ithaca (2V) followed in fourth through sixth places.

In the grand final, Trinity (1V), racing in lane one, moved off the line with impressive speed, gaining several seats on the Williams 1V and 2V boats, racing in lanes two and three. The Williams 1V boat chased after, with the Williams 2V holding ground not far being in third place, but Trinity had stretched their lead to nearly a length by the 1,000 meter mark. Williams made several moves to cut into Trinity’s lead and distance themselves from their own 2V, but could not regain enough ground and had to settle for second in the grand final. Trinity crossed the line in first (6:57.01) with Williams overlapping bow to stern in second (7:00.60). The Williams 2V followed another length back in third place (7:04.55). Puget Sound (1V), Ithaca (1V), and Coast Guard (1V) followed in fourth through sixth places.

With a second and third place finish in the grand final, Williams captured the NCAA team trophy with 25 points. Runner-up Trinity, with their first place finish in the grand final and their 2V’s third place finish in the petite final, took second with 21 points. Puget Sound and Ithaca tied for third, but by virtue of their higher finish in the grand final, Puget Sound took the third place team trophy, with Ithaca in fourth.

This is the fourth overall and third-straight NCAA Division III women’s rowing title for the Ephs. Additionally, this is the third NCAA title for head coach Justin Moore, tying women’s cross country coach Pete Farwell and former men’s tennis coach Dave Johnson for the most NCAA titles won by a coach for a single sport at Williams, and the nineteenth NCAA title for Williams College.