The old adage that the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask doesn’t always apply when speaking with college coaches. Your questions tell the coach something about you. Good questions are the ones that speak to your specific concerns, communicate your sincere interest in the team, and are best addressed by a coach. The worst questions are the ones that show you don’t really care, like asking for information you can find readily on the program website. 

In many instances, you will want to go to the student-athletes themselves with your questions rather than the coaches. They are more likely to speak the unvarnished truth, while the coach will be motivated to paint the program in the best light. 

It’s also important to know your place. Most college coaches are turned off when a 17-year-old asks, “What’s your coaching philosophy?” You’re not interviewing the coach for a job and you’re certainly not ready to answer a question about your rowing philosophy, so stick to the basics and use your powers of observation to see what the coach believes.

College coaches want prospects to take the initiative and lead their own college search. Prospects should communicate with the coach. Parents do, however, have an important role in the process, particularly when the talk turns to finances.

Often, prospects are interested most in how recruiting works at a particular school. They want to know if they can get a scholarship and/or if a coach can “support” their application with admissions colleagues. These are valid concerns. But would-be college rowers need to show coaches why they deserve a scholarship and their support before asking whether or not they’ll get it.

The post Why the Questions Prospective Student-Athletes Ask Matter appeared first on Rowing News.

Our athletes want to race and compete. Though motivated, they lack knowledge and experience. Coaches improve their rowers and crews by providing this knowledge and experience. We bring perspective from outside the boat and should look at the bigger picture always. We help our athletes best by identifying repeatedly the factors limiting performance and addressing them above all other concerns.

Athletes aside, most programs have substantial limitations. One or more of these may be addressable and, if remedied, result in a profound increase in speed. Survey the scene, compare your situation to those of your peer competitors (or those you want as your competitors), and see what can be done. Team culture? Recruiting? More coaches? Water time? Equipment? Admittedly, money plays a big role in the success of any program, but some limiting factors can be tackled without it. 

When thinking of limiting factors, we think more commonly of what’s happening in the boat. Here, it’s valuable to ascertain whether it’s limitations in skill, fitness and power, or psychology that are holding the crew back the most. If it’s skill, then differentiate between style and substance. Substance involves the laws of physics. Style is your way of doing things. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to dictate style at the expense of teaching substance. It’s shocking how much time and energy are spent on the minutiae of rowing at the expense of performing the basics better. 

If you’re not sure where to start, begin by making sure the boat is rigged appropriately for your athletes. Comfort in the boat is a precursor to performance. The next level of comfort involves stability of the shell when it’s moving. Stability provides a level platform for your rowers all through the stroke cycle. If that’s adequate, then everyone—and I mean everyone—can pull harder.

Yes, power is generally the ultimate limiting factor. If you’re pleased with the power output, help your rowers do a better job getting connected earlier in the drive. The front end is the ultimate technical limiting factor, and it can be coached. If still in doubt, enlist a more experienced coach to view your crew and offer his or her opinion on what’s limiting their racing. A fresh set of eyes can unlock amazing opportunities for increased speed. 

Sometimes the limiting factor may be just one athlete. Here your options are either to replace the athlete or coach up and improve the athlete. Replacing is easiest but not always available. Coaching up is harder, but by identifying the single greatest limitation of your athletes, you can speed their development. Better to focus narrowly on their limiting factors than overwhelm them by addressing every issue.  

Whether with your overall program, your crew, or a single athlete, exercise your coaching perspective by identifying the biggest limiting factor to successful performance. Once identified, address it continuously until progress is achieved and a new, but less detrimental, limiting factor emerges.

Then repeat the process.

The post Outside Perspective appeared first on Rowing News.

Staying on top of the latest sports-nutrition news can be a full-time job. Between conferences, webinars, and journal articles, I learn a lot of information that I like to translate into practical tips to share with athletes like you. Enjoy this news you can use.

• If you try to stay away from peanut butter, deeming it to be fattening, think again. Peanut butter—and peanuts in any form—contribute to no more weight gain than the same number of calories from carbohydrate-rich snacks. In a 10-week weight-gain study that included lifting weights three times a week, 28 athletic women and men (average age 25) consumed:

— an extra 500 calories of peanuts and peanut butter-based snacks, or

—an extra 500 calories of peanut-free carb-based snack foods (such as pretzels, fruit chews, bagels).

The carb-snackers gained about six pounds; the peanut eaters gained only about 3.5 pounds. How could this be?

One explanation is that the fiber and fat in peanut butter are satiating. That means it keeps you feeling fed for longer than fat-free foods such as pretzels. Peanut butter can curb your appetite, so you end up eating fewer calories overall for the day.

This study confirms why I vote peanut butter one of the best sports foods around (assuming you’re not allergic to it). Peanut butter requires no refrigeration, is anti-inflammatory, nutrient-rich, inexpensive, and most important, yummy. How about enjoying more peanut butter on bananas for your morning and afternoon snacks?

• When athletes go on a low-carb/low-calorie diet, their bones go on a diet also. In a study of 327 runners (ages 18 to 35) who trained eight or more hours a week, those who restricted carbs and/or trained without having eaten first, experienced 1.5 times more bone injuries More research is needed to learn how carbs and calories can influence bone health. In the meantime, enjoy carb-based grains, fruits and veggies at every meal.

• With global warming, athletes who exercise in the heat should take steps to prevent problems related to elevated body temperature. One tip is to pre-cool your body before exercise. Try drinking ice water or slushies or sucking on ice chips. Doing so might give you greater endurance.

• A study of female professional soccer players revealed that they burned about 2,900 calories per day. Of that, about 1,400 calories supported their resting metabolic rate (calories needed to be alive) and about 1,200 calories were burned during exercise; the rest supported general daily activities. This equates to about three 700- to 800-calorie meals per day, plus two 200- to 300-calorie snacks. That’s a lot of food. For athletes who may wonder, “Why do I feel hungry all the time?”, the answer might be because your body is hungry!

• When female athletes under-eat, they commonly stop having regular menstrual periods. When male athletes under-eat, they experience hormonal changes that can lead to loss of sex drive. In a study involving 10 healthy active males (circa age 25) who dieted strictly for five days—they ate less food and exercised more—the calorie deficit caused significant physiological changes. The men lost about six pounds (more muscle than fat, as happens with quick weight loss). Their thyroid hormones dropped, as did their testosterone levels.

Restrictive dieting reduces the intake not only of calories but also protein, calcium, iron, zinc, and many other valuable nutrients needed to maintain optimal health and performance. Don’t restrict your eating because you think you should. Listen to your body. Stop eating because you feel satiated, not just because the food is gone.

•  Athletes in endurance sports (such as rowers, runners, and triathletes) and jumping sports (such as basketball and volleyball players) prefer to be light to enhance their performance. The problem is that long-term restrictive eating can contribute to health issues. In a study comparing weight-conscious male athletes (age 24) to a group of fitness exercisers, the athletes were leaner but also had lower levels of thyroid hormone (a sign they were conserving energy). They also had weaker bones. If you skimp on food to be lean, your best bet is to seek guidance from a registered dietitian who specializes in sports dietetics. This professional can help you achieve your weight goals healthfully. Use the referral network at eatright.org to find your local sports dietitian.

• Personal trainers commonly believe they should have a “perfect” physique to achieve success in their careers. This can put them at high risk of developing eating disorders. Among personal trainers who responded to recruitment messages on Twitter and Instagram, 15 percent reported high levels of disordered-eating behavior (binge-eating, restrictive dieting, over-exercising). Trainers like this should not be role models. We need authentic fitness leaders who represent a variety of sizes and shapes that the average exerciser can attain and maintain. Don’t be fooled; a “perfect body” generally comes at a high cost.

• Some women gain belly fat during menopause. This might be related to midlife lifestyle changes and aging as well as  hormonal shifts. Peri-menopausal women who had big dinners and snacked frequently at the end of the day tended to have more belly fat than those who front-loaded their calories. One suggested weight-management solution (for both women and men) is to eat less at night. A satiating high-protein breakfast can help reduce the urge to overeat at the end of the day. Peanut butter on a bagel with a side of Greek yogurt, anyone?    

The post The Virtues of Peanut Butter (And Other Nutritious Nuggets) appeared first on Rowing News.

After our first fall season, most of us stick with coxing because we realize that the feeling of slicing through the water in a really powerful boat is intoxicating, not because we want to walk around a musty erg room with clipboards for four months.

When you’re indoors, it’s hard to stay engaged. Your role is much less defined, making it easy to feel bored, aimless, and apathetic about coxing. If you’re serious about your role on the team, though, you’ll realize that there are just as many opportunities to get better and faster in the winter as there are on the water.

Work out with the team: This doesn’t mean you have to get on the erg and do pieces with them but you can participate in running a stadium or doing body-weight and core circuits. While the team is doing steady-state pieces, you can get on the bike also and do pieces of comparable intensity, all while continuing to call switches in rate and when pieces start and stop.

The goal isn’t to match what the rowers are doing but to do as much as you’re capable. The fact that your teammates see you doing something (and taking it seriously) will earn their trust, respect, and loyalty. It’s also about learning the true definition of “more.” If you’re seeing stars at the end of a stadium, which is how your rowers feel when they’re gassed at the end of a piece, they’ll know that when you ask for “more” you’ve been there, too, and that you get what it means to go until you can’t go anymore and give until there’s nothing left to give.

Observe individuals on the erg: From a technical standpoint, winter training is an excellent time to follow each rower closely to see how he or she responds to training at increasing levels of exhaustion. By isolating their bodies and observing them individually instead of as part of a larger crew, you can determine how they respond to the intensity or duration of a piece by noting changes in technique and rhythm, etc. Keep your notebook on hand so you can record what you’re seeing and what the coach is saying so you can fashion customized calls later on.

Learn how to call drills effectively: This was a regular part of winter training for coxswains when I was in high school. Frequently, as part of the warm-up, we would do the same technical drills on the ergs that we’d do on the water, and we coxswains were responsible for their execution.

I remember being super-intimidated the first time I had to do it, but a varsity coxswain told me they were all bad at it at first and had no idea what to say. This exercise is what helped them get comfortable coxing everyone on the team (not just their usual rowers) and allowed them to test-run different calls, tones, and ways of executing drills with minimal backlash when something went wrong.

I’ll say the same to you guys, too—we were all lousy at this stuff when we began. None of us knew what to say, and what we did say made us cringe because it sounded stupid. Persisting through and past the urge to crawl inside yourself is a necessary experience, though. If you can do it on land, you can do it on water, which is where and when it counts most.

In addition to improving your call and tone while executing drills, it’s beneficial to learn the purpose of the drills and what your coach is trying to accomplish. Getting on the erg and going through the drills yourself improves your ability to explain what it should feel like. “Hang your weight off the handle” might not make sense, but “you wanna feel the lats engage as the blade enters the water and the leg drive begins” adds helpful clarity and specificity. This is especially important if you’re coxing novices or other less-experienced rowers. In the more senior boats, attention to detail can be a difference-maker throughout the season when it’s less about how powerful you are and more about how well you move the boat.

Determine your objectives and set some goals: This is something every coxswain should do at the start of winter training. Begin by reflecting on the previous season, taking stock of where you excelled, where you improved, and where significant changes are needed, and then determine what steps you’re going to take to address those areas over the winter.

Obviously, you can’t work on skills like steering or boat feel but everything else (managing a practice, developing your technical eye, running through calls, communication, etc.) is fair game. Involve your coach in the goal-setting process. It’s up to you to advocate for yourself when it comes to being coached. Informing your coach of your goals and seeking advice about how to achieve them is the first step.

Don’t be afraid to take a step back in the winter, but don’t become so disengaged that you go to the boathouse only to keep up appearances. If you’re going to go (or have to be there), commit to leaving each day able to say you learned or did something that’s going to make you better in the spring.

The post The Art of Indoor Coxing appeared first on Rowing News.

Coaches urge their athletes often to prioritize rest, whether focusing on recovery on a Sunday in season or on getting a real break from training for a week or two after the championship. We know this is a crucial part of not only performance but also longevity in the sport. Athletes cannot train at an ever-increasing volume or intensity; there must be time for adaptation. What’s often overlooked is that this is true for coaches, too. It’s in our nature to forge ahead all year long, always searching for that slight competitive edge, one more call with a recruit, one more note to a donor.

As Lizzy Houston, associate head coach of the Stanford lightweight women, puts it, “There is no office. I’ll make a lineup at 7 p.m. or check out the training plan I made for the next two weeks and see if I can make an adjustment.”

Wes Ng, head coach of women’s rowing at the University of Pennsylvania, sees parallels with training.

“There is certainly the analogy between the type of exercise you’re doing and the type of recovery you’re doing—stimulus and adaptation. Are we doing that on the coaching side? We’re probably skewed toward nothing but stimulus and very little recovery.”

Coaches, like their athletes, cannot work at an ever-increasing volume if the profession is going to be sustainable. To be good leaders and mentors, coaches need to walk the talk and seize the opportunity to rest themselves. Just as an overtrained, under-recovered athlete is ripe for injury or underperformance, coaches who don’t take time for themselves are going to lack the patience, clarity, and even motivation to bring their best to the job each day.

The realities of the competitive seasons mean that coaches are hard-pressed to take any meaningful time away from their responsibilities. That’s why it’s so imperative that we take advantage of the winter break. Our athletes have gone home for a week or a month. There’s likely nothing more that can be done to ensure they are training. Now we just have to wait. Rather than fret, something I was certainly prone to, now is the time to relish the space and quiet. Athletes are likely not texting or calling as regularly. Staff meetings are at a minimum. It’s one of the few times of year you can really turn off your work phone and email.

Another reason to take time off and be diligent about restricting your availability during this time is to teach your athletes how to treat you. If you answer every text immediately, even at night or on a day off, athletes will grow to expect that of you, understandably. Conversely, if you tell your athletes that you are available to them only within certain time frames (excluding emergencies, of course), you teach them to have realistic expectations and to solve problems on their own. If you say you’re taking time to focus on yourself, your family, and your friends over the holidays, you will undermine that message totally by being responsive immediately to every text and email.

This doesn’t mean you should abandon these team members about whom you care, no doubt, very deeply. Use your “Out of Office” email response. Set expectations with your team before parting ways for winter break. Give them the time and attention they deserve when you have the time and attention to devote to them. This is the best way to teach your team how you do, and do not, want to communicate during the regular season.

So take this rare time to do whatever makes you feel fresh and ready to take on the bulk of winter training and then the spring. Figure out what that is and don’t let anything get in the way of taking care of yourself.

Happy Holidays!

The post Off the Clock appeared first on Rowing News.

To determine the top 25 collegiate crews in the United States, each team was assigned relative weights for competitive speed, and a proprietary formula produced an overall score for each program, with the top 25 published here.

Right from the start, we know there will be howls of complaint about a university like Texas with a great NCAA women’s program not making the top 10 of the 2023 Rowing News Top 25 Overall College Programs. We can’t emphasize “overall” enough.

While the Longhorns finished a commendable fourth at the NCAAs—a result that would be the highlight of most rowing careers and included victory for the Texas varsity four—they didn’t score a single point in our overall ranking in the varsity heavyweight men’s, lightweight men’s, or lightweight women’s categories. Texas doesn’t have varsity programs in those three categories, although they certainly have the resources for it. That’s a choice.

Texas Crew, its club program, had some good results at the ACRA regatta, but those points weren’t enough to bring the overall score up to the level of universities that support more complete and nationally competitive rowing programs for men and women. The same is true of SMU this year and will likely be true in the years to come of many other universities that support only openweight women’s varsities.

The NCAA championships, which are for openweight women’s varsities only, are decided on team scores, while the other national championships are based on the individual varsity eights alone. The NCAA’s championship structure adds another complication to how we determine the ranking with its “automatic qualifiers” (the winners of 11 conference championships qualify automatically for the 22-school Division I field, and the remaining 11 spots are selected at large by a committee).

The result is that a program like Harvard/Radcliffe, fifth at this year’s Ivy League Championships, gets left out of the championship—and our previous ranking system—while slower, automatically qualified schools are in.

In this year’s system, we’ve added “fitting” to the process, awarding ranking points to NCAA Division I programs not invited to the championship, based on spring results against crews that were.

These rankings rely exclusively on demonstrated speed in 2,000-meter racing at season-culminating championships, with the exception of the aforementioned NCAA adjustments. They reflect the relative speed of the overall rowing programs at each college and not the quality of the experience for the student-athletes.

1. Princeton University

Princeton remains the top overall rowing college in 2023 after winning both the men’s and women’s lightweight national championships as well as finishing third in both the NCAA women’s championship and IRA men’s heavyweight championships.

The third-place finishes are even more impressive than the national championships because they came against deeper, faster fields, including universities whose athletic scholarships, program support, and coaches’ salaries exceed the Olympic programs of most nations and verge on being professional.

Rowing out of Shea Rowing Center on the man-made Lake Carnegie, purpose-built for rowing, the Tigers hardly go wanting. Even though league rules forbid athletic scholarships, the financial aid at Ivy League schools, and particularly at Princeton, is tremendous and often grant-only (no student loans) and better than athletic scholarships because it can’t be taken away.

At the end of the season, Princeton, across all four categories, was just plain fast. The Tigers celebrated in style with a massive contingent making the trip to race at Henley Royal Regatta.

See more rankings here.

The post Rowing News – Top 25 of 2023: Number 1 appeared first on Rowing News.

To determine the top 25 collegiate crews in the United States, each team was assigned relative weights for competitive speed, and a proprietary formula produced an overall score for each program, with the top 25 published here.

Right from the start, we know there will be howls of complaint about a university like Texas with a great NCAA women’s program not making the top 10 of the 2023 Rowing News Top 25 Overall College Programs. We can’t emphasize “overall” enough.

While the Longhorns finished a commendable fourth at the NCAAs—a result that would be the highlight of most rowing careers and included victory for the Texas varsity four—they didn’t score a single point in our overall ranking in the varsity heavyweight men’s, lightweight men’s, or lightweight women’s categories. Texas doesn’t have varsity programs in those three categories, although they certainly have the resources for it. That’s a choice.

Texas Crew, its club program, had some good results at the ACRA regatta, but those points weren’t enough to bring the overall score up to the level of universities that support more complete and nationally competitive rowing programs for men and women. The same is true of SMU this year and will likely be true in the years to come of many other universities that support only openweight women’s varsities.

The NCAA championships, which are for openweight women’s varsities only, are decided on team scores, while the other national championships are based on the individual varsity eights alone. The NCAA’s championship structure adds another complication to how we determine the ranking with its “automatic qualifiers” (the winners of 11 conference championships qualify automatically for the 22-school Division I field, and the remaining 11 spots are selected at large by a committee).

The result is that a program like Harvard/Radcliffe, fifth at this year’s Ivy League Championships, gets left out of the championship—and our previous ranking system—while slower, automatically qualified schools are in.

In this year’s system, we’ve added “fitting” to the process, awarding ranking points to NCAA Division I programs not invited to the championship, based on spring results against crews that were.

These rankings rely exclusively on demonstrated speed in 2,000-meter racing at season-culminating championships, with the exception of the aforementioned NCAA adjustments. They reflect the relative speed of the overall rowing programs at each college and not the quality of the experience for the student-athletes.

2. University of Washington

Even without lightweight programs for either men or women, Washington ranks second this year on the strength of second-place finishes at both the NCAA and IRA national championships. Both impressive performances came as surprises to outside observers, but not to women’s coach Yaz Farooq or men’s coach Michael Callahan. The Huskies staffs knew they had developing speed through the spring after taking their lumps in the early season—the men on a Canadian trip and the women at the San Diego Crew Classic. But when it mattered, they were faster than all but one and enter 2024 as favorites for both national championships.

The post Rowing News – Top 25 of 2023: Number 2 appeared first on Rowing News.

To determine the top 25 collegiate crews in the United States, each team was assigned relative weights for competitive speed, and a proprietary formula produced an overall score for each program, with the top 25 published here.

Right from the start, we know there will be howls of complaint about a university like Texas with a great NCAA women’s program not making the top 10 of the 2023 Rowing News Top 25 Overall College Programs. We can’t emphasize “overall” enough.

While the Longhorns finished a commendable fourth at the NCAAs—a result that would be the highlight of most rowing careers and included victory for the Texas varsity four—they didn’t score a single point in our overall ranking in the varsity heavyweight men’s, lightweight men’s, or lightweight women’s categories. Texas doesn’t have varsity programs in those three categories, although they certainly have the resources for it. That’s a choice.

Texas Crew, its club program, had some good results at the ACRA regatta, but those points weren’t enough to bring the overall score up to the level of universities that support more complete and nationally competitive rowing programs for men and women. The same is true of SMU this year and will likely be true in the years to come of many other universities that support only openweight women’s varsities.

The NCAA championships, which are for openweight women’s varsities only, are decided on team scores, while the other national championships are based on the individual varsity eights alone. The NCAA’s championship structure adds another complication to how we determine the ranking with its “automatic qualifiers” (the winners of 11 conference championships qualify automatically for the 22-school Division I field, and the remaining 11 spots are selected at large by a committee).

The result is that a program like Harvard/Radcliffe, fifth at this year’s Ivy League Championships, gets left out of the championship—and our previous ranking system—while slower, automatically qualified schools are in.

In this year’s system, we’ve added “fitting” to the process, awarding ranking points to NCAA Division I programs not invited to the championship, based on spring results against crews that were.

These rankings rely exclusively on demonstrated speed in 2,000-meter racing at season-culminating championships, with the exception of the aforementioned NCAA adjustments. They reflect the relative speed of the overall rowing programs at each college and not the quality of the experience for the student-athletes.

3. Yale University

Yale’s consistent excellence across the three categories of openweight women, heavyweight men, and lightweight men continued this year, with the heavies finishing fourth and the lightweight men sixth at the IRA. Combining the fifth-place NCAA finish by the women (tied for fourth on points) and grand-final speed across a nearly complete program (Yale lacks a women’s lightweight varsity) makes the Elis the third-best overall rowing college in America.

The post Rowing News – Top 25 of 2023: Number 3 appeared first on Rowing News.

To determine the top 25 collegiate crews in the United States, each team was assigned relative weights for competitive speed, and a proprietary formula produced an overall score for each program, with the top 25 published here.

Right from the start, we know there will be howls of complaint about a university like Texas with a great NCAA women’s program not making the top 10 of the 2023 Rowing News Top 25 Overall College Programs. We can’t emphasize “overall” enough.

While the Longhorns finished a commendable fourth at the NCAAs—a result that would be the highlight of most rowing careers and included victory for the Texas varsity four—they didn’t score a single point in our overall ranking in the varsity heavyweight men’s, lightweight men’s, or lightweight women’s categories. Texas doesn’t have varsity programs in those three categories, although they certainly have the resources for it. That’s a choice.

Texas Crew, its club program, had some good results at the ACRA regatta, but those points weren’t enough to bring the overall score up to the level of universities that support more complete and nationally competitive rowing programs for men and women. The same is true of SMU this year and will likely be true in the years to come of many other universities that support only openweight women’s varsities.

The NCAA championships, which are for openweight women’s varsities only, are decided on team scores, while the other national championships are based on the individual varsity eights alone. The NCAA’s championship structure adds another complication to how we determine the ranking with its “automatic qualifiers” (the winners of 11 conference championships qualify automatically for the 22-school Division I field, and the remaining 11 spots are selected at large by a committee).

The result is that a program like Harvard/Radcliffe, fifth at this year’s Ivy League Championships, gets left out of the championship—and our previous ranking system—while slower, automatically qualified schools are in.

In this year’s system, we’ve added “fitting” to the process, awarding ranking points to NCAA Division I programs not invited to the championship, based on spring results against crews that were.

These rankings rely exclusively on demonstrated speed in 2,000-meter racing at season-culminating championships, with the exception of the aforementioned NCAA adjustments. They reflect the relative speed of the overall rowing programs at each college and not the quality of the experience for the student-athletes.

4. Stanford University

The Stanford openweight women recovered from distinct losses to Texas at the San Diego Crew Classic to turn its season around and beat the two-time defending NCAA-champion Longhorns finally at the end of the season. That national championship, supported by the Cardinal lightweight womens’ silver medal and heavyweight men’s eighth-place finish at the IRA, leads to Stanford’s overall fourth-best ranking.

The post Rowing News – Top 25 of 2023: Number 4 appeared first on Rowing News.

To determine the top 25 collegiate crews in the United States, each team was assigned relative weights for competitive speed, and a proprietary formula produced an overall score for each program, with the top 25 published here.

Right from the start, we know there will be howls of complaint about a university like Texas with a great NCAA women’s program not making the top 10 of the 2023 Rowing News Top 25 Overall College Programs. We can’t emphasize “overall” enough.

While the Longhorns finished a commendable fourth at the NCAAs—a result that would be the highlight of most rowing careers and included victory for the Texas varsity four—they didn’t score a single point in our overall ranking in the varsity heavyweight men’s, lightweight men’s, or lightweight women’s categories. Texas doesn’t have varsity programs in those three categories, although they certainly have the resources for it. That’s a choice.

Texas Crew, its club program, had some good results at the ACRA regatta, but those points weren’t enough to bring the overall score up to the level of universities that support more complete and nationally competitive rowing programs for men and women. The same is true of SMU this year and will likely be true in the years to come of many other universities that support only openweight women’s varsities.

The NCAA championships, which are for openweight women’s varsities only, are decided on team scores, while the other national championships are based on the individual varsity eights alone. The NCAA’s championship structure adds another complication to how we determine the ranking with its “automatic qualifiers” (the winners of 11 conference championships qualify automatically for the 22-school Division I field, and the remaining 11 spots are selected at large by a committee).

The result is that a program like Harvard/Radcliffe, fifth at this year’s Ivy League Championships, gets left out of the championship—and our previous ranking system—while slower, automatically qualified schools are in.

In this year’s system, we’ve added “fitting” to the process, awarding ranking points to NCAA Division I programs not invited to the championship, based on spring results against crews that were.

These rankings rely exclusively on demonstrated speed in 2,000-meter racing at season-culminating championships, with the exception of the aforementioned NCAA adjustments. They reflect the relative speed of the overall rowing programs at each college and not the quality of the experience for the student-athletes.

5. University of California, Berkeley

Under the direction of Scott Frandsen, the 2023 Rowing News Coach of the Year, the Cal men had an IRA that was historically successful, winning the varsity, JV, and third-varsity heavyweight eights, plus the varsity four. The Golden Bears won the James Ten Eyck Memorial Trophy for points at the IRA, and the Cal women finished eighth in NCAA Division I points—three points out of sixth but also only 11 points ahead of 11th—for a combined overall ranking of fifth.

The post Rowing News – Top 25 of 2023: Number 5 appeared first on Rowing News.