No. 3 Rowing Earns Bid to NCAA National Regatta

Spartans will make their 11th appearance in 12 seasons at the National Regatta. EAST LANSING, Mich. – The third-ranked Michigan State rowing program has

Spartans will make their 11th appearance in 12 seasons at the National Regatta.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The third-ranked Michigan State rowing program has earned a berth in the 16-team 2009 NCAA National Regatta, which will be held in Cherry Hill, N.J., from May 29-31, as announced by the NCAA Selection Committee Tuesday evening. Villanova will serve as the host institution of this year’s championship. This year marks the 11th time in the last 12 seasons that the MSU rowing program will be represented at the national regatta and it will be the ninth time that the Spartans will have a full team at the championships. MSU tied its top finish at last year’s regatta, finishing sixth overall. Both the varsity four and varsity eight boats also tied their best finishes at the event last season, placing fifth and sixth, respectively.
“Obviously, we are very happy to be going to the National Regatta,” head coach Matt Weise said. “It is always a very fast event and I am excited to get out there and test our team against some of the best teams in the nation.”

The bid is the Spartans’ seventh full-team bid in the last eight seasons as the only year in which the team did not qualify for the National Regatta was in 2007, which is the only year that the Spartans did not qualify since becoming a varsity sport in 1998. MSU has now received nine team bids and received at-large berths for their varsity eight boat in both 1998 and 2001.

The team championships are comprised of 16 teams and each team is required to field two boats of eight rowers and one boat of four rowers. 2009 marks the first year that the field will feature 16 teams, rather than the 12 with four at-large varsity eight boats as in previous years. Joining the Spartans amongst the field of 16 will be three other Big Ten schools - Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin - along with Brown, California, Clemson, Dartmouth, Harvard, Oregon State, Princeton, Southern California, Stanford, Virginia, Washington and Yale.

The Spartans put together a fine season in 2009, earning them the berth at the National Regatta. After spending the majority of the season ranked in the nation’s top five in the CRCA Coaches Poll, the Spartans earned their highest ranking - third - after winning their second-straight Big Ten title on May 2. The Spartans’ varsity eight and second varsity eight each claimed Big Ten titles while head coach Matt Weise and senior Sarah Schmidt (Grosse Ile, Mich.) took home Big Ten Coach of the Year and Big Ten Athlete of the Year, respectively. Several other Spartans earned Big Ten honors as well, highlighted by Lauren Gamble (Commerce Township, Mich.) and Amanda Dunnill (Flushing, Mich.), who were named First Team All-Big Ten. Seniors Ashley Peach (St. John’s, Newfoundland) and Nancy Diehl (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) were also honored as Second Team All-Big Ten Selections. MSU is coming off of a third-place overall finish - and second-place nod in the Central Region - at the Aramark South/Central Sprints last weekend.

For more information on the NCAA National Regatta, please visit www.ncaa.com.