Rutgers Women’s Rowing Finishes In 11th Place At NCAA Championships

In its first appearance at the NCAA Championships in 18 years, the 13th ranked Rutgers women’s rowing finished in 11th place overall this past weekend at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition, the 70 team points they produced was the third best result of the six Big Ten programs participating.

Rutgers had three boats race in the finals on Sunday. The varsity eight, led by First Team All-Big Ten honoree Sarah Jonahek, finished in fourth place in the Petite Final with a time of 6:16.509, securing a 10th place finish at the NCAA Championships. The second varsity eight finished with a time of 6:30.233, placing in 14th place in the C Final. The varsity four finished fourth in the Petite Final with a time of 7:08.564 and 10th place overall.

It all resulted in a program finish of 11th place, two spots better than its current national ranking as no. 11 Wisconsin finished 15th at the NCAA Championships, while no. 12 Duke finished 16th overall this past weekend. Here is how all 22 programs participating fared at the NCAA Championships.

Head coach Justin Price has done a tremendous job in his second year in charge of the program. They produced a program best fourth place finish at last month’s Big Ten Championships, earned three Big Ten Boat of the Week honors this season and earned the program’s highest national ranking ever.

Price was deservedly happy with how his program has progressed this season, saying Sunday, “I’m really proud of this entire team. The whole group, top to bottom, has really done a great job of working hard, good attitudes and a lot of hard work. We talk a lot about improvement and this group has improved a lot from the beginning of this year until the end. Price continued, ”I think we learned that what we’re doing is working. We’re making a lot progress and improvements and we’re really excited about it. Moving forward to the future, we want to continue to do what we’re doing, continue to be who we are and continue to represent Rutgers with a lot of pride.”

Congratulations to the Rutgers women’s rowing team, the oldest program on the banks, for having a great 2019 season. The program is clearly on the rise.