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No. 7 Rutgers women’s rowing earned a seventh-place national finish at the 2021 NCAA Championships on Sunday. The Scarlet Knights totaled 96 team points on the final day of competition at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. It was the program’s best ever finish in school history.
Another historic season ends with an outstanding team finish at the NCAA Championships.
— RutgersWomensRowing (@RutgersWRowing) May 30, 2021
96 points for 7th place in the country.#UpstreamRedTeam pic.twitter.com/opZQ6yNEep
The Varsity 8 boat finished fifth in the grand final out of six national finalists with a time of 6:27.635. It was an impressive showing for a crew that raced at an elite level all season. They finished ahead of Virginia, who beat them earlier this season and finished fifth nationally overall at the NCAA Championships. This came after earning the program’s first ever Silver Medal at the Big Ten Championships earlier this month.
The Varsity 4 won their petite final for a seventh-place national finish with a time of 7:21.861 in defeating Washington by more than two seconds.
The Second Varsity 8 finished fourth in the petite final with a time of 6:34.601 for a 10th place finish nationally. They were less than four seconds behind the winning boat from Brown and half a second from finishing ahead of California.
The program made its second consecutive NCAA Championships appearance after ending a 18 year drought to finish in 11th place nationally in 2019. Rutgers continued to make progress under head coach Justin Price in his third full season and fourth year overall on the banks. After being ranked 10th in the preseason polls, the Scarlet Knights soared as high as 4th nationally in April before delivering its best ever finish this weekend for a seventh place finish at the NCAA Championships.
“This was a fantastic weekend and another significant step forward for our program,” Price said. “Our team showed tremendous determination and made a statement with our performance all season long. I am incredibly proud of our entire team for everything that has been accomplished and am looking forward to continuing to build momentum.”
It’s been a tremendous rise for this program since Price’s arrival. The future remains bright for Rutgers women’s rowing.
Price at the helm of @RutgersWRowing “stratospheric rise” pic.twitter.com/zQOVM2R1dr
— kat mac (@katmac18) May 30, 2021
Final Team Standings
1. Texas 126
2. Stanford 126
3. Washington 126
4. Michigan 108
5. Virginia 106
6. Ohio State 104
7. RUTGERS 96
8. Brown 88
9. California 83
10. Syracuse 69
11. SMU 68
12. Princeton 67
13. Alabama 55
14. Wisconsin 55
15. Washington St 55
16. Duke 55
17. Tennessee 36
18. Navy 34
19. Northeastern 20
20. Gonzaga 19
21. Rhode Island 14
22. Marist 8