Two UW crews alive in NCAA tournament

Two Washington Husky crews will continue racing at the NCAA Championships today at Melton Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The second varsity eight and the varsity four both finished third in their respective heats and will race again in today's repechage events. Only the heat winners earned a bid into Sunday's Grand Finals, while the 10 other crews will race again for spots in the grand and petite finals.

Washington's varsity eight was eliminated from competition today, after a fifth-place showing in its heat race and a fourth-place finish in the repechage. Princeton, the defending NCAA varsity eight champion, took the last semifinal spot in the repechage race, edging out the Huskies by just more than 2.5 seconds.

The UW junior-varsity eight had a strong performance, and despite holding fifth place at the halfway point of the race, continued to push through.

By the 1,500-meter mark, Washington had overtaken one spot from Harvard. The Huskies posted the second fastest split time in the final 500 meters and passed Pac-10 foe USC to take third place in 6 minutes, 57.39 seconds. The team will row in the second repechage this morning.

The Huskies' varsity four will race in the second repechage this morning.

From sports-information reports.

NCAA Championships

At Oak Ridge (Melton Lake), Tenn.

DIVISION I RESULTS

First eights

Heat 3 — 1. Southern California 6:39.00; 2. Minnesota 6:39.56; 3. Ohio State 6:40.18; 4. California 6:41.06; 5. Washington 6:47.50

Repechage — 1. Stanford 6 :35.98; 2. Tennessee 6:36.91; 3. Princeton 6:37.41; 4. Washington 6:40.09; 5. UCLA 6:42.20; 6. California 6:42.70; 7. Central Florida 6:52.27

UW lineup: cox- Alysha Koorji; stroke- Ashley Jones; 7- Asiha Grigsby; 6- Taryn Langlois; 5- Kim Kennedy; 4- Andrea Sooter; 3- Cara Troelstra; 2- Kim Armstrong; bow- Courtney Plitt

Second eights

Heat 1 — 1. Virginia 6:48.77; 2. California 6:53.13; 3. Washington 6:57.39; 4. Southern California 6:58.08; 5. Harvard 7:00.80; 6. Princeton 7:01.39

UW lineup: cox- Sofia Benson-Goldberg; stroke- Liz Simenstead; 7- Jamie Unwin; 6- Corianne Bowman; 5- Erika Sweet; 4- Charlene Franklin; 3- Kelly Foster; 2- Samantha Smith; bow- Andrea Smith

Fours

Heat 1 — 1. Virginia 7:34.48; 2. Southern California 7:43.75; 3. Washington 7:50.03; 4. Minnesota 7:53.51; 5. Harvard 7:54.24; 6. Tennessee 7:55.80

UW lineup: cox- Maggie Cheek; stroke- Jen Dwyer; 3- Rosie DeBoef; 2- Erin Knox; bow- Kayleigh Mack