Wolverines Earn 13th Straight Bid to NCAA Championships
5/18/2021 5:28:00 PM | Rowing
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The No. 6-ranked University of Michigan rowing team earned its 13th consecutive NCAA Championships bid by virtue of the team's performance at the Big Ten Championships last Sunday (May 16), and the remainder of the field was announced by the NCAA on Tuesday (May 18).
U-M will travel to Sarasota, Fla., for the three-day championship event beginning Friday (May 28) and ending on Sunday (May 30). Nathan Benderson Park will host the event, the same site of the 2018 NCAA Championships. This marks the second time overall that Florida has hosted the event, and the area will host again in 2022.
Additional Big Ten programs in the field include Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin, meaning half the conference will be represented at the championship regatta. In total, 10 programs earned automatic bids to the NCAA event, and 12 were at-large selections.
Competitions will include the first varsity eight, second varsity eight and first varsity four races. The three boats from each school will compete for individual national titles while earning points toward the overall team championship.
Michigan will enter the championship as the No. 5 seed in the first varsity eight. U-M also is ranked as the No. 5 seed in the second varsity eight and the No. 3 seed in the varsity four, and is the top-ranked Big Ten boat in all three events. However, Ohio State and Rutgers represent seeds six and seven in the varsity eight events, showing that the national perception is that the Big Ten is a tightly-packed conference. U-M is one of 22 teams competing overall, and is one of 10 automatic qualifiers.
U-M will travel to Florida next week. The early travel time will allow U-M to get acclimated to hotter temperatures than they are used to, and a course they have not seen in two years. Division I races will begin the morning of Friday, May 28.
Today's announcement comes on the heels of a busy conference championship weekend across the country. On Sunday (May 16), U-M captured the program's seventh Big Ten Championship, totaling a Michigan-record 191 points, one shy of a perfect score. U-M won six gold medals and placed five student-athletes on the all-conference team.
Michigan has placed in the top five in 10 of its 20 NCAA appearances and placed in the top 10 a total of 17 times, including a pair of third-place podium finishes in the most recent three-year stretch (2017, '19).
The Wolverines were the national runners-up in 2001 and 2012, their highest finish ever at the NCAA Regatta. In 2012, the Michigan 2V8 boat won a national championship, helping the Wolverines to second place in the team standings behind Virginia.
Tickets for the 2021 NCAA Divisions I, II and III Women's Rowing Championships are on sale to the general public and can be purchased through the host website. More information is available through the NCAA. All races will be streamed live and free of charge on NCAA.com.
