June 1, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SMITH CREW WINS SILVER AT NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Northampton, MA:  The Smith College crew raced to a second place finish at the NCAA Division III National Championship this past weekend in Sacramento, California. Six crews were invited to vie for the Division III title based on strength of season and final records - Smith, Ithaca, Coast Guard, the University of Puget Sound, Trinity and Williams. 

     To determine the team champion, each boat was given points equal to the place finished with the Grand Final scored 1-6 and the Petite Final 7-12. To determine the team winner, points for each boat were added and the team with the fewest points won.  Twelve eights (2 from each school) competed on Friday morning in two heats of six with the top two teams being seeded, the other varsity eights randomly placed and the JV eights placed in opposite heats from their varsity.  The winning crew in each heat automatically qualified for the Grand Final with all others going to two repechages in the afternoon. 

     IIthaca won its heat while the Smith JV finished 4th.  The Pioneers varsity boat finished second in its heat with a time of 7:11.3, just .7 seconds behind Puget Sound sending both Smith boats to the Repechage races later that afternoon.

     In the Repechage, the top two finishers in each race progressed to the Grand Final, all others to the Petite Final. Ithaca's JV placed in the top two in their race giving them two boats in the Grand Final. In the final heat of the day, Smith varsity took first place qualifying for the Grand Final while the JV boat rowed to third sending them to the Petite Final. The Smith JV placed second in the Petite Final with a time of 7:19.9, just three seconds behind Trinity's varsity boat. In the Grand Final, although the Pioneers led the entire course, they lost the race to Ithaca on the last stroke in a photo-finish to take the silver. The Pioneers time was 7:00.9 while Ithaca finished in a time of 7:00.8 while Williams finished third.  This was the Pioneer’s third appearance at the NCAA Championship and their best finish.

                           Division III Team Results
                                
                                       I Eights        II Eights        Total  Pts