The Ephs won its eighth straight NCAA Div. III rowing championship on Saturday.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Williams College women's crew team won both the I Eights Grand Final and the II Eights Grand Final Saturday morning, capturing its eighth consecutive NCAA Div. III rowing championships at Eagle Creek Park.

 

Williams finished with a team total of 42 points, the maximum a team gets to reach at the national championships. It was the ninth championship in the history of the Williams women's crew program.

 

The I Eights boat of Anna Hopkins as the coxswain, Dana Golden in the stroke seat, Anne Haley, Piper Sallquist, Emma Laukitis, Stephanie Neul, Andrea Remec, Margaret Steer in seats seven through two and Katie Westervelt in the bow, took an early five-seat lead over Bates in the Grand Final after 500 meters. Bates, William Smith and Washington College had their boats less than three seconds behind at 1000 meters.

 

The Ephs led by less than two seconds at the 1500-meter mark, but pulled away over the past 250 meters to take a boat length lead over Bates before the Bobcats closed just a bit before the finish to close the gap to 2.232 seconds by the finish.

 

The II Eights Grand Final was won by the Ephs boat of  Joowon Choi as the coxswain, Anne Tewksbury at stroke, with Katie Constantini, Tala Abujbara, Sophia Jannetty, Jenna Maddock, Andrea Dunchus, Julia May in seats seven through two and Katherine Amano in the bow.

 

The Ephs held a slight lead at 500 meters, but made a strong move between 500 and 1000 meters and increased their lead by just over two seconds. Another 1.5 seconds increase between the 1000-meter mark and the finish saw the Ephs beat second-place Trinity by just about 3.5 seconds, 7:24.573 to 7:28.026.

 

The win by the Ephs now gives Williams 30 NCAA titles overall and marks the second time (2002) that men's tennis, woemen's tennis and women's crew have won the NCAA title in the same spring season.