Eph Women’s Crew Headed to NCAAs for 9th Time in 10 Years
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College interim head coach Brad Hemmerly, who served the past two years as an assistant
coach to Justin Moore, has guided the Ephs back to the NCAA Rowing Championships for Women. The Ephs have qualified for the NCAA Division III Rowing Championships nine of the 10 years that the event has been held and they have won six of the 9 titles they've contested, including the last five in a row. Williams won the first NCAA Division III rowing title in 2002 in Indianapolis.
If the Ephs are going to extend their streak of titles to six in a row and seven overall they will have to travel the Sacramento State Aquatic Center in Gold River, Calif., to get the job done on May 27 and 28.
By virtue of their strong showing at the ECACs and NESCACs, where they won both titles, NESCAC title earned the Ephs the only automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Rowing Championships. "We're excited that we received a bid for the 2011 NCAA Championships," noted Hemmerly. "The team and coaching staff have been working very hard for an entire year to afford ourselves this opportunity to race for our seventh NCAA Rowing Championship."
Joining the Ephs in California to compete for the NCAA title are Bates College, Ithaca College, Trinity College, Wellesley College, William Smith College, Marietta College and Puget Sound College.
Ithaca is the only team to qualify for all 10 NCAA Division III Rowing championships, while Williams and Trinity have made it to nine championships.
At the NCAA Championships the combined finishes of the Varsity 1 and Varsity 2 boats determine the team finish.
With just over two weeks until the Championships the Ephs will be concentrating on finishing up the spring semester strong, writing papers and taking exams the near future and then fine tuning their racing. "This time will be helpful to the team," said Hemmerly. "It allows us to just focus on training and improving so that we can represent Williams as best as possible when we arrive in California. Also not traveling the next two weekends really gives the student-athletes the extra time they need during the end of the semester and going into their final exams."
Hemmerly expects that the Ephs will be tested in their pursuit of a sixth straight NCAA title. "The NCAA championships will be very similar to the ECAC Varsity 8 Grand Final as every team in that race received a team bid to the championships. Then we add the University of Puget Sound who has had a fast 1V the past two years as well as Marietta College, which has been a growing program recently," he said.
