Women's Crew Earns Team Bid to NCAA Championships
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
May 18, 1999
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's crew received a team bid to the 1999 NCAA Women's Rowing Championships on Tuesday afternoon. The NCAA Championships will take place on Lake Natoma in Sacramento, Calif., hosted by California State University-Sacramento on May 28-30.
"I'm overwhelmed," said head coach Bebe Bryans. "All year we worked very hard with this goal in mind. At many points along the way it seemed unachievable, but we did it. I could not be more proud than I am now."
With a team bid, MSU will send a varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four to competition. Ten Division I schools will send complete teams to Sacramento. The Spartans will be joined by three other schools from the central region: Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin. Boston U., Brown, California, Harvard, Princeton and Washington round out the field.
The Spartans will enter the NCAA Championships on a high note after their performance last weekend at the Lexus Central Sprints in Oak Ridge, Tenn. As a team, Michigan State finished second, while the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four all placed in the top three.
"We could not have rowed any better," said Bryans. "It was the best team performance in the history of Michigan State crew."
Although Michigan State women's crew has only held varsity status for two years, this is the second consecutive year that the Spartans will compete in the NCAA Championships. Last year, the MSU varsity eight crew qualified individually and placed ninth out of 16 entries in Gainesville, Ga.