Women's Crew Earns Bid To NCAA Championship
5/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
May 15, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State women's crew first varsity eight received an at-large invitation to compete at the 2001 NCAA Women's Rowing Championship scheduled for May 24-26 at Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga.
Now in its fourth year of varsity competition at Michigan State, this is the fourth-straight year in which the Spartans will be competing at the NCAA Championship. In 1998, the first varsity eight placed ninth in MSU's inaugural season of varsity competition. In 1999 and 2000, MSU qualified its entire crew for the championships, placing eighth in the team competition both seasons. The first varsity eight placed a school-best eighth at the 2000 NCAA Championship.
"The varsity eight has a strong chance to perform well at the NCAA Championship," said MSU head coach Bebe Bryans. "We have the opportunity to continue to improve in the days leading up to the championship and we are hoping for a top-six performance.
"Obviously, we would have liked to have earned a team bid, but we came up just a little short. Still, I'm excited about the chances for the varsity eight. This is the fourth season for crew as a varsity sport at Michigan State, and it's our fourth appearance at the NCAA Championship. That says a lot about the strength of our program. It's a tradition that we are proud of, and one that we wish to keep going."
Ten schools received team bids to the Lake Lanier, including Boston University, Brown, California-Berkeley, Harvard, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Princeton and Washington. These schools will compete in the first varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four races. Nine additional schools received at-large invitations to participate in the first varsity eight competition. In addition to Michigan State, they include Ithaca, Rutgers, Southern California, Syracuse, Wesleyan (Conn.), Western Washington, Williams and Yale.
MSU's first varsity eight is made up of coxswain Cassandra Weddel (Jr., East Tawas, Mich.), Krista Buzzell (Jr., Fenton, Mich.), Rachel Miller (So., Meeteetse, Wyo.), Amy Silder (So., Naperville, Ill.), Jennifer Czar (Sr., Rochester Hills, Mich.), Angela Lound (Sr., Holland, Mich.), Nicole DeMott (Sr., Rogers, Minn.), Nicole Pefley (Sr., Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Kate Gay (So., Cowra, New South Wales, Australia). Lori Kingstrom (Jr., Troy, Mich.) and Laura Thomas (So., Hastings, Mich.) will travel as spares.
