Spartan Rowers Headed Back to NCAA's

May 18, 2010

East Lansing, Mich. - The Michigan State rowing program has earned a berth to the NCAA National Championship Regatta, which will be held in Sacramento, Calif. The 16-team field was announced by the NCAA Selection Committee on Tuesday afternoon, and the Spartans will be rowing in the sport's National Championship event for the 12th time in its 13 varsity seasons.

"We're thrilled, obviously, to be heading back to nationals," noted head coach Matt Weise, the three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year. "However, we have worked all season to be in a position not to be happy to be there, but to compete and challenge for national titles. We'll get right to work on continuing to train to be at our best for those three days of racing."

Michigan State has finished sixth three times, (and in each of the last two seasons) at the NCAA's, which is its best team finish. The Spartans have an eye on bettering their previous finishes; the MSU varsity eight is among the top boats in the nation, having lost only to teams ranked in the top 10 (Virginia, Yale, and USC). Michigan State is ranked ninth as a team in the most recent CRCA poll. The bid is the Spartans' eighth full-team bid in the last nine seasons; the only year in which the team did not qualify for the National Regatta was in 2007, which is the only year that the Spartans did not qualify since becoming a varsity sport in 1998. MSU has now received ten team bids and received at-large berths for their varsity eight boat in both 1998 and 2001.

The team championships are comprised of 16 teams; each team is required to field two boats of eight rowers and one boat of four rowers. This is the second season in which the field will feature 16 teams, rather than the 12 teams with four at-large varsity eight boats as in previous years. Joining the Spartans amongst the field of 16 will be three other Big Ten schools - Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin - along with Pac-10 entries Cal, Washington, Washington State, USC, UCLA, and Stanford; Ivy League crews Brown, Princeton, and Yale, as well as Virginia, Clemson, and Tennessee.

Michigan State was selected to the field on the strength of a fine regular season. The Spartans finished second at the Big Ten Championships on May 1, as its varsity eight rowed to its third consecutive gold medal. Senior Emily Regan (Williamsville, NY) was named the Big Ten Athlete of the Year, joining Krista Buzzell (2002), Erin Robertson (2005), Anne Cowan (2008) and Sarah Schmidt (2009) as Spartans who have taken home the honor. Michelle Mussett (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia) and Victoria Woodard (Howell, Mich.) joined Regan as First Team All-Big Ten honorees, while juniors Laura Cowal (Thorold, Ontario) and Kellie Lapointe (Grosse Ile, Mich.) were named to the Second Team, and senior Megan Kursik (Fenton, Mich.) was named the Big Ten Sportsmanship Honoree.

Last weekend, Michigan State finished second in the Central Region and third overall at the Aramark South/Central Sprints, in Oak Ridge, Tenn. MSU finished behind third-ranked Virginia in the varsity eight race, as the Cavaliers took the overall title. Big Ten Champion Wisconsin earned the Central Region crown, but its varsity eight finished fifth at Sprints. In addition to the silver medal for the varsity eight, the varsity four finished third, taking home bronze.