NCAA.com Video | Race Schedule | Heat and Lane Assignments | Yale NCAA History
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale women's crew is ready to once again be on the national stage. The Bulldogs join 21 other crews at the NCAA Championship at the Camden County Boathouse in Pennsauken, N.J., this weekend. Racing begins on Friday with the heats. The semifinals are Saturday and the finals Sunday.
 
Yale, competing at NCAAs for the 20th time in the last 21 seasons, brings strong credentials. The Bulldogs were ranked No. 3 in the latest CRCA national poll, and the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four – the three boats competing - are all seeded in the top five.
 
"We have three more times down the track this year," said Will Porter, The Friends of YWC Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We intend to make the most of them and give our best effort. We are not here to beat anyone. We are just here to go as fast as we can for each other, have fun and see where we are when the dust settles."
 
The Cooper River course is familiar to the Bulldogs, who raced there earlier this season against Iowa, Ohio State and Rutgers. It also has been the site for the Ivy League Championship on numerous occasions, although not this spring.
 
"Camden is a great course," Porter said. "We like it, we are comfortable on it, and we can't wait to run down it."
 
The varsity eight, seeded fifth after posting a 15-2 regular season record and placing third at the Ivy League Championship, will be first up on Friday. The Bulldogs are in Heat 4 at 9:36 a.m. facing Navy, SMU, Penn, Indiana and George Washington.
 
The top three finishers in all heats qualify for Saturday's A/B semifinals. The remaining finishers move to the C/D semifinals.
 
The Ivy League champion second varsity eight is next up for Yale at 9:48 a.m. in Heat 1 against Indiana, Brown, Ohio State and Southern California. The Bulldogs, seeded first, were 17-0 in the regular season and won the grand final at last year's NCAA Championship.
 
The varsity four, which also captured the Ivy title and is seeded second, races in Heat 2 at 10:48 a.m. against Gonzaga, SMU, Washington and Penn. Yale's only blemish in the regular season came when it finished third against Princeton and Texas. The Bulldogs caught a crab early in that race which hampered their efforts.
 
Yale has placed in the top 10 at the NCAA Championship 17 times, including last year's fifth-place finish, its highest since 2009. The Bulldogs' best finish came in 2004 when they were second. Yale has had one crew win an NCAA grand final five times. The varsity eight finished first in 2007, 2008 and 2010, and the second varsity won in 2009 and last year in Sarasota.
 
"I am amazed at what our student athletes do on a daily basis," Porter said. "To study at the highest level and compete at the highest level in their sport takes tremendous focus, dogged dedication, and a belief that there is no compromise when it comes to getting what you want out of life."
 
PROBABLE YALE BOATINGS
 
Varsity Eight
Bow: Anna Scott (Sr., Denver, Colo.)
2: Lauren Carey (Jr., Harrogate, England & Cape Town, South Africa)        
3: Margaret Hedeman (Sr., Concord, Mass.)             
4: Mia Levy (So., Des Moines, Iowa)      
5: Nicole Martinez (So., Asuncion, Paraguay)
6: Christina Bourmpou (Thessaloniki, Greece)     
7: Lucy Edmunds (Sr., North Yorkshire, Great Britain)          
8: Veronica Wall (Sr., Ashburton, New Zealand)       
cox: Grace Menke (Jr., Sarasota, Florida)      
 
Second Varsity Eight
Bow: Sophie Houston (Jr., Sydney, Australia)  
2: Emmeline Laurence (Sr., Greenland, N.H.)        
3: Maddie Moore (So., Naples, Fla.)
4: Sophia Hahn (Jr., Braselton, Ga.)
5: Maya Meschkuleit (Jr., Mississauga, Canada) 
6: Christiana Congdon (Sr., Stonington, Conn.)
7: Mette Køchs-Nielsen (Sr., Aarhus, Denmark)    
8: Hanna Winter (Jr., Lubeck, Germany)
cox: Esha Bhattacharya (Jr., San Ramon, Calif.)   
 
Varsity Four
Bow: Hannah Johns (Sr., Longmeadow, Mass.)                     
2: Imogen Cabot (Fy., Cambridge, Mass.)     
3: Charlotte Fennell (Sr., Amersham, England)
4: Violet Barletta (So., Boston, Mass.)
cox: Hope Galusha (Fy., Manhattan Beach, Calif.)
 
Alternates
Lily Eales (So., Sydney, Australia)     
Marie Ramm (So., Birkereod, Denmark)