Mens Rowing 3peat ACRA nat'l champs
Michigan Men's rowing team won their 3rd consecutive ACRA (club) national championship today. Results are posted below.
http://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?…
the big money races are the 1V, 2V and 1f (Michigan won all three)
Essentially, Michigan is a club-varsity team that used to be somewhat (finishes between 6-20) competative at the actual national championship. A few years ago non-varsity teams were excluded due to many reasons, but most notibly the Rutgers program losing varsity status (many thought the fact that they lost to club teams like Michigan was part of the reason, along with Title 9). Anyway, after that Michigan just started dominating ACRA instead. Good job guys! Apparently they have a very young squad and can do more damage next year.
Sucks they can't compete with at the IRA/NCAA championships anymore. They certainly held their own. The freshman got silver one year. And they were routinely in the top 10-15 in team points.
Go Blue! It's good to see that even with one of the team's youngest squads in recent history, they still got the job done.
Or go to the host of the regatta: http://www.chesapeakeboathouse.org/index2.html
continues...
Another great run by UM. I remember having friends compete on the Crew team while at UM, and those guys were incredibly dedicated and competitive against some of the best teams in the country. You kind of wish the top ACRA teams could receive some sort of bye or exemption into the NCAA championships. And while it may suck for some varsity programs to lose to club teams in terms of public relations, I don't see why elite club teams should be barred from competing against the best teams in the country.
I used to be head rowing coach at Texas Crew (the club team)...
The IRA (intercollegiate rowing association) championship serves as the de-facto varsity national championship. There is no men's rowing NCAA championship, only for women. Until recently, it was very open, and was a great goal to aspire to as a club program. It was relatively fair to get into, and put best athletes against best athletes regardless of where the funding comes from (the school or the members).
I was at the IRA meeting in Philly a few years ago when the varsity coaches essentially chickened out and voted to recommend a club team exclusion. Bottom line was job (in) security. An informal meeting of club coaches ensued in the foyer of the Penn AD building, with Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Maryland, and several others floating a regatta that would later become ACRA. ACRA goes out of its way to be fair, even allowing teams who offer full scholarships but don't qualify for IRA inclusion either. The result is a fabulous race with great sponsors in Oklahoma City where thousands of hard working athletes have a chance to compete for a national title granted by their peers, which is how rowing used to be.
Today, US Rowing decided to sponsor a collegiate national championship the same weekend as ACRA, in an effort to squash the ACRA national championship. Myself, and many other rowing coaches despise the US Rowing association; whose ranks are bolstered at the national team level by club rowers, including several from Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, and other big club programs. It's telling that none of the good club rowing teams showed up at the US Rowing "national championship."
There's a little club rowing history for y'all!
Isn't it for small boats only? I don't think there is a lot of overlap in events. I could be wrong, but a team like Michigan would never go there w/o 8s.
But, ACRA has small boats in it. The host school in OK is pretty focused on small boats. Three-four of the top 6 club teams are clustered in Michigan and Indiana, so as long as Michigan keeps going to ACRA it will hold up. Plus, Michigan's coach is the driving force behind ACRA and as long as Michigan stays good, will have tremendous influence in ACRA.
Good grief. Imagine the NCAA basketball tournament with only BCS conference teams and you get an idea of how fucked up this has gotten.
The USRowing sanctioned National Championship ended up not having a large overlap with ACRA because the members of ACRA stayed true to the race. When the news first broke of the USRowing Championship, there was concern ACRA race members would leave.
bkrentler. I was racing in the pair the year the team came to Austin a few years back. It was the year after I graduated from Michigan. I may have actually met you in the past. How small the mgoblog world is.
ACRA is a great race. I bet OKC puts in big wind deflectors before long. If they haven't already.
Great job men's rowing! From a lacrosse alum to everyone associated with Michigan men's rowing, congratulations!
Men's lacrosse and men's crew were the first two varsity club programs, and I know from a lacrosse perspective we always considered the rowing team to be kind of a kindred spirit - a very serious team that operates as if it's varsity.
'Nuf said!