The Ohio State rowing team celebrates after winning the program’s first NCAA Championship in 2013. The team tacked on another championship June 1, making consecutive championships.
Courtesy Walt Middleton Photography / provided by OSU athletic department
Sometimes, repeating a championship performance is harder than winning the title the first time. But one Ohio State athletic team held on to its crown in style.
The OSU women’s rowing team claimed its second straight NCAA championship Sunday morning in Indianapolis. OSU now boasts five individual national championships, good for the fourth highest in NCAA rowing, according to an OSU press release.
The No. 1 ranked Buckeyes finished with 126 total points, and their closest competitor was California, with 118 points.
OSU also walked away with individual national titles in the first and second varsity eights and a seventh-place overall finish in the first varsity four, according to the press release.
The winning first varsity eight team is made up of seniors Eelkje Miedema and Claire-Louise Bode, juniors Ashley Bauer and coxswain Victoria Lazur, sophomores Catherine Shields, Holly Norton and Aina Cid Centelles, and freshmen Stephanie Williams and Elodie Ravera. They finished their season with an undefeated 12-0 record.
The second varsity eight team features seniors Lauren Eckles, Meghan Birkbeck, Katie King and Taylore Urban, juniors Chloe Meyer, Nicole Becks and coxswain Sami Jurofsky, sophomore Daphne Socha and freshman Anne Dietrich. The crew was the third team overall to win consecutive titles in the event.
The varsity four team picked up 16 points toward the total with senior Katie Beletskaya, junior Sarah Kessler, and sophomores Anna Ralph, Anna Gackowski and coxswain Sarah Asad.
The Buckeyes are the fifth team to win consecutive titles and the first team to do so since Brown captured back-to-back wins in 2007 and 2008.
The OSU Department of Athletics did not immediately return a request for comment.
