The Ohio State women’s rowing team competes on May 30, 2015 at the NCAA qualifying round in Gold River, Calif. OSU won its third consecutive national championship the following day.
Credit: Courtesy of OSU Athletics
For an unprecedented third year in a row, the Ohio State women’s rowing team has won the national championship.
The first varsity eight held off the University of California by half a second in the final of three races to capture the championship on Sunday. The 1V8 squad posted a time of six minutes, 18.15 seconds to cap off a perfect 49-0 overall and 15-0 in-race campaign.
That time was the second-fastest ever recorded at the NCAA championships and beat OSU’s time in the qualifying round the previous day by more than 11 seconds.
The 1V8 victory was crucial for the Buckeyes, who held just a one-point lead at 60-59 over the University of Washington after the first two races: the 1V4 and 2V8.
OSU started off the morning with a fifth-place finish in the 1V4 before finishing second in the 2V8.
OSU and Washington were the only teams to qualify for all three events, setting up a potentially climactic finish.
However, the Buckeyes ensured an absence of drama by coasting past the Huskies, beating their sixth-place time by more than 10 seconds to secure the NCAA’s first-ever three-peat.
The third consecutive championship was also the third overall in program history. The Buckeyes won in Indianapolis in 2013 and 2014 before heading west to Gold River, Calif., for the weekend’s events.
The women’s rowing team became the fifth OSU varsity athletic squad to capture a national championship in the 2015 calendar year, joining football, wrestling, synchronized swimming and pistol.
