May 23, 2007
Notre Dame, Ind. – Led by repeat first-team honorees junior Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and senior coxswain Maria Romano (River Forest, Ill.), Notre Dame had five rowers earn Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) all-Central region honors for the second consecutive year. Joining Polk and Romano on the all-Central region list was junior Allison Marsh (Mashpee, Mass.), while junior Laura Pearson (Bloomington, Minn.) and senior Meghan Boyle (Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned a spot on the second team. It marked the first time in the careers of Marsh, Pearson and Boyle that the trio had earned all-regional honors.
Notre Dame matched its school record of five all-regional selections of a year ago when four rowers earned first-team honors and one was placed on the second team.
Polk, Romano, Marsh, Pearson and Boyle were all members of Notre Dame’s record-setting varsity boat that finished sixth in the final CRCA/USRowing Poll. This year’s crew defeated a school-record five top-10 boats and climbed as high as third in the CRCA/USRowing rankings during the 2007 season after beginning the season 12th in the country.
The Irish also won its second consecutive gold medal at the BIG EAST Championships en route to Notre Dame an unprecedented fourth consecutive BIG EAST title. The boat also finished third at the Central/South Regional Championships after winning the gold medal in ’06.
Notre Dame’s varsity eight boat put together a string a five consecutive wins over top-10 boats. The Irish swept No. 5 California, No. 7 Stanford and No. 9 UCLA in head-to-head races at the Windemere Classic in Redwood Shores, Calif., in mid-April, and then beat No. 5 Virginia and No. 7 Princeton two weeks later in a four-team regatta that also featured George Washington.
Polk is the first three-time first team all-Central region honoree in the program’s history and just the second rower to earn regional honors on three occasions. Romano, a member of the first team a year ago at coxswain, becomes is one of just three rowers to earn first-team honors on multiple occasions.
For the second consecutive year, Notre Dame will compete as a team at the NCAA Championships, which will take place May 25-27 in Oak Ridge, Tenn. A year ago, the Irish finished ninth in their first-ever appearance in the team competition.