May 18, 2004
Notre Dame, Ind. – For the second time in school history, Notre Dame’s varsity eight boat will compete in the NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Championships as the No. 14 Irish crew earned an at-large berth. The championships will be held May 28-30 at the California State University Sacramento (CSUS) Aquatic Center in Sacramento, Calif.
Rowing for Notre Dame in the championship will be junior coxswain Maureen Gibbons (Langhorne, Pa.), senior stroke Natalie Ladine (Sacramento, Calif.), senior Alice Bartek (Omaha, Neb.), sophomore Meghan Boyle (Pittsburgh, Pa.), junior Rachel Polinski (Mansfield, Ohio), freshman Melissa Felker (Bellevue, Wash.), junior Katie Chenoweth (East Lansing, Mich.), senior Danielle Protasewich (Duxbury, Mass.) and senior Jacqueline Hazen (Germantown, Tenn.). Senior Kathleen Welsh (Medford, N.J.) and freshman Jessica Guzik (Annandale, Va.) will be the alternates traveling with the team.
The team championship is comprised of 12 teams and each team is required to field two boats and eight rowers and one boat of four rowers. In addition, four eight-women boats from institutions not presented in the team competition are selected.
The selection of teams and individual boats was made by the NCAA Division I Women’s Rowing Committee and based on eligibility and availability of student-athletes; regional championship results, regional rankings; late-season performance; head-to-head results; results against teams/boats already selected; results against common opponents; and results against regionally ranked teams/boats. One team from each region was selected and the remaining seven teams were selected at-large.
The following teams will compete for the team championship – No. 8 Brown, No. 1 California, No. 4 Harvard, No. 3 Michigan, No. 11 Michigan State, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 2 Princeton, No. 7 Virginia, No. 9 Washington, No. 12 Washington State, No. 10 Wisconsin and No. 6 Yale.
In addition to Notre Dame, the varsity eight boats receiving at-large selections were No. 15 Southern California, No. 13 Tennessee and No. 18 Texas.
An Irish varsity eight boat last competed in the NCAA championships in 2002 when that crew earned an at-large invitation and placed 16th overall in its first-ever appearance. From the current Notre Dame crew, only Ladine rowed in that boat, while current senior Alice Bartek was one of the two alternates listed.
The Irish have enjoyed great success this season which was highlighted by the school’s first-ever BIG EAST Rowing Challenge team title. The varsity eight boat captured the gold medal in the race – also a first in the program’s history.
“We’re certainly very excited about competing in the NCAAs,” Irish head coach Martin Stone said. “I believe that we are very deserving when you take into account the competition that we went up against throughout the season. We faced a tough schedule all season long and produced some impressive results. We obviously compete in one of the strongest with four of those schools (Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin) earning team berths. The rowing and competition in our region (the Central Region) can certainly make a claim to being the best in the country.”