April 11, 2002

Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame rowing team is ranked 11th in the latest US Rowing/CRCA poll released yesterday. The No.-11 ranking is the highest mark ever in the history of the young program, besting the No.-14 ranking the Irish opened the season at in 2001.

The Irish, who were ranked 20th in the nation last week, made the biggest leap of any team in the poll this week after placing fifth in the grand final at the San Diego Crew Classic in San Diego, Calif., last weekend. The Irish recorded faster times than four teams ranked ahead of them last week at the Crew Classic, including No. 6 Virginia, No. 9 USC, No. 14 Texas and No. 19 Oregon State.

Washington remained atop the rankings this week with 21 first-place votes and 496 points after winning the Jessop-Whittier Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic last weekend. Brown received the remaining four first-place votes and has 477 points. Ohio State is third with 450 points, while California moved up seven places and is ranked fourth with 388 points.

Notre Dame travels to Indianapolis, Ind., on Saturday for the Indiana Cup, where they will compete against Indiana, Purdue and Eastern Michigan.

US Rowing/CRCA Rowing Poll (April 10, 2002)

Team                Points      LW1. Washington (21)      496     12. Brown (4)            477     23. Ohio State           450     34. California           388     115. Yale             373     56. Princeton            365     47. Stanford         310     138. Syracuse         304     79. Harvard          299     1010. Michigan            297     811. Notre Dame          271     2012. Virginia            261     613. USC             151     914. Michigan State      132     1215. Washington State        112     NR16. Duke            107     1717. Boston U.           103     1518. Oregon State        86      1919. Northeastern        79      1620. Texas           59      14

Other receiving votes: Iowa 29, Cornell 35, Columbia 26, Clemson 16, Wisconsin 7, Boston College 3, Minnesota 3, Massachusetts 1