RESULTS
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1997 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
2003 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tennessee entered the inaugural 1997 NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships, held from May 29-June 1 in Sacramento, Calif., with tremendous excitement but limited expectations. The Lady Vols surprised the competition, however, and left with a history-making ninth-place finish in the Varsity 4+. Earning one of the final at-large slots in the Varsity 4+, UT head coach Susannah Iacovino entered a shell comprised of freshman coxswain Kelly Hitzing, seniors Amy Delashmit and Suni Hartsfield, sophomore Janece Rittenberry and freshman Megan Reinhart. In the opening day’s second heat, the Orange and White ranked fourth, finishing only four-tenths of a second out of third (8:04.8). The Lady Vols were relegated to the repechage for the opportunity to advance into the semifinals. Unfazed by their opening-race performance, the Lady Vols stormed back later that day in the second-chance race to take third (8:15.0), nipping Rutgers by 2.5 seconds to advance to the semifinals. Ohio State claimed first in 8:09.6, while Virginia captured second in 8:13.5. With a chance to reach the finals and a possible medal in their sights, UT finished fourth in the second semifinal to again stay one position out of a berth in the grand finals. Tennessee was beaten by two of the event’s top three seeds, race winner and host Sacramento State (7:57.5) and third-place finisher Princeton (8:01.5), as well as runner-up M.I.T. (8:00.2). The Lady Vols posted a time of 8:10.8, bettering Ithaca and Johns Hopkins, which had beaten UT in the first heat. After four races in three consecutive days, the Big Orange came in third in the petite finals, topping Ithaca and Johns Hopkins for the second time and finally outpacing Virginia, which had posted faster marks than UT in each of its previous three races. Trailing only Connecticut College (7:57.1) and Ohio State (8:01.2), Tennessee collected a time of 8:05.4 and claimed an overall ninth-place finish. Brown captured the gold medal in the Varsity 4+ grand final in 7:24.5, followed by Washington in 7:25.1 and Sacramento State in 7:37.1. Yet, the Huskies used their second-place showing to help vault them to the overall national title, collecting 201 points, 17 more than secondplace Princeton.
Tennessee was among the four teams selected on an at-large basis to field a shell in the First Eights competition, which was to take place at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, Ind., from May 30 through June 1. This was a momentous occasion for the Lady Vols, as it marked the first time they had received an NCAA bid in Varsity 8+ competition. On the following day, the team experienced another landmark achievement, as Tennessee garnered a ranking of 14th in the USRowing/CRCA Poll, then the highest in program history. Lisa Glenn’s first NCAA appearance as UT’s head coach was with a mix of veterans and newcomers to the squad. The shell consisted of junior coxswain Lizzie Brown, sophomore Kaitlin Bargreen, junior Nicole Bold, freshman Lauren Wells, sophomores Chelsea Pemberton and Dana Forbes, senior Kacey Montgomery, sophomore Melissa DiCerbo and senior Kay Logan. Heading to the Hoosier State, the Lady Vols knew competition would be tough, as they had to face 15 of the other top teams in the nation at the NCAA Championships. UT fought hard in the first day of prelims, but after a fifthplace showing in its heat, the crew had to race again in the afternoon’s repechage for a shot at the finals. In the repechage, Glenn’s contingent made a courageous late charge to overtake No. 7 Washington State and No. 15 Boston University but still came up short of qualifying for the semifinals, closing out the second-chance race in fifth, two places shy of a semifinal berth. Thus, the Orange and White competed in the C Final, which determined 13th through 16th places in the NCAA. In that race, the Lady Vols gave it everything they had but did not have quite enough on that day to defeat WSU, BU or No. 16 Michigan State, settling for 16th place. In the team championship race, Harvard edged out fellow Ivy League member Brown for the 2003 NCAA title.
TENNESSEE ROWING // RECORD BOOK