{"id":290974,"date":"2026-05-31T17:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/290974\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T17:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:09:20","slug":"varsity-8-beats-uri-and-jacksonville-to-cap-off-ncaa-championship-for-rowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/290974\/","title":{"rendered":"Varsity 8 Beats URI and Jacksonville to Cap Off NCAA Championship for Rowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Ga.\u00a0\u2013 The Massachusetts rowing team capped off its seventh all-time NCAA Championship appearance on a strong note Sunday, as the Varsity 8 defeated both Rhode Island and Jacksonville to finish second in its D final and 20th in the nation. The Minutewomen’s Varsity 4 and Second Varsity 8 also enjoyed strong showings in their final races of a stellar season.
\n\u00a0
\nThe Varsity 8 finished in 6:17.530, nearly two seconds ahead of Rhode Island (6:19.2314) and more than six seconds ahead of Jacksonville (6:23.672).
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\n“The amount of effort we’ve been putting in has really paid off,” said freshman Grace Turnbull<\/a>, two seat of the Varsity 8. “You could watch all the smiles on the girls’ faces who crossed the line. We didn’t have the best race two days ago, but really came back strong today. We had a good start and good finish. All the effort really paid off.”
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\nOne exciting aspect about the Varsity 8 performance is they’re all underclassmen.
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\n“All year long, they’ve created this identity of being one unit and leaning into one another,” said head coach Eric Carcich<\/a>. “It’s been really fun to watch. I’ve got four freshmen, two sophomores and two juniors in that boat, so they had to learn a lot over the season, and they did a really good job internalizing some opportunities that they figured out early in the season and then capitalized on them.”
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\nUMass’ Varsity 8 had a strong start and wouldn’t back down in beating the Atlantic 10 and MAAC Champions.
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\n“I knew that was going to be a barnburner between Jacksonville, URI and UMass,” said Carcich. “Really, really proud of this group. They got out early, did a really good job in the middle thousand and then closed. What a great way to end it.”
\n\u00a0
\nThe Varsity 4 started the day with a time of 7:24.941, good for fourth in the D final and 22nd in the nation.
\n\u00a0
\nThe Second Varsity 8 had the same finish not long after, posting a time of 6:34.734, which was just over a second behind Jacksonville in third (6:33.204) and less than four seconds behind Rhode Island in second (6:30.800).
\n\u00a0
\nThe weekend was the final regatta of an impressive season that saw the Minutewomen capture the first-ever MAC Championship, advancing to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2017.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n“It’s UMass’ seventh time here at the NCAAs, but our first time here for this group and in my time at UMass,” said Carcich. “We had to learn a lot in our first couple races, take our lumps a little bit and work our way to today where we could put our best stuff together.
\n\u00a0
\n“The Varsity 8 landed on the docks and the first thing the crew said was C level final next year,” Carcich continued. “That’s who they are. They’re going to enjoy this moment, but they’re always looking at what’s in front of them and what crews can they pluck off next. All 16 of our varsity and JV members are coming back next year. Really good class coming in this fall and some transfers coming in this summer. I’m going to enjoy this and take a little time right now, but really excited about where we’re headed.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0

\nUMass Boat Lineups\u00a0

\nVarsity 8\u00a0

\nAmanda Scally<\/a> (c)\u00a0

\nOlivia Ollerenshaw<\/a>\u00a0

\nSarah Happs<\/a>\u00a0

\nAntonia Gigacher<\/a>\u00a0

\nSonya Mazrimas<\/a> \u00a0

\nErin Smith<\/a>\u00a0

\nMia Booth<\/a>\u00a0

\nGrace Turnbull<\/a>\u00a0

\nSotiria Michailidi<\/a>\u00a0

\n\u00a0

\nSecond Varsity 8\u00a0

\nAJ Prahl<\/a> (c)\u00a0

\nMaeva GK\u00a0

\nHannah Glover<\/a> \u00a0

\nLouise Roper<\/a>\u00a0

\nMaddie Cockburn<\/a>\u00a0

\nRuby Hodges<\/a>\u00a0

\nMia Lowes<\/a>\u00a0

\nBella Ross<\/a>\u00a0

\nFelicity Pye<\/a>\u00a0

\n\u00a0

\nVarsity 4\u00a0

\nMeghan O’Hern<\/a> (c)\u00a0

\nAna Kolesnikova\u00a0

\nGretta Anderson<\/a>\u00a0

\nTeagan Blue<\/a>\u00a0

\nLauren Carpenter<\/a>\u00a0

\n\u00a0 \n<\/p>\n

— UMassAthletics.com —<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Ga.\u00a0\u2013 The Massachusetts rowing team capped off its seventh all-time NCAA Championship appearance on a strong note…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-290974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}