ORLANDO - Following the Big 12 Championship sweep resulting in the program’s first title as part of the league, the No. 14 UCF rowing team was selected for the NCAA Championship at Lake Mercer.
The automatic bid sends the Knights to the Championship for the seventh time in the team’s history, the first time since a string of five consecutive appearances from 2015 to 2019.
Along with UCF, eight other teams received an automatic bid after winning their respective conference title. These crews include Boston University, Stanford, Northeastern, Oregon State, Rhode Island, Yale, Washington and Fairfield.
Thirteen squads earned at-large bids to round out the field of 22 announced on Tuesday afternoon’s selection show. The 13 teams include Brown, University of California, Berkeley, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Syracuse University, University of Tennessee, University of Texas at Austin and University of Virginia.
The Knights have faced three of the 22 teams making the trip to New Jersey. The Black and Gold first competed against Dartmouth at the Sarasota 2k earlier this season, taking on the Big Green in both heats and Grand Finals. At their next regatta, UCF took on Tennessee at the inaugural Rocky Top Invitational. The final of the three, the Knights competed against the Texas Longhorns in Austin when they traveled to the Longhorn Invitational.
Heats are set for day one as the First 8+ will be competing in lane five of heat four against Northeastern, Virginia, Washington, Princeton and Rhode Island. It will be the first time all season the Knights compete against this set of crews.
The second heat of the day will be the Second 8+ as UCF will race in lane two of heat three. The competition is set to be Northeastern, Tennessee, Princeton, Michigan and Fairfield.
The final heat of the day will be the First 4+ in lane five of heat three. The Knights will take on Boston University, California, Syracuse, Rutgers and Fairfield for the sole fours race of the Championship.
Head Coach Mara Allen has a fair share of experience at the NCAA Championship as both an athlete and as a part of the coaching staff. As a student-athlete at the University of California, Berkeley, Allen won consecutive NCAA titles while in the First 8+ in 2005 and 2006. In her time as an assistant coach at the University of Texas, Allen aided the team to two consecutive NCAA Championships in 2021 and 2022. This will mark Allen’s first trip to the championship as a head coach.
The event is set to begin on May 30 and run until June 1 when a winner is crowned in West Windsor, N.J.