ORLANDO – The UCF rowing program continues to make history in the Mara Allen era, this time hitting their highest ranking as a team on the CRCA Poll, climbing to No. 12 in this week’s poll.
The historic ranking follows a back-to-back clean sweep of the Sarasota 2k. UCF delivered a dominant performance at the regatta, sweeping all five Grand Finals races for the second consecutive year, securing another Benderson Cup title.
The Knights set the tone early with a strong win from the Second 4+, followed by victories from the Third 8+ and First 4+ against a field that included multiple ranked opponents.
UCF closed out the regatta with commanding open‑water wins in both the Second 8+ and First 8+, completing a perfect 5‑for‑5 day and extending the program’s Sarasota 2k win streak to 20 races over the past two seasons. The Knights finished atop the final standings with 132 points, ahead of then No. 18 Miami and No. 15 Dartmouth, reinforcing their momentum as one of the nation’s most competitive crews.
The Knights are the only representatives from the Big 12 in this week’s poll. The reigning conference champions, the Black and Gold have been the only team from league to appear on the polls for the past two seasons.
Plenty of competition this season are tabbed to the polls, including Miami who moved up two spots to 16 and Dartmouth who moved down eight spots to 23. There are five of eight teams traveling to the Orlando Invite represented on the polls in addition to the Knights. The Knights will compete against No. 16 Miami once again and additionally No. 13 Penn, No. 15 Duke and No. 17 Alabama.
Before the Orlando Invite however, the Black and Gold will make their way to Columbus to face additional ranked teams in host school No. 20 Ohio State, as well as No. 13 Harvard and No. 19 North Carolina.
March 31 Rankings
- Stanford
- Texas
- Yale
- Washington
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Princeton
- Brown
- Syracuse
- California
- Rutgers
- UCF
- Harvard
- Penn
- Duke
- Miami
- Alabama
- Michigan
- North Carolina
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- Oregon State
- Dartmouth
- USC
- UCLA