Stanford won the Division-I NCAA Women’s Rowing Championship on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J. where Yale prevailed in the first varsity eight final, upsetting the number-one ranked Cardinal first varsity, and earned second place in the overall team championship

Stanford’s varsity four broke seven minutes (6:56.5) in winning their final to start the Cardinal’s national championship early Sunday morning. Stanford’s second eight won their final, setting up a possible sweep in the last race of the morning. But Yale’s first varsity exploded off the start, built nearly a length lead, and held of for the win in 6:06 on white capped waters.

Texas and Washington, the only other teams to place crews in all three grand finals—first eight, second eight, and four—finished third and fourth, respectively.

Embry-Riddle won its first-ever DII rowing championship on Saturday, May 31, on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J., ahead of Humboldt and Western Washington with 24 and 21 points, respectively.

“This group has truly earned every moment of this national championship. Two years ago, we made a deliberate choice to raise the bar by training harder and racing at a higher level,” said Head Coach Grant Maddock. “That commitment set the course for where the program is today. What we’ve accomplished is special, but it’s just the beginning of what this team is capable of.”

Women’s rowing became the first program in Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s NCAA Division II era to win a team title. When including NAIA championships, the rowing national championship is Embry-Riddle Athletics’ third team title and first women’s.

Embry-Riddle is the eighth different program to win the NCAA II women’s rowing championship, which has been held every year since 2002 except 2020. 

Entering as the third seed in eights, Embry-Riddle won the eights final in windy conditions in the morning, ahead of Western Washington and Humboldt. Following a weather delay of roughly 10 hours, Embry-Riddle’s four placed third in their grand final and accumulated eight points to secure the overall team title with 26 points. Humboldt finished second overall with 24 points and Western Washington was third with 21 points. 

Tufts University women’s rowing team won its second straight NCAA Championship May 31 on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J. Both the Jumbo first and second varsity eights led their finals from start to finish. Tufts scored a perfect 56 team points, ahead of second-place Williams with 49 and Wesleyan 45 points. Tufts successfully defended their 2024 title when they won their first national championship in Ohio with 54 points.

More than one third—eight of 22—of the field of Division-I rowing programs invited to the 2025 NCAA Rowing Championships are led by first- or second-year head coaches. The eight-school Ivy League leads all conferences with six bids, four of which—Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Penn—have first- or second-year head coaches. Boston University, Tennessee, UCF, and Virginia do, too.

“It’s pretty surreal, I’d say unexpected,” said Dartmouth’s second-year women’s head coach Graves, whose crews earned a bid to NCAAs for the first time since 2011 after strong showings at the Ivy League Women’s Rowing Championship. “It’s fun to see them around the best teams in country and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Most of the eight new head coaches led successful 2025 spring seasons on the strength of programs built by predecessors who retired or moved on. Wes Ng, the first-year head coach of Virginia, took over one of the country’s top programs following Kevin Sauer’s retirement. In his previous job, Ng built the Penn women’s program up to earn regular bids to NCAAs, a level of performance continued by first-year Penn head coach Bill Manning this year.

“It’s wonderful to continue the success that the program experienced prior to my arrival and to help the senior class go out four-for-four with NCAA racing,” said Manning.

UCF hired Mara Allen away from Texas, where she was an assistant coach, in the summer of 2023. Earlier this spring Allen coached the Knights to a sweep of the Big 12 Championships, winning every race by open water, included a 16.8-second margin in the first eight final. UCF enters the NCAA regatta ranked 14th.

Second-year Tennessee head coach Kim Cupini’s program is among the favorites to win medals along with Stanford, Texas, Washington, Yale, and Princeton—all coached by experienced veterans.

Racing at the 2025 NCAA Rowing Championships starts Friday morning, May 30 and runs through Sunday morning June 1 on Mercer Lake, West Windsor, N.J.

At the 2025 American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships, May 18, on Melton Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the University of Virginia’s men’s first and second eights both won their grand finals at the collegiate club rowing national championships.

Vanderbilt won the women’s first eight, and Bowdoin won the women’s second eight

“It was a great weekend,” said Virginia coach Frank Biller, “a lot of fun.”

That fun included coaches from competing schools gathering before dawn each morning of the three-day regatta to pull logs and other debris washed onto the course by heavy rains.

“We just do that,” said Biller of the camaraderie among club coaches, whose programs are not funded by their universities’ athletic departments. “It’s not even a question that we would do that for each other.”

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