Washington women’s crew coach Yasmin Farooq said her team was not focused on being the top-ranked team or the top seed in the NCAA championships at Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J. She said the team was only interested in seeing how fast each of its boats could go.
The answer was very fast.
Washington not only won its first women’s crew national title since 2001, it became the first team in the 20 years that it has beeen a sanctioned event to sweep all three races: the varsity eight, the second varsity eight and the four.