Spartan Crew Makes First Team Trip to NCAA Championships

May 27, 1999

EAST LANSING, Mich. -

FIRST EVER TEAM BID: This year marks the first time that Michigan State will send a complete team to the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships. MSU becomes only the second school to reach the NCAA Championships in its second year of competition. Michigan became the first school to accomplish the feat with its selection to the 1998 Championships.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY: Although the Spartans are only in their second year of competition, they are already starting to develop a tradition with the NCAA Championships. Last year, in its first year of existence, Michigan State crew qualified a varsity eight for the Championships. The Spartans also showed that they wanted to do more than just make an appearance, as they placed ninth out of 16 entries.

HEAD COACH BEBE BRYANS: The Spartans are led by second year head coach Bebe Bryans. Before leading Michigan State in its first years of varsity competition, Bryans served as the women's varsity rowing coach at Georgetown University. She is also active in the coaching ranks of the USA Womens National Rowing Team. This past summer she served as coach for the pre-elite women's national sweep team at the 1998 Nations Cup in Greece.

THE TEAM RACE: 10 crews will compete for the NCAA team championship. To win the title, Michigan State will have to defeat some of the best crews in the nation, including Boston University, Brown, California, Harvard (Radcliffe), Michigan, Princeton, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

MSU AGAINST THE FIELD: Michigan State enters the NCAA Championships with advance knowledge on some of its opponents. The varsity eight has faced seven of the other 18 crews during the spring season, including victories over Southern California, California-Davis, Oregon State and Michigan. The varsity eight also competed against California, Virginia and Wisconsin. The varsity four and second varsity eight have also squared off against some of the top crews in the nation, including California, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin.

MSU IN THE POLLS: The MSU varsity eight crew enters the championships ranked 10th in the most recent USRowing National Collegiate Rowing Coaches Poll. At one point during the season Michigan State worked its way up to seventh in the poll.

PROBABLE LINEUPS

VARSITY EIGHT Coxswain - Sarah Radvansky Seat 8 - Angie Rienas Seat 7 - Liz Schafer Seat 6 - Nicole Pefley Seat 5 - Jennifer Czar Seat 4 - Angela Lound Seat 3 - Renee Olin Seat 2 - Megan Jewett Seat 1 - Liz Korth

2ND VARSITY EIGHT: Coxswain - Lynda Czarnecki Seat 8 - Liz Cotter Seat 7 - Amie Elve Seat 6 - Jenny Muehlhaus Seat 5 - Vanessa Vanacek Seat 4 - Krista Buzzell Seat 3 - Natalie Gassman Seat 2 - Meaghan Murkowski Seat 1 - Lori Knipe

VARSITY FOUR Coxswain - Cassandra Weddel Seat 4 - Lori Kingstrom Seat 3 - Beca McMullen Seat 2 - Sarah Bingham Seat 1 - Jessica Ahlstrand

Spares: Kate Yauk Kim Grossman

COMPETITION INFORMATION: The top seeded boats in the first varsity eights (Princeton, Brown and Washington) and the top two boats in the varsity fours (Brown and Washington) and second varsity eights (Virginia and Washington) were placed in separate heats. The remaining seeds were randomly drawn and placed into their respective heats. The top two boats from each heat of the first varsity eight advance directly to semifinal acion on Saturday while the top two boats of each heat in the second varsity eight and fours advance directly to Sunday's grande final. The remaining first varsity eights will return to action on Friday afternoon in the repechage (the "second chance") while the remaining second varsity eights and fours return to action in a repechage on Saturday morning.

DAY ONE HEAT ASSIGNMENTS

I VARSITY EIGHT

LANE TEAM Heat 1 1 Marietta 2 Dartmouth 3 Washington 4 Northeastern 5 Wisconsin 6 Williams 7 UC Davis

Heat 2 1 Michigan State 2 Michigan 3 Princeton 4 Harvard 5 Oregon State 6 Boston University

Heat 3 1 Massachusetts 2 USC 3 Brown 4 California 5 William Smith 6 Virginia

II VARSITY EIGHT

Heat 1 1 Wisconsin 2 Boston University 3 Virginia 4 Michigan State 5 Brown

Heat 2 1 Harvard 2 Princeton 3 Washington 4 Michigan 5 California

VARSITY FOUR

Heat 1 1 Boston Univeristy 2 Princeton 3 Brown 4 Michigan State 5 Michigan

Heat 2 1 Harvard 2 California 3 Washington 4 Virginia 5 Wisconsin