The Brown women's crew team won its second consecutive NCAA championship June 1 on Lake Natoma, near Sacramento, Calif. The title was the sixth overall for Head Coach John Murphy, who also won the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association's Coach of the Year award. Murphy, with the help of wife and Assistant Coach Phoebe Murphy, won titles in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2007.
"John and Phoebe Murphy are the best coaches, and they know how to make champions," Jessica Stage '09 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "They inspire me and my teammates every day because of their talent and hard work. We wanted to win this championship for them."
Besides winning this year, the Bears remain the only team that has placed in the top three in every NCAA Championship, making Brown possibly the most successful crew in NCAA women's rowing history.
"To be a part of the Brown rowing tradition is a huge reason why I chose to come to Brown," Corey Finnerty-Ludwig '09 wrote in an e-mail. "The expectation is always to win."
In addition to winning as a team, four Brown rowers won national recognition for their individual efforts. Stage, Finnerty-Ludwig, coxswain Sarah Wu '08 and Emma Olson '08 all received CRCA Division I Pocock All-American honors.
"To be honest I was dumbfounded [to be named an All-American]," Stage wrote. "I was really focused on racing, so when I found out it was a big surprise. It's a huge honor."
The Bears claimed the team title by tallying 67 points overall, placing them well ahead of the University of Washington (59), the University of California (53), Yale (51), and the University of Virginia (47).
"This national championship was the most exciting one I've competed in so far," Finnerty-Ludwig wrote. "This year was really exciting because all of our boats did so well and we also won the team trophy. The overall team mood afterward was ecstatic."
Brown's varsity four opened up the racing and registered ten points for the team by finishing in third place with a time of 7:30.00. The Bears' second varsity eight built on that momentum and dominated their race, winning the gold medal over runner-up Ohio State by more than two seconds.
"Our second varsity winning makes this year's victory even more special," Stage wrote. "This year's championship means a lot more to me than last year because each boat performed under pressure and finished in the top-three."
Bruno's crew held the lead with a slim two-point lead over Washington heading into the varsity eight grand final, with Virginia and Cal within striking distance, behind by six and 11 points, respectively.
"Going into the grand finals, the mindset for everyone was to get points," Finnerty-Ludwig wrote. "(Coach Murphy) always says that the best way to be a good teammate is by giving it everything you possibly have, and at Nationals, this means getting points to contribute towards the team trophy."
The Bears' varsity squad's performance in the grand finals gave them the points they were looking for.
Although their time of 6:35.25 gave them a third place finish behind Yale (6:34.05) and Stanford (6:34.95) in the final race of the day, Brown finished safely ahead of fifth-place Washington, giving the Bears 67 points overall in the championship to secure the team's sixth national title in only 12 years of competition.
"Our team is pretty small, both in numbers and in size, but my teammates are tenacious," Stage wrote. "We practice like we compete, and a big part of this team's success is that Brown Crew is more like a family than a team. We're a really cohesive group."
Johnson McGee '01 headed for Beijing
Two-time NCAA champion Portia Johnson McGee '01, who helped the women's crew team win titles in 1999 and 2000, has been named to the U.S. women's Olympic crew team. She will row in the pair. The 2007 USRowing Female Athlete of the Year, Johnson McGee has competed with the U.S. national team four times before in international competition, though this is her first trip to the Olympics.
