SARASOTA, Fla. – The University of Pennsylvania women's rowing team has completed the second day of competition at the NCAA Championships, and two of the Quakers' boats (the Varsity Eight and the Varsity Four) will have opportunities to better their pre-Championships seed in Sunday's finals. Both of Penn's Eights will row in Petite Finals on Sunday, while the Four charged into the Third Final with an impressive performance in Saturday's semi.
 
Varsity Eight
Penn took fifth in its semifinal and will race in the Petite Final on Sunday. The Quakers do have a chance to beat their nine seed in Sunday's race if they finish in the top two.
 
On Saturday, top-seeded Texas stroked out to an early lead and never gave it up, winning comfortably by more than four seconds. The drama came in who would join the Longhorns in Sunday's Grand Final; it ended up being fourth-seeded Brown (6:22.995) and 10th-seeded Cal (6:23.039) who nipped sixth-seeded Ohio State (6:23.483) at the finish line to earn the final spots, a mere .488 of a second separating the three boats. Ninth-seeded Penn was fifth in 6:33.771, well ahead of 12th-seeded SMU (6:39.069).
 
Second Varsity Eight
Penn took sixth in its semifinal and will race in the Petite Final on Sunday.
 
Top-seeded Texas won this race, as well, overtaking third-seeded Washington in the final 500 to take first in 6:23.878. The Huskies were second in 6:25.192. Princeton will join those two in Sunday's Grand Final, the 13th-seeded Tigers clocking 6:27.952 to shock everyone and finish third. Fifth-seeded Brown was fourth in 6:32.292, followed by seventh-seeded Cal (6:34.384) and the sixth-seeded Quakers (6:37.516).
 
Varsity Four
Penn was second in its consolation semifinal on Saturday and will row in the Third Final on Sunday morning at 8:22 a.m. The 17th-seeded Quakers have an excellent chance to better their seed entering the weekend.
 
It was 13th-seeded SMU who led wire-to-wire in the semi, clocking 7:23.452 across the 2,000-meter course for the victory. Penn was second in 7:25.382, a good five seconds ahead of 12th-seeded Duke (7:30.480). 18th-seeded Northeastern (7:50.298) and 22nd-seeded Jacksonville (7:55.336) were well off the top three boats.
 
SUNDAY SCHEDULE | Watch Live | Live Results | Penn Boatings
  1V8 – Petite Final at 10:12 a.m.
    (lanes 1-6) #13 Virginia | #9 Penn | #5 Yale | #6 Ohio State | #8 Michigan | #12 SMU
  2V8 – Petite Final at 9:46 a.m.
    (lanes 1-6) #6 Penn | #9 SMU | #5 Brown | #10 Ohio State | #7 Cal | #8 Michigan
  V4A – Third Final at 8:22 a.m.
    (lanes 1-6) #12 Duke | #14 Oregon State | #13 SMU | #16 Syracuse | #17 Penn | #20 Gonzaga