April 11, 2002

Notre Dame, Ind. - The Notre Dame rowing team is ranked 11th in the latest US Rowing/CRCA poll released yesterday. The No.-11 ranking is the highest mark ever in the history of the young program, besting the No.-14 ranking the Irish opened the season at in 2001.

The Irish, who were ranked 20th in the nation last week, made the biggest leap of any team in the poll this week after placing fifth in the grand final at the San Diego Crew Classic in San Diego, Calif., last weekend. The Irish recorded faster times than four teams ranked ahead of them last week at the Crew Classic, including No. 6 Virginia, No. 9 USC, No. 14 Texas and No. 19 Oregon State.

Washington remained atop the rankings this week with 21 first-place votes and 496 points after winning the Jessop-Whittier Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic last weekend. Brown received the remaining four first-place votes and has 477 points. Ohio State is third with 450 points, while California moved up seven places and is ranked fourth with 388 points.

Notre Dame travels to Indianapolis, Ind., on Saturday for the Indiana Cup, where they will compete against Indiana, Purdue and Eastern Michigan.

US Rowing/CRCA Rowing Poll (April 10, 2002)

Team				Points		LW
1. Washington (21)		496		1
2. Brown (4)			477		2
3. Ohio State			450		3
4. California			388		11
5. Yale				373		5
6. Princeton			365		4
7. Stanford			310		13
8. Syracuse			304		7
9. Harvard			299		10
10. Michigan			297		8
11. Notre Dame			271		20
12. Virginia			261		6
13. USC				151		9
14. Michigan State		132		12
15. Washington State		112		NR
16. Duke			107		17
17. Boston U.			103		15
18. Oregon State		86		19
19. Northeastern 		79		16
20. Texas			59		14

Other receiving votes: Iowa 29, Cornell 35, Columbia 26, Clemson 16, Wisconsin 7, Boston College 3, Minnesota 3, Massachusetts 1