Virginia rowing surges to fourth at NCAA Championships, its best national finish in a decade
· Yahoo Sports
For much of this spring, Virginia women’s rowing team looked poised for yet another solid year (the Cavaliers finished 10th in 2023, 13th in 2024, and 10th in 2025).
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They looked like a very good team, but one that was a step below the true contenders. By Sunday morning at Lake Lanier, it was apparent that the Cavaliers belonged in the sports top tier.
UVA finished fourth at the 2026 NCAA Rowing Championships with 114 points, trailing only Texas, Stanford, and Tennessee in the final team standings. Texas won the national title with 130 points, Stanford followed with 125, Tennessee finished third with 119, and Virginia came in just five points off the podium. They finished 11 points ahead of fifth-place Yale, the same margin as their deficit to first-place Texas.
Best finish since 2016‼️ We're back. 🔶⚔️🔷 #GoHoos
— Virginia Rowing (@UVARowing) May 31, 2026
➡️ https://t.co/XcGg1VyB1Spic.twitter.com/W30MG3EQRt
It is Virginia’s highest NCAA finish since 2016, when the Cavaliers placed third. But the way UVA got there might be even more encouraging: the Hoos were one of only four programs in the country (along with Texas, Stanford, and Tennessee – the top three ranked teams in the country) to place all three NCAA-scoring boats in the A final, a sign that Virginia is once again one of the pre-eminent programs in the country.
Peaking at exactly the right time
Virginia entered the season ranked No. 8 in the CRCA preseason poll, which felt like a fair reflection of where the program stood: respected but not quite back among the national championship favorites. The Cavaliers spent much of the season around the back half of the top 10, then began turning their potential into speed as the calendar moved toward championship season.
The first big sign came at ACCs, where UVA finished second behind Stanford. Against a loaded conference field that included Stanford, Cal, Syracuse, Miami, Duke, and UNC (part of an ACC that placed seven teams in the CRCA Top 25), the Cavaliers produced runner-up finishes in all three NCAA-scoring events: the Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight, and Varsity Four. That performance earned UVA an at-large NCAA bid and sent the team to Gainesville, Georgia, and Lake Lanier as a program with genuine momentum.
Virginia rose to a season high No. 6 in the polls going into NCAAs. Then the Hoos backed it up.
UVA’s championship push truly began on Friday, when all three boats advanced to the NCAA grand finals and positioned the Cavaliers for a top-five national finish. By the end of the regatta, that Friday statement had turned into a fourth-place national finish and proof of Virginia’s surge into the national picture.
The Second Varsity Eight led the way
The highlight of the weekend came from Virginia’s Second Varsity Eight, which finished third in the grand final with a time of 5:58.225. It matched Virginia’s best NCAA boat finish since 2018, when the Second Varsity Eight also placed third. Stanford won the race in 5:52.905, Texas finished second in 5:54.761, and UVA crossed ahead of Tennessee, Princeton, and Yale.
That was a massive result in the team standings and a signal of the program’s depth. While a fast Varsity Eight can carry a team’s reputation, a strong second eight is a sign of program-wide speed, the kind of depth that runs through the whole boathouse.
That depth will be critical as the Cavaliers try to build toward the program’s third NCAA team title after winning championships in 2010 and 2012.
The Varsity Eight proved UVA can trade blows with the best
The Cavaliers’ Varsity Eight also delivered one of the best races of the day, finishing fourth in a loaded A final. It was Virginia’s best NCAA Varsity Eight finish since 2015, when the Cavaliers placed third, and its first top-four V8 result in 11 years.
Texas won in a blazing 5:47.706 (which would have been a World’s Best Time had it been an official FISA event), with Stanford second in 5:50.160 and Tennessee third in 5:51.450. Virginia was right there in fourth at 5:52.398, less than a second behind Tennessee and ahead of Yale and Princeton.
This is important because the Varsity Eight is the headline boat – the event that most often shapes how a program is viewed nationally. UVA closed hard over the final 500 meters, overtaking Yale and pulling within striking distance of Tennessee for a medal spot.
For a team that had finished 11th in the Varsity Eight just a year ago, that is a major leap.
The Four completed Virginia’s full-team statement
Virginia’s Varsity Four finished sixth in its grand final, crossing in 6:52.692. Texas won the event, Tennessee placed second, Washington third, Rutgers fourth, and Stanford fifth. While the Four did not deliver the same points haul as the two eights, simply getting into the A final was crucial.
That is what separated Virginia from almost everyone else in the country. Several other programs had one or two boats in the A finals. However, only four had all three racing on championship Sunday with top-six points available.
That is what separated Virginia from the rest of the chasing pack.
Wes Ng has UVA back ahead of schedule
This result is also a major early statement for head coach Wes Ng.
Ng was hired in June 2024 as just the second head coach in Virginia rowing history, following Kevin Sauer’s legendary 29-year tenure. Sauer built UVA into one of the sport’s defining programs, winning NCAA team titles in 2010 and 2012, 22 ACC championships, and nine NCAA boat titles. Following that kind of figure was never going to be simple.
But two years in, Ng has already re-established Virginia as a top-four national program.
The contrast with Ng’s previous stop is hard to ignore. At Penn, he oversaw the best stretch in the Quakers’ history, leading the program to its first three NCAA team appearances. Since his departure, Penn has slipped out of the NCAA field entirely this season after finishing seventh at the Ivy League Championship.
That is not to say one coach alone explains everything in a sport as roster-dependent and cyclical as rowing. But it does underline what Virginia appears to have found in Ng: a coach capable of building a winning team culture, building elite roster depth, and getting boats to peak at the right time.
A reminder of what Virginia rowing can be
UVA rowing’s standard is not simply “make NCAAs.” This is a program with two national team championships, a long history of NCAA boat titles, and decades of ACC dominance. But in recent years, Virginia had drifted just outside the group of true national title contenders. The Hoos finished 13th in 2024 and 10th in 2025, respectable results nationally but not where this program expects to live.
Sunday felt like a potential turning point.
The Cavaliers still must close a gap to the podium (Texas, Stanford, and Tennessee). But it also looked bridgeable. Virginia’s Varsity Eight was less than a second off Tennessee for third. The Second Varsity Eight beat Tennessee outright. And the overall team standings showed UVA just five points from the national podium.
That is the kind of result that gives the Cavaliers’ legitimate podium ambitions and gives Ng’s staff a powerful building block for recruiting and future championship pushes.
Another banner moment for UVA athletics
Virginia rowing’s fourth-place finish also adds to what has become a remarkable year for UVA athletics.
The women’s swimming and diving team won its sixth consecutive NCAA championship in March. The men’s tennis team captured another national title earlier this month, beating Texas 4-3 to win the program’s seventh NCAA championship. Men’s track and field won the ACC outdoor title. Men’s golf has spent the spring among the nation’s best.
Now, women’s rowing has produced its best NCAA finish in 10 years.
For a department already stacking championships and deep postseason runs, Sunday’s rowing result is another reminder of the breadth of UVA’s athletic success. The Hoos are not just winning in the most visible sports. They are competing at the highest level across the Olympic sports landscape.
And at Lake Lanier, Virginia rowing made one thing very clear: the Cavaliers are back in the sport’s top tier.
It announced that the next era of Virginia rowing is here, and it might be arriving faster than expected.