The University of Rhode Island women’s rowing team earned its second straight Atlantic 10 Conference Championship on May 17, securing its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

For the sixth time in seven years, the Rams claimed the A-10 title, led by Head Coach Shelagh Donohoe.

“ We’ve had a season of mixed results,” Donohoe said. “But, obviously, the training plan is to have us peak at A-10s, and I feel like that’s what happened. The kids would dial in, and we raced to our potential, and I always knew if we raced to our potential, winning was a possibility.”

Rhody sealed the title on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, New Jersey, where the First Varsity 8+ boat clinched the title for the program. 

URI’s three All-Atlantic 10 First Team rowers, fourth-year Bella Bruno, third-year Bethany Nordstrom and fourth-year Hailey Pardi, helped the First Varsity 8+ keep a healthy distance between George Washington University, who finished three seconds behind the Rams in the Grand Final. Third-year Abigail Galayda, who was also part of the First Varsity 8+, was named to the All-Atlantic 10 Second Team.

Additionally, Rhody earned another gold medal from their Second Varsity 8+, who bested GW in the Grand Final by approximately three seconds. 

Additional contributions included bronze medals from the Varsity 4+ and Third Varsity 8+. Both teams landed behind the University of Massachusetts in the top spot and GW in second place. Heading into the contest, URI held a one point advantage over GW. The Varsity 4+ gave Rhody their first seven points of the afternoon.

The Third Varsity 8+ finished about 16 seconds behind the winning team, while the Varsity 4+ trailed the Minutewomen by about 23 seconds.

Overall, URI finished with 52 team points, while GW scored 48 for second place, followed by UMass, which finished with 38 points in its final season in the A-10 Conference.

“ I think the pressure that we put on ourselves and to our potential is what we needed to do,” Donohoe said. “We were ranked second coming in, so I felt like we didn’t have a target on our back. I looked at us like underdogs because we were ranked second.”

Donohoe earned A-10 Coach of the Year for the 10th time in her career. Her team will begin competition in the NCAA Rowing Championship on Friday.

“ Obviously, we’re psyched to be here,” Donohoe said. “We’re with the top programs in the country, and we’re one of them; we’re one of 22 schools still rowing at this time of year. If we hit a ranking, that’s great.”

In last year’s national tournament, the Rams placed 20th. Only Boston University and Northeastern University join the Rams as the teams to have secured an automatic bid in each of the last two seasons. 

The First Varsity 8+, Second Varsity 8+ and Varsity 4+ are seeded No. 21 in their respective four heats on Friday. 

All three days of the NCAA Championship will be raced at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey and streamed on NCAA.com.

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