May 15, 2012

BERKELEY -

Top-ranked California was one of 16 teams selected to the 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Championships. The national regatta is scheduled to take place from May 25-27 at Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Rider will serve as the hosts.

This is the second year in a row that the Golden Bears will enter the national championships as the No. 1 team in the country. The Bears finished third overall and fourth in the varsity eight grand final at the 2011 NCAA Championships.

Cal has won the NCAA team title twice - in 2005 and 2006 - in the 15-year history of the event.

The team championship is composed of 16 teams and each team is required to field two boats of eight rowers and one boat of four rowers.

The other Pac-12 teams in the 2012 NCAA field are No. 3 USC, No. 7 UCLA, No. 8 Washington and No. 12 Stanford. The rest of the field consists of Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Princeton, Virginia, Wisconsin and Yale.

Last season, Brown won the overall team title and Princeton captured the varsity eight crown.

The Bears are coming off their fifth straight Pac-12 team championship last Sunday at Lake Natoma, where Cal won all four races at the conference meet for the first time in team history.

In addition to the conference title, the Bears have not lost a single race since April 15. The varsity eight has won its last six races in a row and the freshman eight and varsity four boats are both undefeated in 2012.