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Virginia Wins ACC Rowing Championship for 13th Consecutive Year

The Cavaliers won four of the five grand finals to win the 2023 ACC Rowing Championship, their 22nd ACC title in the last 23 years

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletics

Utter dominance for the Virginia rowing program.

For the 22nd time in the last 23 years, the Cavaliers are the rowing champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia won four of the five grand finals on Saturday morning on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, North Carolina to bring home the 2023 ACC Rowing Championship, UVA'sย 13th-consecutive ACC title.ย 

With victories in four of the five grand finals, Virginia topped the team leaderboards with 95 points, edging runner-up Syracuse (86 points) and third-place Duke (83 points).ย 

To begin the morning on Saturday, Virginia's Third Varsity Eight came from behind to win the title with a time of 6:49.096, edging Syracuse (6:51.932) by more than two seconds. In the Second Varsity Four, UVA finished first in 7:17.988 to beat out second-place Duke (7:21.084).ย 

Virginia's Varsity Four turned in a dominant performance (7:08.947), finishing nearly seven seconds ahead of second-place Duke (7:15.717).ย 

The Second Varsity Eight was an entertaining race, with the Cavaliers once again rallying from behind to earn their fourth grand finals win. UVA finished in 6:34.625, just barely finishing ahead of Duke's 6:34.981.ย 

Syracuse won the Varsity Eight with a time of 6:20.495, edging Virginia's time of 6:21.351.ย 

โ€œThe 3V8, 2V4 and V4 really started things off with great wins!,โ€ Virginia head coach Kevin Sauer said. โ€œThe second varsity eight race was incredible. Dukeโ€™s 2V8 raced so well. We found another gear and I donโ€™t know where it came from to bring it home. We showed a lionโ€™s heart in the V8 race as well, but came up 0.8 seconds short against a really fast Syracuse V8."

Up next for Kevin Sauer's Cavaliers will be the 2023 NCAA Rowing Championships, which will be held May 26-28 on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey.ย 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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