The Tufts University women’s rowing team won its second straight NCAA championship on May 31 with a dominating performance on Lake Mercer in West Windsor, New Jersey. Both the Jumbo first and second varsity eights led their races from start to finish.

Tufts’ performance was even stronger than last year, when they won their first national title in Ohio. That came on the strength of a first varsity win and second varsity runner-up finish, which gave Tufts a 54 score. This year, the Jumbos landed a perfect team score of 56 with the two victories. The 1V8 NCAA victory this May is the second in a row for the Jumbos.

First to race for the Jumbos today was the second varsity, who quickly established an open-water lead. Tufts was nearly five seconds ahead of Williams College at the halfway point, and went on to a winning margin of almost six seconds with their 6:47.335 final time. Wesleyan University (6:53.129) edged Williams at the finish line for second place.

In the 1V8 race, Tufts and Wesleyan went ahead first with the Jumbos building an early advantage into a length lead by 1000 meters. Williams surpassed Wesleyan, but the Jumbos maintained their safe advantage and held off the Ephs with a 6:37.686 winning time vs. 6:39.214 for Williams.

The Jumbo NCAA-champion rosters were for the 2V8 coxswain Maddie Rosato, stroke Julia Zipoli, 7-Janna Moore, 6-Sophia Brackett, 5-Sophie Cumming, 4-Zenani Himlin-Mayekiso, 3-Brooke Thompson, 2-Lecia Sun, and bow Natalie Graham. The 1V8 had coxswain Hannah Jiang, stroke Rose Tinkjian, 7-Sami Haynes, 6-Stella Shen, 5-Emma Lyle, 4-Lucy Howell, 3-Reilly Uiterwyk, 2-Josie Monroe and bow Sydney Barr.

Williams College with its second place in the 1V8 and third in the 2V8 was the national runner-up with a 49 team score. Wesleyan University was fourth in 1V8 and second in 2V8 for third overall (45).

The back-to-back national championship win caps another tremendous year for Coach Lily Siddall’s Jumbos. They also won their second straight championships at the Head of the Charles Collegiate Eights and in the NESCAC, and took their third straight National Invitational Rowing Championships Points Trophy.

This is the second NCAA title in less than a week for Tufts, as men’s lacrosse won its second in a row as well May 25.