college freshman

Question
What are 2k times like for a college freshman (heavyweight or lightweight) at a D-I school?

Answer
Hi Tom: Tricky question.  Technically, there is no such thing as D1 rowing.  Unlike football and baseball, college crew is banded in multiple loose affiliations, such as the Eastern College Rowing Association, the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Assoc., the Dad Vail Rowing Association, and Western Rowing Association.  In late May, the best crews get together for the Incollegiate Rowing Association Regatta, which is considered the National Rowing Championship.  The crews that typically row in the Dad Vails are generally the what you would consider smaller rowing programs.

There is also much variance in using erg times only as a barometer of what programs a rower can be in.  Obviously, someone who rows a 6:20 2K is going to get a closer look at rowing the Yale Varsity 8 than someone who rows a 7:59.  But there are other factors: on-water technique, physical potential, race experience, etc. that coaches also consider during recruiting.

To answer your question, I reviewed the results of the CRASH-B Sprints.  For a heavyweight (Open Men's Division), the best/median/worst times were 5:59.8/6:28.9/7:43.1.  For lightweights, the range is 6:15.3/6:54.3/8:13.8 .

I'd say, if you are a heavyweight with a good resume of on-water experience, you need to crack 7:00 to make JV, 6:35 to make Varsity at a Dad Vail school and 6:20 to row at Varsity for an elite program like Harvard.  For lightweights, you need to crack 7:10 to make JV, 6:45 to make Varsity and 6:30 to row at Varsity for an elite lightweight program like Cornell.   

Regards/AP