All-Americans 2004 National Championship 2005 National Championship   Year by Year Results

Ithaca’s women’s varsity rowing program was initiated in the spring of 1975. Competing under club status, the Bombers captured the 1976 Dad Vail varsity eight title the first year women’s races were offered at the regatta. Jerry Dietz, a member of the bronze medal-winning men’s heavyweight eight as an undergraduate, guided Ithaca to the crown in his first year as women’s coach. Although women’s rowing grew nationally over the next few years, Ithaca claimed the Dad Vail championship again in 1979, coached by Julie Rife, the stroke of the 1976 crew.

 

Peg Mallery, who rowed in Ithaca’s top crew in 1981 and 1982 before transferring, competed for the U.S. national team in the inaugural 1986 Goodwill Games and in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.

In 1983 women’s crew became a varsity sport at Ithaca College. After several inconsistent years, coach Jocelyn Kearing guided Ithaca’s women’s varsity to the first two of what is now 15 consecutive winning seasons. Included in that run were four New York State small-school titles. The state championship, first raced in 1990, now includes nearly 30 colleges and universities.

 

A key performer in the emerging women’s program was Becky Metz Robinson. After two letter-winning seasons with the Bombers, Robinson made the national team in 1991. A year later she was a final-day cut from the 1992 U.S. Olympic team. She returned to help coach the Bombers and in 1995 became the first crew program representative to be inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame.

 

The first NCAA-sponsored championship regatta for women was held in 1997. A women’s four from Ithaca qualified for the all-division event and placed fourth in the petite final and 10th overall. Mary Obidinski ’97, a member of that crew, now competes with the U.S. national team. In 2001she won the women’s lightweight double at Princeton’s World Cup event. The Bombers returned to the NCAA championships in 1998, were the second-highest finishing Division II or III team at the 2001 championships and placed third at the 2002 event (the first championship exclusively for Division III teams) before placing third in 2003.

 

The 2004 team earned the program’s first national championship, capping the Bombers’ most successful season. The varsity eight boat earned a gold medal at the NCAA championships and the second varsity eight boat qualified for the grand final (the first time any second varsity eight had done so). Robinson was named the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Coach of the Year for the second time in her career.

A year later Ithaca became the first school to repeat as Division III national champions. The Bombers secured the title when their varsity 8 boat overtook Smith for second place in the grand final, moving ahead in the race's final 500 meters.