PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The American Athletic Conference will host its inaugural championship for women’s rowing this weekend, taking place on Sunday, May 18, on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. Seven teams will compete: UCF, UConn, Louisville, Rutgers, SMU, Temple, and Villanova.
 
Competition will begin with time trials at 8 a.m., and is followed by six Grand Finals, which begin at 11 a.m. The Awards Ceremony will culminate the event, beginning at 12:40 p.m. There will be a free live stream of the Championship by The American Digital Network at theamerican.org/DN, and fans can follow live results and enjoy full coverage at the Championship Central Page.
 
Louisville enters the Championships as the presumptive favorite as the Cardinals are seeking their first conference team title. Louisville is the top seed in each race, and is the only national ranked team in The American, entering the weekend at No. 17. After a runner-up finish at last year’s Big East Championship, the Cardinals are seeking to earn the league’s automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Championship, which would be their first time qualifying for the national event.
 
The Cardinals main contender will be UCF, who enters seeded second in all six events. The Knights raced on Lake Mercer one month ago alongside four other league teams (UConn, SMU, Temple, Villanova) at the Knecht Cup.  
 
Alongside Louisville and UCF, UConn, Temple and Rutgers will each row the full complement of six boats. The Cardinals earned Boat of the Week honors a league-best four times during the season, with UCF picked up two awards and SMU one.

“The goal for each of our crews is to win. We prepare each boat to be as fast as possible with the objective of winning events," said Louisville head coach Derek Copeland "It'll certainly be a challenge as this will be the most depth we've ever raced against in a conference championship. Obviously, this is a fun time for our team and it brings new challenges. Hopefully, all of the hard work and energy we've put into training will help us reach our goal of qualifying for the NCAA Championship."

"We are very excited about the opportunity to race at the American Athletic Conference Championship this year," UCF head coach Becky Cramer said. "The team knows racing will be fast and we have been training hard all year, but each boat is ready to put together their best race of the season. We raced on Lake Mercer earlier this year, so they are familiar with the course and they are looking forward to lining up against some really good teams for the conference title."

"We've seen some of the conference and we're really dialed in on what some of them are doing,” SMU head coach Doug Wright explained. “We're really focused on being top three at the conference championship."

2014 American Athletic Conference Championship
Sunday, May 18 - Lake Mercer - West Windsor, N.J.
8:00 am - Varsity 8 - Time Trials
8:08 am - Second Varsity 8 - Time Trials
8:16 am - Varsity 4 - Time Trials
8:24 am - Third Varsity 8 - Time Trials
8:32 am - Second Varsity 4 - Time Trials
8:40 am - Third Varsity 4 - Time Trials

BREAK

11:00 am - Third Varsity 4 - Grand Final
11:10 am - Second Varsity 4 - Grand Final
11:20 am - Third Varsity 8 - Grand Final
11:30 am - Varsity 4 - Grand Final
11:40 am - Second Varsity 8 - Grand Final
11:50 pm - Varsity 8 - Grand Final
12:40 pm - Awards Ceremony