1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., more commonly known as the White House, is one of the most exclusive addresses in the world. To reside there, one has to win a presidential election, and to work there, one has to be appointed to a highly prestigious cabinet position. There is a third method of garnering an invitation to the Executive Mansion, and it may be the most difficult of the three to achieve: winning an NCAA national championship.
It was through the latter track that the Tufts women’s rowing and men’s lacrosse teams secured their invites to the White House this summer. On Monday, July 22, the White House celebrated NCAA College Athlete Day, inviting all 90 NCAA champions from the 2023–24 academic year to Washington. It was only the second time that champions from all three NCAA divisions were included. Students, family members and coaches all attended, as the student-athletes’ academic and athletic achievements, character and dedication to their sports were honored.
“We were all shocked. Coach [Casey] D’Annalfo sent a message to our team channel saying … pretty cool news — we’ve been invited to the White House. … Instantly, everyone just started making plans. It’s not something you can really miss or ever want to miss. So [it was a] pretty once-in-a-lifetime experience,” junior midfielder Declan Murphy remarked.
Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed the student-athletes to the White House and delivered remarks to the champions on the South Lawn. It was her first public appearance since President Joe Biden announced that he was ending his 2024 presidential run and endorsed Harris for the Democratic Party’s nomination. Biden was still self-isolating at his home in Delaware following his testing positive for COVID-19 the previous week.
“It was definitely a really cool experience. … It was a very inspiring speech, and I think a lot of us really enjoyed being able to see her up close… especially since that was her first time being out in public as the presidential nominee,” junior coxswain Hannah Jiang said.
The Jumbos men’s lacrosse program is no stranger to success, as they entered their 2024 season having won the NESCAC championship each year since 2010, apart from 2017. The Jumbos had also made it to the NCAA Tournament Final Four each year since 2021. However, they had not clinched a national title since 2015. After finishing the regular season 18–2, the Jumbos were shockingly knocked out of the NESCAC Tournament in the first round, losing 14–13 to the Hamilton College Continentals in overtime. Nonetheless, the Jumbos secured an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Once the tournament began, the Jumbos went on a tear. They trampled the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans, the Stevenson University Mustangs, the St. John Fisher University Cardinals and the Washington and Lee University Generals, setting up a matchup in the final at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field with the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers, a team they had lost 16–11 to earlier in the season. Following a back-and-forth game which was tied at thirteen goals entering the fourth quarter, the Jumbos roared back to beat the Tigers 18–14, securing their fourth national championship.
“No one on that team had felt that experience before. … So, it was just awesome to see kind of the final culmination of all the coaching staff’s work …, since we’ve been there, [since] we’ve won one. And, just being all together and knowing that it’s taken eight or nine, however many years of Tufts lacrosse alums to get us back into this spot was pretty cool,” Murphy reflected.
Similarly, the Jumbo women’s rowing squad experienced a season for the ages en route to the White House.
“Everyone had this in the back of their mind, knowing how well we did the past couple of years. …We know we’re fast, we know we’ve trained and just getting a chance to go race, … to just show everyone the work that we’ve put in was honestly probably what pushed us to do really well. And I think a lot of people were just really hungry and we got really gritty in order to race it,” Jiang said.
Early in the season, the women’s first varsity won the Collegiate Eights competition at the renowned Head of the Charles Regatta, taking down several Division I teams in the process.
When the spring season kicked off, the Jumbos continued their success, winning 15 out of their first 16 races on the Malden River. At the New England Rowing Championships in May, Tufts took home the points trophy, with their score of 87.10 besting Division I Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s 85. One week later, at the National Invitational Rowing Championships, Tufts repeated the feat, posting a regatta-high 207 points, beating second-place Williams by 28 points. The total meant that the Jumbos clinched the NESCAC championship for the first time. At the Division III National Championships at Harsha Lake in Bethel, Ohio, the first varsity squad won its heat, while the second varsity squad came second in its race. The combined total of 54 points meant that the Jumbos clinched their first national title.
On the moment the Jumbos clinched the title, Jiang remarked, “A lot of it was relief and, … of course, a lot of excitement from our teammates from home, our teammates that were there, our coaches, parents, family. It was just a lot of really good energy. And just everyone was like, ‘yeah, you guys did that.’ It happened.”
So while the White House might not have explicitly been the goal for either team entering the season, it was a fitting conclusion to two phenomenal seasons. Both the rowing and lacrosse squads will go down in the Tufts record books, the former as the initial national championship for a powerhouse program and the latter as a continuation of a decade-long dynasty.
Whatever one’s politics are, it is incredible to visit the White House in an election year, and also to be up close to a major party nominee for President of the United States. So, apparently, all it takes to get into “The Room Where It Happens” is winning a national championship. Who knew?
