WASHINGTON — “You play hard,” President Bush told a group of collegiate championship athletes on the sun-kissed South Lawn, “and you end up here at the White House!”

So saying, the First Fan welcomed the Brown University varsity women’s crew and seven other national championship teams for an afternoon visit to the White House yesterday.

Mr. Bush introduced the teams in turn; they ranged from the men’s and women’s rifle teams of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks to the women’s basketball team from the University of Tennessee — all 2007 champions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division One.

“It’s really fun to be with people who set high standards and achieve goals,” Mr. Bush said.

Representing Brown were the women of three boats — the varsity eight, the junior varsity eight and the varsity four — who together collected top honors this summer at the NCAA championship in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Mr. Bush noted that Brown’s women have been NCAA champions five of the past nine years, and are the winningest women’s crew program in NCAA history.

“These women know how to row!” Mr. Bush said.

After the ceremony, crew members Vanessa Rathbone, a senior, and Rachel Dearborn, a 2007 grad, said the president had enthusiastically greeted all of the athletes and coaches at a ceremony before his remarks outside on the South Lawn. The president joked with the Brown women about their Ivy League rivals at Yale, his alma mater.

Mr. Bush concluded the proceedings on an uplifting note, saluting the athletes for their accomplishments as scholars and models of good citizenship.

“You don’t know how many people are looking at you,” said Mr. Bush, “but there’s a lot.”

jmulligan@belo-dc.com