Women's Varsity Eights Take Fourth in NCAA Repechage
May 28, 2004 | Women's Rowing
Wisconsin women's varsity eight placed fourth in the repechage at the 2004 NCAA Rowing Championships on Friday, and will compete Saturday in the race for places 13-16. The Badgers will also row in Saturday's repechage heats in the second varsity eight and varsity four in an attempt to make the grand final in each event. All racing takes place at CSUS Aquatics Center on Lake Natoma.
Like they did in their morning heat, the Badgers started slow, dropping eight seconds off leading Harvard by just 500 meters. Wisconsin sat in sixth at the mark, ahead of only Texas. The Badgers then pushed over the second 500 meters, posting the fastest split to move past Washington State into fifth. The sprint pulled the UW to within 1.43 seconds of third-place USC, the final spot for the semifinal. That would be as close as the Badgers would get, however.. A relatively slow third 500 dropped the Badgers nearly seven seconds out of the top three, a gap too much for Wisconsin to overcome. The second-fastest final 500 climbed the UW past Michigan State into fourth, but Wisconsin still fell short of the mark, 3.4 seconds behind the third-place Trojans.
Earlier in the day, Wisconsin placed fourth in both its varsity four and second varsity eight heats, dropping into the repechage heats on Saturday. The Badgers open Saturday in the varsity four repechage heat one at 9:30 a.m. PDT against Brown, Washington State, Yale and Michigan State. In the second varsity eight, the Badgers race in heat two and face Michigan, California, Harvard and Princeton at 10:15 a.m. PDT. The top two boats in each heat advance to the grand final in both events.
The varsity eight race to determine places 13-16 goes off at 11 a.m. PDT.
