No. 10 Badgers Ready For Third-Straight NCAA Try
May 24, 2006 | Women's Rowing
No. 10 Wisconsin women's openweight rowing competes in its third consecutive NCAA rowing championships and its fourth in program history this Friday through Sunday on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. The 2006 NCAA Women's Rowing Championships, hosted by Rutgers University, takes place at Finn Caspersen Rowing Center.
The Badgers look to improve on history, having placed 10th (1999), 11th (2004) and 12th (2005) in its three previous trips to the event.
The team placed second out of 21 schools at the 2006 NCAA Central/South Regional, May 13-14 in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which helped secure their bid. It was the Badgers' best finish at the regatta, won by Ohio State for the fourth year running. The result bodes well for a successful improvement at the national regatta.
The 12-team field for this year's championships includes Brown, California, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Princeton, Stanford, Tennessee, Washington, Washington State, Wisconsin and Yale. Each will enter a varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four in the competition. Four additional teams will send just their varsity eight, including Boston University, Minnesota, Southern California and UCLA.
The Badgers have become accustomed to reaching the championships as Wisconsin is in a group of eight schools to have reached the NCAA championships the last three years with a full compliment of boats. Also used to competing in the NCAA championships is second-year head coach Bebe Bryans, who has a streak of sending seven straight teams to the NCAA championships, including her last five teams at Michigan State, and both her teams at Wisconsin. She has had at least one boat in every NCAA championships since the event began in 1997.
Like the team's hopes for improvements from past trips, Bryans top finish at the event is an eighth-place result in 1999 with Michigan State.
The Badgers are loaded with experience with seniors such as Kirby Gallie, Kari Harmon, Lindsay Bush, Katie Pofahl, Bryana Seifert, Megan Stevens, Kim Ackerbauer and Meghan Filbrandt among those expected to compete for Wisconsin this weekend. However, four freshmen are also expected to race in the two eights including Big Ten Freshman of the Year Sarah Wrenshall and Theresa Shields in the varsity eight, and Katie Helmrick and Maggie Galloway in the second varsity eight.
Racing at the championships begin at 7 a.m. CT on Mercer Lake. To view the race schedule, see below.
