Badgers Finish Fifth at Big Ten Championships
April 28, 2007 | Women's Rowing
The Wisconsin women's openweight rowing team finished fifth at the 2007 Big Ten rowing Championships with 87 team points. Minnesota won the event setting a new meet record with 150 team points. Michigan and Ohio State rounded out the top three.
It was a beautiful day for rowing on Lake Wingra in Madison, Wis. For most of the day the wind wasn't a factor as the sun was out and the temperature was a comfortable 65-70 degrees.
"All in all it was a beautiful day," head coach Bebe Bryans analyzed. "Obviously it was a beautiful day to be a spectator. Not such a great day out on the race course as far as the water went, but it was never dangerous and always rowable, but just a little sloppy. That brings out the best in people and I think the best boats won today."
After the morning session, Wisconsin qualified all but one boat for grand final competition in the afternoon. Heat winners included the II novice eight, I novice eight and the II varsity four. The II four boat coxed by Claire Geiger and stroked by Meghan Roh, Sophie Hochschild, Robyn Laatsch and Katherine Guerra, finished with a seven second advantage to win their heat in 6:57.65.
Wisconsin proceeded to finish second in the first three grand finals of the afternoon. The II novice eight took second in their final with a time of 6:28.5, while the I novice eight finished in 6:30.9 to take second in their grand final. The II varsity four rounded out the trio taking second with a time of 7:03.7.
Wisconsin sat in second place after four final events behind this year's champion, Minnesota. The Wisconsin I varsity four boat took fourth in the grand final (7:14.7), followed by the II varsity eights who won the petite final in a time of 6:10.9.
"The best performance of the day was from our 2V," added Bryans. "Even though they didn 't make the final, they were only .2 seconds away. They had been struggling as a boat to find themselves and to find a flow and find a boat feel and I think today was a huge step forward for them, both in the heats and the finals. That bodes well for them and our their future."
With the I varsity eight race wrapping up the day, the UW boat coxed by Jess Bartelt and filled by Bailey Thompson, Maggie Galloway, Theresa Shields, Denise Kragness, Susan Masterson, Sarah Wrenshall, Stephanie Koepp and Kirsten Kuhn finished fifth in the grand final with a time of 6:11.2.
Champion Minnesota won four races, and finished second in the I varsity eight to work their way to their first Big Ten Rowing Title.
After the racing, the Big Ten handed out the annual conference awards. Jess Bartelt, a senior from Jackson, Wis. was named to the conference's first-team, while Madison native, Susan Masterson was named to the Big Ten's second-team as well as being honored with the sportsmanship award.
"We are disappointed we couldn't score a little bit better for the hometown crowd, but we are proud of our performance today and really appreciative of everybody who came out to watch," Bryans commented.
The Badgers are off next weekend as they prepare for the NCAA Central/South Regional, which will take place May 12-13 in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"We are getting better, we are getting faster," said Bryans. "We are a lot more competitive then we were two weeks ago and we expect to be at our best two weeks from now. We are definitely looking to the future. We had a good team meeting afterward and everyone is pretty fired up about getting ready for the NCAA Central regional championships and earning our fourth consecutive bid to the NCAA championships. That's our goal. It has been one of our goals since day one and we know we are getting faster and we know that it is a strong possibility for us."
