Badgers Place Four Boats in Grand Finals
May 12, 2007 | Women's Rowing
The Wisconsin women's openweight crew placed four of their five boats into Sunday's Grand Finals of the NCAA Central/South Regional while placing one boat in Sunday's Petite Finals. Racing in Oak Ridge, Tenn. on Melton Hill Lake, the women were joined by 23 other universities at this year's regional.
The novice eight, second varsity eight, open four, and varsity four all advanced after two rounds of competition on Saturday to participate in the finals. The 2,000 meter course will also host this year's NCAA Championships May 25-27. Sunday's finals will have a big impact on which teams will be invited to this year's championships.
'We had a great day of racing,' said head coach Bebe Bryans. 'The women performed well against a very challenging field. All we can do now is go out tomorrow and hope to be up with the rest of the field.'
Both the novice eight and the varsity four boats took second in their semifinal races with times of 7:16.52 and 7:38.4 respectively. The open four and second varsity eight both finished third in their semifinals to also earn a birth in Sunday's grand finals. The open four finished in a time of 8:34.09, while the second varsity eight finished in 7:03.96.
The varsity eight just missed the cutoff for Sunday's finals as they finished in fourth place with a time of 7:01.81. The women will compete in the Petite final on Sunday at approximately 11:40 a.m.
The finals will begin Sunday at 9:00 a.m. with the first UW boats racing at 10:30. With Sunday's finals being the last chance to make a case for the NCAA selection committee there should be some very competitive racing.
