MADISON, Wis. – Despite some adversity, Wisconsin produced one of its best days in the NCAA era of women's rowing on Friday, advancing all three of its crews to the semifinal round of the 2016 NCAA Rowing Championships. Racing took place on Lake Natoma in Gold River, California.

The Badgers advanced all three of their boats into the A/B Semifinals for just the second time in school history, matching Wisconsin's 2010 team, which went on to set the program standard with a seventh-place team finish at the regatta.

It wasn't a perfect day, but after UW placed third in each of its morning heats, one spot out of directly advancing to Saturday's semifinals, it left no doubt in the afternoon repechages to grab the coveted qualifying spots.

Both the varsity eight and second varsity eight won its repechages, while the varsity four took a close second to advance.

"We had an interesting day today," head coach Bebe Bryans stated. "We had some downs and ups. All the downs were in the morning and all the ups were in the afternoon.

"The morning began for us with removing Gil Cooper from the varsity eight lineup because she was ill. So we moved Margo Grover up to the three seat of the varsity eight, and moved Renee Olley into the three seat of the second varsity eight. We left the four intact."

Those moves resulted in third-place finishes in the all three morning heats, one spot shy of qualifying directly into the A/B Semifinals in each of the three boat classes.

"I think all three boats suffered from nerves and were racing outside the boat," Bryans said. "It didn't work at all."

A few hours break did wonders, however, as the Badgers did what they needed to in the afternoon to advance all three crews and became one of 10 schools to still have all three boats in contention.

It started with the varsity eight, who reached the A/B Semifinals for just the third time in school history by winning the first of two repechage heats. The Badgers clocked 6 minutes, 28.632 seconds to beat out Southern California (6:30.852), though both advanced as the top two crews from each repechage heat advance to the A/B Semifinals.

The second varsity eight followed suit, capturing a tightly contested repechage heat in 6:39.069. Washington State made a late push to overtake Duke for the second qualifying spot and reached the 2000-meter finish line in 6:39.451. Duke was third in 6:40.045.

Then the varsity four kept the momentum going to close out the afternoon, placing second behind Brown, but well clear of the rest of the field to move on. UW raced to a 7:29.469, just over a second behind the Bears' time of 7:28.238. Syracuse was a distant third in 7:38.280.

"The four had a little bit of a technical difficulty in the rep in that their cox box went out early in the race," Bryans remarked. "They did a pretty good job of not having and coxswain and racing much better than they did this morning.

"So we regrouped, came back and just raced really well. They had a lot of fun. They learned lessons and applied them. We are really happy with our finish."

The Badgers will now return to the water Saturday morning with eyes towards advancing to Sunday's grand finals. At 10:36 a.m. CT, the Badgers race in the first varsity eight semifinal against a field that includes California, Ohio State, Michigan, Virginia and Syracuse. The top three in each semifinal advance to grand finals, while the rest will compete Sunday in petite finals (places 7-12).

UW's second varsity eight races at 11:24 a.m., against Ohio State, Brown, Virginia, Texas and Michigan.

The varsity four races at 12:24 p.m., against Yale, Virginia, Stanford, Ohio State and Indiana.

"All in all it was a great rallying day for us," Bryans concluded. "It started rough and we ended strong. It is a really good day and a really good set up for tomorrow. Everybody is in really good spirits and we are happy to be representing the 'W.'"

2016 NCAA Rowing Championships
Lake Natoma
Gold River, Calif.
May 27, 2016
2000 meters

Varsity Eight
Repechage 1 (Top two to Saturday A/B Semifinals, rest to C/D Semifinals)
1. Wisconsin, 6:28.632; 2. Southern California, 6:30.852; 3. Gonzaga, 6:34.673; 4. Washington State, 6:36.749; 5. Indiana, 6:38.694; 6. Rhode Island, 6:56.229; 7. Jacksonville, 7:15.067

Heat 3 (Top two to Saturday A/B Seminals, rest to afternoon repechage)
1. Ohio State, 6:19.189; 2. Brown, 6:23.876; 3. Wisconsin, 6:29.524; 4. Duke, 6:41.924; 5. UCF, 6:46.269; 6. Jacksonville, 7:14.901
UW Lineup – Coxswain Lily Hansen, Maria Schmid, Hannah Schwartz, Anna Knutson, Lexi Siverling, Maddie Wanamaker, Margo Grover, Brianna Dahm, Kaitlin McKeogh
 
Second Varsity Eight
Repechage 1 (Top two to Saturday A/B Semifinals, rest to C/D Semifinals)
1. Wisconsin, 6:39.069; 2. Washington State, 6:39.451; 3. Duke, 6:40.045; 4. Gonzaga, 6:47.967; 5. Southern California, 6:50.132; 6. Rhode Island, 7:07.191; 7. Jacksonville, 7:25.041

Heat 1 (Top two to Saturday A/B Semifinals, rest to afternoon repechage)
1. Brown, 6:35.642; 2. Stanford, 6:37.571; 3. Wisconsin, 6:43.091; 4. Syracuse, 6:47.124; 5. Southern California, 6:48.963
UW Lineup – Coxswain Katherine Condon, Gabby Simons, Dani Steinberg, Sophia Vitas, Megan Whitehouse, Callie Hebert, Renee Olley, Marissa Gibson, Andrea French
 
Varsity Four
Repechage 1 (Top two to Saturday A/B Semifinals, rest to C/D Semifinals)
1. Brown, 7:28.238; 2. Wisconsin, 7:29.469; 3. Syracuse, 7:38.280; 4. Southern California, 7:45.363; 5. Navy, 7:54.930; 6. Gonzaga, 7:58.742

Heat 1 (Top two to Saturday A/B Semifinals, rest to afternoon repechage)
1. California, 7:19.909; 2. Stanford, 7:23.281; 3. Wisconsin, 7:33.329; 4. Indiana, 7:39.020; 5. Gonzaga, 7:53.480
UW Lineup – Coxswain Rosie Brezynski, Maren Schultz, Morganne Freeman, Claire Scott, Monica Gerber