MADISON, Wis. – Rowers from Wisconsin and Stanford competed on Thursday evening in honor of Connor Dawes, who was Wisconsin-born and Australian-raised, was a potential collegiate rower for the two schools. However, before Connor could make his college decision, he passed away from brain cancer and never made it to campus.

That was the backdrop for the third annual Connor's Erg Challenge, which pit rowers from Wisconsin and Stanford, and for the first time, Duke, in a 100K erg competition that helped raise money for pediatric brain cancer research. The money raised on each campus in part stays on campus, including brain cancer research at UW Children's Hospital.

Notes to Know
- Total money raised this year surpassed $23,000 dollars.
- Wisconsin's student-athletes raised approximately $8600 of that total, including $1000 by women's rower Morganne Freeman.
- A $10,000 contribution came in the form of a sponsorship by Wisconsin company Jacobus Energy.

RESULTS
UW Times
Men: 5:10.10
Openweight Women: 6:03:46
Lightweight Women: 6:18.41

Straight from the boathouse:
Liz Dawes, founder of the Robert Connor Dawes Foundation
"We are blown away by the Badger rowing community's support!"

Wisconsin men's rowing coach Chris Clark on the evening
"It is always nice to be part of something like this. I have my own children and can't even imagine what she went through, and I can tell you Liz Dawes, Connor's mom, is smart but also driven. If you focus on something, not that you forget about it, but you can put all that energy, grief really, into doing something good, and that is what it is."

On having fun doing it
"It is fun. Very seldom is erging fun, but you can see people seemed to be having a good time.

"Normally you would say, alright let's get together and kill ourselves for about an hour at night, guys would look at you like you were nuts, but instead they really made that a good time. And there is money too, so it worked out well."
 
Women's lightweight rower Kathryne Ruffalo
"Every year for the past three years, we've done this race to 100k with all three of our team's competing against Stanford. To raise money for and raise awareness for juvenile brain cancer because that is something families and children should not have to deal with, in my opinion. Getting to do this is a huge sense of accomplishment for me from just being able to raise awareness for something that I find very special.

"Coming here every day can feel a little monotonous, but getting to do it for a cause is reigniting. To be able to come here and practice, which is something Connor wanted to do for his college career, and that is what we get to do puts it in perspective and is special in itself."
 
Women's openweight rower Elisabet Pietz
"I think it is really special because we are all getting together. Everyone is coming out in the evening to do this, throwdown, put everything on the erg, as a symbol of what we are here to do and how we are really out there to help out other people and do what we can to raise money for this.

"They said they just gave out their first scholarship. That is really amazing to know we are raising the money to do that and we are really helping out. It is an honor to be a part of it."