Badger Openweights Complete Fall Season
November 13, 2005 | Women's Rowing
The Wisconsin women's openweight rowing team closed out the 2005 calendar year Sunday, racing at the Rivanna Romp in Charlottesville, Va. The racing, hosted by the University of Virginia, took place on the 4,000 meter Rivanna Reservoir.
Competing schools included UVA, Tennessee, Miami, Clemson, Texas, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Cincinnati. Wisconsin capitalized on the perfect rowing day conditions, beating out most of their competition in the three events entered.
'Overall it was a really great racing day for us. We had a lot to accomplish this weekend as a team. Not only were we able to be competitive with the crews, but we were strong in every single piece. Every boat that went out raced very aggressively and really hard all the way down, and that was what we were looking for. It was a very challenging course, with some big turns, but the water was perfect and beautiful,' said head coach Bebe Bryans.
The varsity eight event was the most competitive of the day with more than 20 boats entered. The Wisconsin A boat finished second in a time of 14:02.30 only to Ohio State who crossed the line in 13:51.88. The only junior varsity boats to beat Wisconsin were UVA and Tennessee who finished in times of 14:27.3 and 14:30.8, respectively. The Wisconsin B boat finished in tenth place in a time of 14:33.8.
In the fours, Wisconsin went first and second, finishing in 16:00.66 and 16:08.10, respectively. The Clemson B boat followed close on Wisconsin's heels, coming in only five-tenths of a second behind them in a time of 16:08.6. Ohio State was next, clocking 16:09.6 and UVA grabbed the fifth place spot in 16:10.2. The top five finishers were within only 10 seconds of each other over the 15-minute race course. This demonstrated how aggressive and exciting the event was, especially for Wisconsin who lead all the boats in the small-time spread.
Three sets of Badger rowers entered to race in the pairs event beginning at 12:20 p.m. Emily Simonds and Stephanie Koepp were the top Badger finishers, earning third place in a time of 17:26.74. The Wisconsin A boat of Nicole Nelson and Shayla Dvorak, crossed the line next in a time of 17:30.56, grabbing the fourth place position. Sophomores Maria Davis and Kelsy Stadsklev in the Wisconsin C boat crossed the line in sixth place, clocking a time of 18:04.55.
'I think we identified some areas we can really improve upon and get stronger in, and that was one of the things we were the most pleased about, besides being as competitive as we were. We're fired up going into winter training and we couldn't have asked for a better final race than that. We're ready to go and to pick the whole team. We will have a really good, strong, hard winter training, ' added Bryans.
The Badgers will not race again until the spring season picks up at the Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas on March 17-19.
