UW Openweights Compete at NCAA Central-South Regional This Weekend
May 13, 2005 | Women's Rowing
No. 14 Wisconsin women's openweight rowing takes to the water this weekend at the Aramark Sprints, which is the ninth-annual NCAA Central-South Regional Championship. The Badgers will compete against many of the nation's top crews while looking to perform well enough to earn an NCAA bid. While there are no automatic qualifiers, the Badgers want to make their case for their second consecutive trip to the NCAA rowing championships as the field is announced on Tuesday.
Racing takes place on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn., with preliminaries on Saturday and finals on Sunday. Schools will compete in the varsity eight, second varsity eight, varsity four, open four and novice eight and second novice eight events. Racing commences at 8 a.m. CT on both days.
Fans can follow the action with live updates at www.orra.org .
Wisconsin placed third as a team during last year's event and earned its second-ever trip to the NCAA championship. The Badgers would now like to make school history with a second-straight invite to the NCAA championship set for May 27-29 in Rancho Cordova, Calif.
At the NCAA championship, only the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four compete, so the results in those three events remain the most critical to the Badgers' success.
The Badgers took fifth in last year's varsity eight, fourth in the second novice eight, second in the varsity four, third in the open four, fourth in the novice eight and first in the second novice eight.
All seven Big Ten rowing teams take part in this year's regional. Just two weeks after capturing the Big Ten title, Michigan State's first varsity eight boat enters as the top seed. Ohio State and Michigan complete the top three seeds, while Wisconsin is the sixth seed, followed by No. 7 Minnesota, No. 9 Indiana and No 13. Iowa. Ohio State leads all Big Ten squads in the second varsity eight race as the No. 2 seed, while the Spartans, Wisconsin and Michigan round out the top five. In the varsity four, Virginia is the top seed, with Michigan State seeded second and the Badgers the No. 3 seed. Finally in the novice eight, the Badgers are seeded fourth, behind top-seeded Michigan, Ohio State and host-school Tennessee. Only the top six boats in the novice eight are seeded. No seedings are in place for the second novice eight and open four races.
The Central/South Region Championships is the only regatta of its kind in the NCAA. The racing involves teams from two of the five NCAA regions. The competition is comprised of 21 teams and is limited to intercollegiate programs that compete in either the Central or South Region.
The regatta provides the teams one last opportunity to compete before the NCAA selection announcement on Tuesday, May 17 at 4 p.m. The selections will be available on the NCAA Web site at www.ncaasports.com.
