Wisconsin Rowing Earns Second-Straight NCAA Bid
May 17, 2005 | Women's Rowing
Wisconsin women's openweight rowing made it two-straight invitations to the NCAA rowing championships when the 12-team field was announced Tuesday afternoon. The Badgers, which also made trips to the championships in 1999 and 2004, will make their third appearance since the NCAA began sponsoring the sport in 1997. The 2005 NCAA Division I Women's Rowing Championships run May 27-29 at CSUS Aquatic Center in Rancho Cordova, Calif.
The team championships is comprised of 12 teams with each team fielding two boats of eight rowers and one boat of four rowers. In addition, four eight-women boats from institutions not represented in the team competition are selected.
In just the first season for head coach Bebe Bryans, Wisconsin joined Big Ten-member schools Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State, as representatives from the NCAA Central Region. Also chosen for the field were Brown, California, Harvard, Princeton, Southern California, Virginia, Washington and Yale. Four additional varsity eights were also chosen to compete, including Tennessee, Syracuse, Stanford and UCLA.
The selection of teams and individual boats was based on eligibility and availability of student-athletes; regional championship results; regional rankings; late-season performance; head-to-head results; results against teams/boats already selected; results against common opponents; and results against regionally ranked teams/boats. One team from each region was selected and the remaining seven teams were selected at-large.
In 2004, crews from Brown outdistanced Yale to win their fourth national title in six years. The Bears tallied 70 points in the winning effort, while second-place finisher Yale accumulated 59 points. Michigan earned 52 points to take third by a slim one-point margin over California. Washington rounded out the top five in the team competition with 43 points. Defending champion Harvard finished 10th in the team standings.
Wisconsin placed 11th as a team in 2004, with its varsity eight taking 16th, its second varsity eight placing eighth and its varsity four earning seventh. The UW finished 10th as a team in 1999.
Wisconsin will depart for California on Sunday. Media wishing to speak to coaches or student-athletes should contact Paul Capobianco at 608-263-1983 for interviews. The team is expected to practice at 6:45 a.m., and 4:30 p.m., the rest of this week. Also of note - Coach Bryans will take part in a Web chat at uwbadgers.com on Wednesday, May 18 at noon.
For ticket information, call 916/278-4323 or 916/278-2222 or go online at www.hornetsports.com/sports/wcrew/championship/.
For rowing championships results, go to the NCAA Web site at www.ncaasports.com.
