Regionals up for UW openweight women's rowers
May 14, 2009 | Women's Rowing
The Wisconsin rowing season crescendo continues this weekend for the 14th-ranked Wisconsin women's openweight program as the team heads to Oak Ridge, Tenn., for the NCAA Central/South Regional on Melton Hill Lake.
The Badgers have placed fourth or higher in each of the last five years of the event, including a fourth-place result in last year's event. Should the Badger repeat, or even better last year's results, an NCAA bid would likely follow suit. Wisconsin 's best result came during the 2006 season, when the Badgers grabbed second as a team and equaled the program best with a fourth-place finish in the varsity eight.
The field looks as strong as ever, with No. 3 Michigan State, No. 6 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 10 Clemson and No. 11 Virginia making up the participating teams ranked higher than the Badgers. That doesn't include No. 17 Iowa, No. 18 Louisville and No. 19 Minnesota, who will also race in the field. That means nine of the 22 schools racing this weekend own a top-20 ranking.
NCAA selections are announced Tuesday at 4 p.m., CT on NCAA.com, when the field of 12 is announced. Those 12 teams will send a varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four to compete. An additional four varsity eights will also be selected at-large, but will not factor into the determination of the NCAA championship. The 2009 NCAA Rowing Championships take place May 29-31 on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
The Badgers enter this year's regional after placing fourth at the Big Ten championships on May 2 behind Michigan State, Michigan and Ohio State. In years past, the Badgers have started their season slow and come on down the stretch. This year, the Badgers got out of the gates much faster and banked some key victories over crews from No. 12 USC, No. 13 Oregon State, No. 15 Washington State and No. 20 UCLA, which should put the UW in prime position to earn one of the coveted 12 NCAA bids with solid results this weekend. Once the weekend is complete, the Badgers will have directly race the entire top-20 in this week's poll except for four crews.
If that sounds like a formula for the team to relax heading into the weekend, the Badgers have not followed suit. It is finals week at Wisconsin and the rowers have been battling since Big Tens to hold on to their spots in the lineup. It remains to be seen how the open competition for seats will translate to success on the water.
If the Badgers do manage to succeed this weekend and if they earn a spot for NCAAs, it will mark the fifth time in six years that Wisconsin takes a trip to the national championships, and the sixth time in school history.
A Wisconsin crew, the open four, will race in Saturday's first heat at 8 a.m. CT. UW's novice eight is scheduled to race at 9 a.m. CT, while the varsity four is set for 10:20 a.m. CT, the second varsity eight at 11:20 a.m. CT and the varsity eight at 11:50 a.m.
In the varsity eight, Wisconsin's heat includes Ohio State, Tennessee, Central Florida and Alabama.
The top three in each race Saturday morning advanced to afternoon semifinal action, except in the novice eight, where the top four in each heat advance.
See the pdf below for a copy of the event program, which includes the complete race schedule, progressions, scoring, participating team info and past results.
Check back at UWBadgers.com on Saturday and Sunday for complete results.
