Badgers take fourth at Big Ten Championships
May 02, 2009 | Women's Rowing
The Wisconsin women's rowing team placed fourth in the Big Ten Championships this Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, claiming individual boat titles in three events. The No. 14 Badgers finished with 113 points behind No. 3 Michigan State, No. 5 Michigan and No. 7 Ohio State.
The Badgers swept all six of their morning heat to put themselves in position to make a run at the school's first Big Ten rowing title. The squad ended up fourth as a team, but the second varsity eight, novice eight and second novice eight each won Big Ten titles, giving the Badgers at least one Big Ten boat title in nine of 10 Big Ten championships. The second novice eight took its eighth conference title, while the novice eight won its fifth and the second varsity four captured its fourth conference crown.
"Overall I think out team performed really, really well," said head coach Bebe Bryans. "Obviously our novices were stellar and our fours were really strong. It was definitely a better performance than we've seen against Big Ten teams [this year]."
The second novice eights, headed by coxswain Beth Swanson won the Big Ten title, with Alex Opitz, Alyssa George, Kaitlin Hexum, Kelly Robinson, Leah Soukup; Kristin Dare, Jacque Gehlen and Kasey Sorensen finished first in 6:36.547.
The novice eights also took first in 6:21.478. Coxswain Jane Roberts led Rachel Buchholtz, Bronwyn Knaebe, Paula Osterberger, Kate Mansfield, Sara Watermolen, Kirsten Rhude, Caitlin Mueller and Hayley Leinss to Wisconsin's second Big Ten title of the afternoon.
The Badgers notched another first-place finish in the second varsity four race. Coxswain Betsy Huffman, Brittany Renault, Hannah Drury, Lisa Godhardt and Lynn Maher snagged the gold with a finishing time of 7:00.595.
Wisconsin also took second in the varsity four grand finals, trailing only Ohio State in the race. Coxswain Molly Evjen led Brittany Rapp, Briana Pittman, Vanessa Kleiss and Kirsten Morelli to a 7:02.856 finish.
Two more Badger boats finished in the top five as well.
The second varsity eight placed fourth, with coxswain Sarah Obernauer leading Sarah Wrenshall, Ahna Olson, Kylah Barbola, Kristi Johnson, Anna Schettle, Rebekah Foelker, Sarah Bootsma and Katie Hurtis to their fourth-place 6:21.657 finish.
The varsity eight boat also finished fourth in its grand final. Coxswain Claire Geiger pushed Theresa Shields, Vicky Opitz, Bailey Thompson, Maggie Galloway, Katie Helmrick, Meryl Chaffee, Grace Latz and Katy Haver to cross the finish line in 6:17.036. Michigan State won the title in 6:06.296.
"Congratulations also to Michigan State," said Bryans. "They had a fabulous varsity eight race. They were in it from the very first stroke and took it. Congratulations to them for back-to-back Big Ten championships."
Three Badger athletes received all-conference honors. Senior co-captain Theresa Shields was named first-team All-Big Ten, while senior Maggie Galloway was named to the All-Big Ten second team. Finally, senior Brittany Renault received the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
The final team standings, All-Big Ten awards and race results, with UW boat lineups, are posted below.
Bryans concluded, "We are looking forward to Centrals, getting back to work, put our noses to the grindstone and keep getting faster. We're really proud of the performance. The Big Ten is really fast this year and we are happy to be competitive and looking forward to becoming even more so."
The Badgers return to tournament competition on May 16-17 at the NCAA Regionals in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Check back to UWBadgers.com for more information.
