Anchors away on NCAA rowing
May 27, 2010 | Women's Rowing
May 27, 2010
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin’s eighth-ranked women’s openweight rowing program already boasts two championships, and goes for a third this weekend as the 2010 NCAA Rowing Championships open on Friday. The three-day event takes place on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.
The Big Ten and NCAA Central Region champions enter looking to better the school-best eighth-place finish from the 2006 season. Wisconsin finished 13th as a team at last year’s event.
Making their third consecutive NCAA appearance, sixth in seven years and seventh all-time, the Badgers have had an unprecedented season as first-time conference and regional champions.
At the 2009 event, held on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J., Wisconsin’s varsity four took second, the school’s highest finish for a boat since the championships began in 1997.
The Badgers appear to have lots going for them. Head coach Bebe Bryans is the Big Ten Coach of the Year and just this week was named the NCAA Central Region Coach of the Year. Her assistant, Karen Rigsby, was named regional assistant coach of the year.
Senior rowers Vicky Opitz and Katy Haver are first-team All-Big Ten and All-Central Region rowers. Senior Grace Latz was named to the second team of both squads, while senior Katie Hurtis was second-team All-Big Ten.
The team’s on-the-water success is matched by its results in the classroom as Hurtis was voted to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team, while six Badgers were recognized by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association as Scholar-Athletes. Among those recognized were Hurtis, Sarah Obernauer, Ahna Olson, Kirsten Rhude, Shannon Schlack and Sara Watermolen.
But the school year is over and all of Wisconsin’s focus turns to its performance on the water one last weekend. UW first reached the NCAA championships in 1999, placing 10th as a team.
One benchmark UW looks to reach for the first time is a top-12 finish by its varsity eight. Sixteen varsity eights race at the NCAA championships and UW’s best finish is 13th, which it has done twice. That means the UW’s varsity eight has never raced above the third-level final. The Badgers are seeded 14th entering the championship, but have shown flashes of brilliance that prove they can do better.
UW’s second varsity eight and varsity four have proven much more consistent. Both boats won Big Ten and Central region titles. The second varsity eight enters as the No. 8 seed and the varsity four as the No. 4 seed.
Wisconsin’s competition for the weekend includes three other Big Ten schools – Michigan State, Michigan and Ohio State – which it has beaten this season. Two South region schools – Clemson and Tennessee – have also been surpassed by the Badgers this year. That leaves top-ranked Virginia, six teams from the Pac-10 (defending champion Stanford, California, Washington, Washington State, USC, UCLA), Yale, Princeton and Brown as UW’s challengers at the championship.
Follow along all weekend at UWBadgers.com, twitter.com/BadgerRowing and at NCAA.com. NCAA.com boasts a live video feed of the events, while live results are available here.
