March 20, 2011
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin women's rowing teams finished their first meet of the season on Sunday at the Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas.
The No. 10 openweights squared off against Louisville in their final three races of the regatta, while the Badger lightweights competed for the first time this spring season, also against the Cardinals.
Wisconsin got off to a good start on the final day of competition, as the lightweights won the third varsity eight/first novice eight race by 26 seconds against Louisville's openweight novices. The Badgers clocked in at 7:38.3 to the Cardinals' 8:02.0.
The openweights, led by head coach Bebe Bryans, won against Texas in the second varsity eights race by a margin of .2 second. Sunday, however, the Badgers were on the opposite side of an even smaller margin. Louisville edged out a win against Wisconsin's varsity eight by finishing in 7:04.3 to the Badgers' 7:04.35.
“Hats off to Louisville,” Bryans said after the race. “That was an awesome effort on their part. We tried some different things, and just weren't able to quite respond as we should have.”
The second varsity eights and the varsity fours brought in two more wins for the openweights. Both squads had big margins of victory over the Louisville teams, winning by an average of 14 seconds.
Bryans is happy with how the team started the spring season and is looking forward to seeing what they can do throughout the rest of the year.
“It was a good end to a really good weekend,” she said. “We're hoping that it's going to be a beginning of a whole lot more speed coming up.”
The Wisconsin women's lightweight rowing team heads west next weekend for the Stanford Invitational, while the openweights have the weekend off from competition before the San Diego Crew Classic from Apr. 2-3.
Longhorn Invitational (Day Three)
March 20, 2011
Lady Bird Lake
Austin, Texas
2,000 meters
vs. Louisville
Varsity Eight
1. Louisville, 7:04.3; 2. Wisconsin, 7:04.35
UW Lineup: Coxswain Kendall Schmidt, Jacquelyn Koykkar, Vanessa Kleiss, Rachel Buchholtz, Lisa Godhardt, Katelyn Swanson, Briana Pittman, Kate Mansfield, Anna Schettle
Second Varsity Eight
1. Wisconsin, 7:19.7; 2. Louisville, 7:31.0
UW Lineup: Coxswain Jane Roberts, Lauren Pietila, Amy Slesar, Margaret Yale, Hanna Lynch, Caitlin Mueller, Rebekah Foelker, Kirsten Morelli, Hayley Leinss
Third Varsity Eight/First Novice Eight
1. Wisconsin Lightweight, 7:38.3; 2. Louisville, 8:02.0
UW Lineup: Coxswain Shelly Miller, Jennifer Gross, Breanne Lynch, Taylor Fries, Jessica Lund, Caroline Mansueti, Emily Jayne, Erin Wylie, Meredith Freshley
Varsity Four
1. Wisconsin, 8:10.2; 2. Louisville, 8:26.2
UW Lineup: Coxswain Clare Chandler, Mollie Kryka, Sara Watermolen, Julia Whittet, Shannon Schlack
