April 12, 2015

West Windsor, N.J. -- Over 70 schools across the country competed in the second day of the annual Knecht Cup on Mercer Lake.

After major delays on Saturday, today's events were able to start on time. "The Knecht Cup was a long weekend, I should say. Racing was supposed to be held right away on Saturday; a nice long day. However, the winds picked up and the majority of the races were canceled," head coach Lisa Schlenker said. "So Sunday, we had to have a tight racing schedule, which means a lot of races in one day."

Racing for Wisconsin started with the lightweight fours. Both Badger boats hit the line at pace to put them in the grand final. Out of all four heats, Wisconsin A had the fastest time by about six seconds to move them on to the grand finals.

Both boats performed well in the grand final later in the afternoon. Wisconsin's A boat was the champion at 7:41.02. Next followed Princeton's A boat and Villanova, with Wisconsin's B boat finishing in fourth position just 9.40 seconds after the A boat.

Up next was the novice eight. The athletes, competing in their first ever spring race wearing the `W', showed complete domination on the water. The boat took first place in an impressive 6:58.98 in its heat. This was an astounding 24.15 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Duquesne.

The novices went on to place first in the grand final. Being the only boat to finish in less than seven minutes, the crew came in 5.56 seconds ahead of Temple.

In the petite final for the lightweight eight, the Wisconsin C boat placed second with a time of 7:03.09, just around four seconds behind winner Radcliffe. Wisconsin's B boat came in fourth with 7:06.15.

The grand final for the lightweight eight led to a fourth place finish for the Wisconsin A boat at 6:58.02. Wisconsin trailed rowing powerhouses Radcliffe, Princeton and Boston University.

"The outstanding performances today in the finals for the Badgers were the varsity lightweight four that won their event by five and a half seconds and the freshman eight that rowed in an openweight event and also won the competition by six seconds. Really good performances there," Schlenker commented.

The varsity eight placed fourth in the semifinals with a final time of 6:56.53. The finish paced them into the petite final, which raced at 3:00 p.m. The team did not compete in the event.

"On a whole, the team hasn't had much water time, per usual, but one reason why we really enjoy going to the Knecht Cup is we have so many opportunities to race. It's all about every time you go out taking a few more strokes. With competition, you can change things from race to race. Most athletes we traveled with, 27 racing athletes, had two races last night and three today. That's quite a bit of mileage to turn around and race. It was a really good start, I'm pleased, and we're only going to go up from here," Schlenker said.

The Badgers hit the water again next Saturday for the Boston Round Robin.

Knecht Cup
West Windsor, N.J.
Mercer Lake
April 12, 2015
2000 meters

Varsity Eight Semifinal
1. UMass, 6:50.04; 2. BU, 6:50.94; 3. Temple, 6:53.47; 4. Wisconsin, 6:56.53; 5. BU (LWT), 6:56.77; 6. Miami, 6:57.29; 7. George Mason, 6:57.48
UW Lineup: Coxswain Brianna Murphy, Lara Tiramani, Jennifer Kish, Julia Glueck, Brianna Wynne, Katie Rosoff, Christina Stevenson, Emma Landauer, Gretchen Miron

Lightweight Four Heat 1
1. Villanova, 7:58.8; 2. Wisconsin (B), 7:59.41; 3. Georgetown, 8:00.32; 4. MIT (A), 8:11.22; 5. Princeton (C), 8:54.75
UW Lineup: Coxswain Audrey Dalgarno, Marlee Piette, Sydney Steiner, Julia Rollins, Olivia Meehan

Lightweight Four Heat 2
1. Wisconsin (A), 7:55.50; Princeton (B), 8:07.35; 3. Penn State, 8:18.67; 4. Princeton (D), 8:41.52; 5. MIT (C), 9:07.67
UW Lineup: Coxswain Tenzin Khangkar, Alessandra Ruenger, Mirha Girt, Mackenzie Whiteside, Beatrix Tobey

Lightweight Four Grand Final
1. Wisconsin (A), 7:41.12; 2. Princeton (A), 7:46.71; 3.Villanova, 7:48.53; 4. Wisconsin (B), 7:50.42; 5. BU, 7:55.22
UW (A) Lineup: Coxswain Tenzin Khangkar, Alessandra Ruenger, Mirha Girt, Mackenzie Whiteside, Beatrix Tobey
UW (B) Lineup: Coxswain Audrey Dalgarno, Marlee Piette, Sydney Steiner, Julia Rollins, Olivia Meehan

Novice Eight
1. Wisconsin, 6:58.98; 2. Duquesne, 7:23.13; 3. George Mason, 7:35.05; 4. ODU, 7:40.91; 5. Marist, 7:59.77; 6. VCU, 8:20.26
UW Lineup: Coxswain Eleanor Martin, Jenn Whitehill, Sonja Liljegren, Robin Ritchey, Nicole Bowman, Katheryn Ruffalo, Madeline Fontaine, Rachel Yan, Emma Rowell

Novice Eight Grand Final
1. Wisconsin, 6:59.47; 2. Temple, 7:05.12; 3. North Carolina, 7:10.59; 4. Bucknell (A), 7:11.33; 5. Alabama, 7:13.22; 6. Delaware, 7:17.65; 7. Boston College, 7:24.00
UW Lineup: Coxswain Eleanor Martin, Jenn Whitehill, Sonja Liljegren, Robin Ritchey, Nicole Bowman, Katheryn Ruffalo, Madeline Fontaine, Rachel Yan, Emma Rowell