SKOKIE, Ill. – With snow still on the ground, the twelfth-ranked Wisconsin men's rowing team took to the water and opened its 2016 season, but fell against No. 18 Syracuse in Skokie, Illinois, on Saturday.
 
The Badgers got off to a quick start in the early minutes and built a sizable lead at the 500 meter mark.
 
"They started a little fast and I think that wore them out," said head coach Chris Clark. "They were ahead for the first 500, but they didn't have anything in the middle. They just let Syracuse go and it became a little bit of a head race for a while. Syracuse is much improved from last year, but that's no excuse for our guys to roll over."
 
Syracuse pulled away in the second half of the race and won with a time of 5 minutes, 42.7 seconds. Wisconsin finished with a time of 5:50.2.
 
"This has been an odd year. We've had a few more weeks of water time than usual, however we don't feel a whole ton closer to determining who is actually on the first team," Clark said. "Needless to say, I felt going into this we were about 45 percent of the way to figuring out who will actually be our first eight. I think today was enough feedback for me to know that that's not our top eight. The good news is though, we won two out of the three races, which is great."
 
Wisconsin's second varisty eight finished with a time of 5:45.9 to beat Syracuse's second varsity eight, which finished with a time of 5:54.1. Meanwhile, UW's third varsity eight finished in 5:50.9, which was enough to top Syracuse's third varsity eight (6:01.0).
 
"The second eight, which contain most of the guys who have been doing best all year, were very steady and looked really sharp," added Clark. "They were at least five seconds faster than our first varsity eight and the times were very legit, as the conditions didn't change. There's one senior in that boat and the rest juniors and sophomores and they made a strong case for themselves as our strongest boat by a long shot. They're just young though, so if they can get it together and build from there they'll be really good.
 
"The third eight was a real surprise, though. I had no idea what to expect. I hadn't seen much of them because that work had been done mostly with our assistant coach, Lowell (McNicholas), but man they just powered away. It was great. They had a mix of seniors, juniors and sophomores. All in all though, that was a big regatta for both us and Syracuse.

"It certainly gave me a lot of good feedback. We'll go rearrange things a bit as we move forward."
 
The Badgers will be back in action on Saturday, April 16, when they head to Redwood Shores, California, for the Stanford Invite.

Wisconsin vs. Syracuse
April 9, 2016
Skokie River
Skokie, Illinois
2000 meters

Varsity 8 results
1. Syracuse, 5:42.7; 2. Wisconsin, 5:50.2
UW Lineup: Callahan, Montalvo, Ginouves, Muto, Goodman, Hurlbutt, Knippen, Bub, Kernozek

2nd Varsity 8 results
1. Wisconsin, 5:45.9; 2. Syracuse, 5:54.1
UW Lineup: Roen, Lueken, Griffin, Weeks, Amberger, Wise, Perrett, Van der Weide, Bernard

3rd Varsity 8 results
1. Wisconsin, 5:50.9; 2. Syracuse, 6:01.0
UW Lineup: Flaherty, Hollow, McClain, Nitka, Letten, Spankowski, Boesen, Flannery, Idarraga