MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin men's rowing team wrapped up its 2016 season with a 10th-place team finish on the strength of its depth. A fourth place showing, a pair of fifth-places and a seventh-place finish at the 2016 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships helped the team as a whole reach the benchmark.

The three-day event concluded Sunday on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey.

"This 2016 IRA was a perfect example of why the overall strength of the team is so important to us," head coach Chris Clark explained. "Last year we were 13th in the Ten Eyck, which I think may have been a historical low. This year, despite the varsity eight having a real rough go of it, we got back to the top 10.

"We should never be outside that top 10 and now we are back, which is a nice start. The tip of the spear may not have been there, but the team depth was."

The threat of bad weather forced an adjusted race schedule and most of the grand finals were switched to early Sunday morning. With that change, the first Badger boat to hit the water was the second varsity eight in its grand final.

In a tight race, it was Harvard that took home the gold, clocking 5 minutes, 51.040 seconds over 2000 meters. Princeton was second in 5:52.890, with California (5:54.370) and Washington (5:55.830) also finishing ahead of the Badgers. Wisconsin crossed the line in 5:56.910.

The Badgers fifth-place result in the event marked their best result in the second varsity eight since 2012.

"The second varsity eight did great," Clark said. "There was a little bit of a lane issue here. You would absolutely would have wanted to be in the inside lanes, and they weren't. They were a tight fifth right behind Washington. 

"It was a great send off for the seniors who've had a lot of tough times and I know they are really excited about it. I said to those seniors the only criticism I have of you as a class is, and this is my responsibility as the coach, we've got to develop quicker. You got to believe quicker. You can't just believe in the last 72 hours, but better late than never."

The third varsity eight just missed out on the grand final when it was fourth in Saturday's semifinal, but they responded with a win in the petite final to grab seventh place, overall. The Badgers won by a boat length over second-place Cornell by timing 5:59.830. Cornell reached the finish line in 6:02.850, with Yale third in the race in 6:07.730.

"The third varsity eight, who definitely felt that they made a mistake in the semifinal, came back to win easily," Clark said. "You could see they belonged in that grand final. That was probably the easiest row of the day. They looked great and they are all back next year."
 
In the headlining varsity eight, the Badgers got a win, but it was in the fourth level final. Wisconsin rowed to a 6:00.640, overcoming a slow start in the race compared to the competition to win going away. Drexel was runner up, clocking 6:03.050, with Santa Clara third in 6:05.540. That finish by the Badgers gives them 19th place in the varsity eight.

"We are the last eastern crew to win this [varsity eight] championship, and if you knew the individual make up of most of those people, it was pretty modest," Clark stated. "They were true believers from day one. That is the biggest thing. Getting these guys to believe that.

"The type of program we run is so different than most of these other programs. "We can't solve whatever problems we have by bringing in international stars. We don't work that way, we don't want to work that way. That is not our paradigm. For various reasons we can't work that way. We need to develop.

"Certainly this first eight did quite well in practice. We had five sophomores in there. You need to be led, especially with five sophomores. I think they were all waiting to be led. Well they weren't being led.

"We changed the lineup and the stern four, which are the real drivers, and they were all sophomores. I felt that made a difference. They won the fourth level final, which is a modest achievement, but good to go out with putting five boats behind you and they did. I am happy for that."

The balance of Wisconsin's crews all competed in grand finals looking for medals, if not national titles.

The freshmen eight was the closest, placing fourth for the second consecutive year in what was a finals only event.

"The freshmen were in it for a bit," Clark stated. "They are very novice and they finished in fourth. Although way back, we were back where we finished in last year's freshmen eight. I'd say they held serve. They did as well as they were probably capable of at this time, so I was happy for that."

The varsity four ended up fifth in its national championship race.

"The varsity four, also a little bit of outside lane, got fifth," Clark said. "Last year we were fourth. They weren't devastated by their finish. It wasn't probably the best thing they could have brought, but it was still pretty good. There's 28 boats in that event so I don't think fifth is bad at all."

The Badgers also entered a lightweight four at the IRA and that boat ended up sixth after reaching the grand final. Last year's lightweight four placed seventh, so that boat improved one spot.

"Average places were all better than last year so we are excited about that," Clark concluded. "Hopefully we can take some jumps.

"As a team we went from 13th to 10th and I'd like to improve that a lot by next year. I think there is a very good chance of that."
 
2016 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships
Mercer Lake
West Windsor, N.J.
June 5, 2016
2000 meters

Ten Eyck Trophy Standings
1. California, 205 points; 2. Princeton, 202; 3. Harvard, 193; 4. Washington, 189; 5. Yale, 163; 6. Brown, 150; 7. Boston University, 126; 8. Cornell, 107; 7. Navy, 105;; 10. Wisconsin, 101; 11. Northeastern, 96; 12. Pennsylvania, 88; 13. Columbia, 82; 14. Dartmouth, 70; 15. Drexel, 58; 16. Stanford, 55; 17. Syracuse, 52; 18. George Washington, 49; 19. Oregon State, 42; 20. Temple, 39; 21. FIT, 15; 22. Hobart, 8; 23. Oklahoma City & Santa Clara, 0

Varsity Eight
Fourth Level Final (Places 19-24)
1. Wisconsin, 6:00.640; 2. Drexel, 6:03.050; 3. Santa Clara, 6:05.540; 4. Hobart, 6:10.070; 5. Oklahoma City, 6:11.340; 6. Temple, 6:20.240

UW Lineup – Coxswain James Roen, Sam Weeks, Tristan Amberger, James Lueken, Christoph Bub, Jonah Van der Weide, George Perrett, Nickolas Montalvo, Jacob Hurlbutt
 
Second Varsity Eight
Grand Final
1. Harvard, 5:51.040; 2. Princeton, 5:52.890; 3. California, 5:54.370; 4. Washington, 5:55.830; 5. Wisconsin, 5:56.910; 6. Boston University, 6:00.190

UW Lineup – Coxswain Ben Flaherty, Patrick Muto, Peter Ginouves, James Bernard, John Goodman, James Letten, Andrew Griffin, Michael Knippen, Michael Spankowski
 
Third Varsity Eight
Petite Final (Places 7-12)
1. Wisconsin, 5:59.830; 2. Cornell, 6:02.850; 3. Yale, 6:07.730; 4. Navy, 6:08.990; 5. George Washington, 6:11.720; 6. Dartmouth, 6:14.940

UW Lineup – Coxswain Michael Callahan, John Hollow, David McClain, Laing Wise, Erik Kernozek, Mark Nitka, Alex Idarraga, Andrew Flannery, Theodore Boesen
 
Varsity Four
Grand Final
1. Washington, 6:35.490; 2. Princeton, 6:38.030; 3. California, 6:40.040; 4. Holy Cross, 6:47.880; 5. Wisconsin, 6:54.050; 6. MIT, 6:55.670

UW Lineup – Coxswain Andrew Hamilton, Graham Mink, Alexander Butler, John French, Zach Ruedinger
 
Lightweight Four
Grand Final
1. Georgetown, 6:41.950; 2. Columbia, 6:44.410; 3. Princeton, 6:51.110; 4. Yale, 6:52.410; 5. Navy, 6:52.460; 6. Wisconsin, 6:54.910

UW lineup – Coxswain Theodore Van Beek, Steve Knopp, Thomas Walker, Kyle James, Marcelo Buxton
 
Freshmen Eight
Grand Final
1. Washington, 5:50.350; 2. California, 5:51.410; 3. Navy, 6:08.810; 4. Wisconsin, 6:14.560; 5. Drexel, 6:21.150; 6. Temple, 6:24.100

UW Lineup – Coxswain Arthur Condor, Dylan Adams, Kyle McCarthy, Cole Reavill, Nathan Peterson, Taylor Steeno, Tim Zogleman, Benjamin Waller, Tyler Stevens