CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – After a successful first day at the Head of the Hooch, the Wisconsin women's lightweight rowing team capped off the weekend, and their outside fall season, with another great day, but in worse weather conditions.

All three Badgers that competed in the championship single placed in the top five out 15 total racers. Sophomore Grace D'Souza finished second with a time of 8:07.622, senior Marilyn Garberg finished third with a time of 8:10.840,and junior Grace Joyce rounded out the top five with a time of 8:16.750.

In the open four, the Wisconsin team battled the conditions to easily row past the competition, taking first place and finishing 45 seconds faster than the second place Washington squad did.

Rounding out the day in the open eight, the Badgers were again towards the top of the pack, with their time of 6:40.813 helping them come in second, only five seconds behind the leader Alabama's crew.

Eleven teams competed in the open eight event.

Straight from the river
Lightweight coach Dusty Mattison
"Today due to high winds they shortened the court down to 2,000 meters. The way that the wind was blowing and the current created pretty challenging conditions and it was a good idea that they shortened it to keep it safe."

On the championship single:
"Starting out the day we had the championship single with Grace Joyce, Grace D'Souza and Marilyn Garberg. This was a great opportunity for them to just keep getting singles, which they had been racing during the summer, and to see where they were with their skills this fall. They had a lot of fun, it was a great race and they handled the conditions beautifully and did an awesome job representing the team."

On the open four:
"Some hairy conditions, they handled it again pretty well, it was swirly and choppy and dusty and they really used it to just have fun racing down the course. It was a little bit challenging to work on anything necessarily that we had worked on yesterday, but they did a nice job rolling with the conditions and learning how to be adaptable, which is always something great to be challenged with."

On the open eight:
"The wind had died down just a little bit so I would probably say the conditions were a little bit better for this. From talking to the rowers it was definitely the best race of the weekend. They really took to heart what we discussed on Saturday after the race in the champ eight and were able to really work on making those technical changes that allowed them to execute a much cleaner race, have more precision, and it resulted in a great overall finish within some competitive boats they were up against. So overall a great weekend and really happy that we went to the Head of the Hooch, got in a ton of racing for the first time this year and learned a lot for going into training."

Head of the Hooch
Nov 4, 2018
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Tennessee River
2000 meters
 
Championship Single (15 entries)
1. Katherine McFetridge (Fairmount), 7:59.641, 2. Grace D'Souza (Wisconsin), 8:07.622, 3. Marilyn Garberg (Wisconsin), 8:10.840, 4. Kerry Shaffer (DWRA Detroit), 8:16.109, 5. Grace Joyce (Wisconsin), 8:16.750

Open Four (4 entries)
1. Wisconsin, 7:12.682, 2. Washington, 7:57.662, 3. Perrysburg, 8:31.152, 4. Indianapolis 8:34.659
UW Lineup – Coxswain Mya Lebakken, Sophia Krivoruchko, Rachel Illgen, Payton James, Brianna Ohm

Open Eight (11 entries)
1. Alabama A, 6:35.373, 2. Wisconsin 6:40.813, 3. Clemson A, 6:43.965, 4. Old Dominion A, 6:46.112, 5. Alabama B, 6:46.412         
UW Lineup – Coxswain Eden Rane, Grace D'Souza, Rachel Illgen, Grace Joyce, Sophia Krivoruchko, Monica Rodriguez, Brianna Ohm, Payton James, Marilyn Garberg