SARASOTA, Fla. – With a tropical weather system coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, racing at the 2018 NCAA Rowing Championships finished up a day early on Saturday at Nathan Benderson Park.

Wisconsin's second varsity eight provided the squad's top finish for the second-consecutive year and the third time in four seasons when it placed 13th with a win in the C final.

That helped the Badgers earn 52 team points and a 15th-place finish.

California won the team crown with victories in the varsity eight and varsity four to earn 130 points, beating out second-place Washington by two points.

"Good weekend," head coach Bebe Bryans said. "It was a fantastic year. I am so proud of this team. Hopefully our fans are proud of us too. We came and did our best and just got beat by some other fast teams."

VARSITY EIGHT
Competing in two races for the second-straight day, this time because of the weather, the varsity eight won its C/D semifinal in the morning, then crossed the line third in six minutes, 34.924 seconds in the afternoon C final to take 15th. Brown and Washington State beat out the Badgers, who finished ahead of Syracuse, Gonzaga and UCF.

SECOND VARSITY EIGHT
Like all three Badger crews, the second varsity eight won its morning C/D semifinal. The boat repeated the performance in the afternoon, winning the C Final with a time of 6:32.724 to grab 13th place. Washington State, Southern California, Indiana, Northeastern and Navy finished behind UW in the race.

Scheduled for the middle of the Division I finals, the C Final was pushed to the end of the race day when Wisconsin's crew had an equipment problem during warmups.

Washington captured the second varsity eight crown.

VARSITY FOUR
After winning its morning C/D semifinal, the Badgers' varsity four took third in the C final to end up in 15th place. Princeton captured the race in 7:26.613, nearly 3.5 seconds better than the Badgers (7:30.093). Navy split the two in second place in 7:29.580. Syracuse, Southern California and Northeastern rounded out the race.

Straight form the Lake
Head Coach Bebe Bryans
On the weather
"We got all the racing in. We had to move things around a bit, but the weather cooperated enough. We had some really good, really fair racing."

On the team's performance
"We threw down everything we had. We came out a little bit flat to start the regatta and that put us in a hole. I think they did a really good job of continuing to improve their performances as they went through the regatta, but having to do four races in two days is a pretty tough task. I think they went for it. All three boats had really good performances."

On the second varsity eight
"I think the highlight of today was the second varsity eight. They had some breakage during the warmups so their race got moved to the very last race of the day. They just were able to do what they do best which is get off the line fast, stretch out a little bit after that and just hang in there and hold. A super-aggressive race. Really good way to finish the regatta and finish this year and get us starting to think about next year."

On the seniors and the future
"Thanks so much to our seniors. I think they have done a great job during their four years as Badgers in leading up to this point and I know that they've done a good job of getting our underclasses to take on the mantle of team leadership. I already know for a fact the underclasses are already talking about things they want to happen for next year."

2018 NCAA Championships
May 26, 2018
Sarasota, Florida
Nathan Benderson Park
2000 meters

TEAM STANDINGS
1. California, 130 points; 2. Washington, 128; 3. Texas, 115; 4. Stanford, 104; 5. Virginia, 104; 6. Ohio State, 101; 7. Michigan, 95; 8. Yale, 93; 9. Princeton, 92; 10. Brown, 70; 11. Iowa, 69; 12. Southern California, 67; 13. Indiana, 60; 14. Washington State, 57; 15. Wisconsin, 52; 16. Syracuse, 52; 17. Navy, 31; 18. Gonzaga, 30; 19. Northeastern, 26; 20. UCF, 22; 21. Rhode Island, 14; 22. Jacksonville, 6

Varsity Eight
C Final (Places 13-18)
1. Brown, 6:29.626; 2. Washington State, 6:32.274; 3. Wisconsin, 6:34.924; 4. Syracuse, 6:36.499; 5. Gonzaga, 6:42.241; 6. UCF, 6:46.069

C/D Semifinal (Top three to afternoon C Final, rest to D Final)
1. Wisconsin, 6:45.29; 2. Syracuse, 6:47.082; 3. Gonzaga, 6:48.615; 4. Northeastern, 6:54.782; 5. Jacksonville, 7:20.396

UW Lineup – Coxswain Lily Hansen, Elisabet Pietz, Lexi Siverling, Megan Whitehouse, Niamh Martin, Alexandra Lohrenz, Molly Jennerman, Alicia Evans, Renee Olley

Second Varsity Eight
C Final (Places 13-18)
1. Wisconsin, 6:32.724; 2. Washington State, 6:34.977; 3. Southern California, 6:36.419; 4. Indiana, 6:38.329; 5. Northeastern, 6:46.379; 6. Navy, 6:56.584

C/D Semifinal (Top three to afternoon C Final, rest to D Final)
1. Wisconsin, 6:45.172; 2. Washington State, 6:48.422; 3. Northeastern, 6:57.327; 4. Rhode Island, 7:08.812; 5. Jacksonville, 7:31.722

UW Lineup – Coxswain Saylor Martin, Maren Schultz, Morganne Freeman, Callie Hebert, Sarah Gibbons, Cheyenne Brandt, Eliza Clifford, Gabby Simons, Marissa Gibson

Varsity Four
C Final (Places 13-18)
1. Princeton, 7:26.613; 2. Navy, 7:29.580; 3. Wisconsin, 7:30.093; 4. Syracuse, 7:33.978; 5. Southern California, 7:37.410; 6. Northeastern, 7:54.120

C/D Semifinal (Top three to afternoon C Final, rest to D Final)
1. Wisconsin, 7:36.870; 2. Southern California, 7:41.975; 3. Northeastern, 7:44.188; 4. Gonzaga, 7:44.843; 5. Rhode Island, 8:14.666

UW Lineup – Coxswain Emma Smith, Taylor Caudle, Katherine Grose, Jessie Bowden, Elizabeth Clarke