REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. — The No. 14 Wisconsin men's rowing team wrapped up a weekend of racing at the Stanford Invitational in California Sunday morning, claiming two of three races against No. 13 Stanford.

UW's varsity eight led the opening 1500 meters of a neck-and-neck race against the Cardinal's top crew, but fell behind in the final stretch to drop the heat by two seconds. The Badgers clocked in at five minutes and 58 seconds in the loss.

The second varsity eight hung onto a one-length lead for nearly 1000 meters, edging Stanford's second boat by one second to claim a Badgers' victory in the second heat with a 6:15.9 time.

The third varsity eight handily won its heat, finishing nearly 30 seconds ahead of the Cardinal's third boat to secure two out of three wins for the Badgers.

Up Next: The Badgers have a few weeks off before traveling east to Boston to take on Holy Cross and No. 6 Northeastern for rights to the Congram Cup.

Straight from the Lake
Head Coach Chris Clark
On the varsity eight:
What I could tell in the varsity eight, Stanford was uncharacteristically not as quick in the first thousand, which they often are. This new combination that we have is exceedingly quick for the first thousand, or significantly better than we often are at this time of year. I assumed we'd have the lead and sure enough we did maybe for 1500 meters. I was almost certain that we would have trouble in the third 500 of the race, because it comes down to conditioning there. We're not a strong boat. We don't have anybody in our eight that is even close to under six minutes which means something in the rowing community. It means we're not strong, so we better be quick. Sure enough, we struggled a little bit in that third 500 and I'm not sure where Stanford came through. It might have been the third 500 or the last 250, but they came through and beat us by about a second. I had imagined it might be a two-second race so we beat that a bit. Excellent start. The attitude of the guys on the team and their eagerness and their learning curve is extraordinary, considering again that we are not a physical team at all. Some of the best teams that we've had here, we weren't very physical there either. They had the right attitude and the right approach. They were light on their feet and quick. The future is bright for these guys. They can take it pretty far if they want." 

On the second varsity eight:
"The 2V had an awful row against Cal, and really is the least natural of the lineups. They had a tough go. They were up by about a length at 1000 (meters), and we did end up winning by a second. It was a really gut check for them because it was ugly, no doubt, but an impressive victory.

On the third varsity eight:
"We had a pretty good day today. In the third eight, Stanford has had numerous injuries and that really thinned out their third eight, so our boat really didn't have any issues at all and won by a substantial margin. It was not much of a contest.

Stanford Invitational
Redwood Shores, Calif.
April 14, 2019
2,000 meters

Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Stanford
Varsity Eight
1. Stanford, 5:56.6; 2. Wisconsin, 5:58.3
Wisconsin Lineup: Coxswain James Catalano, Dylan Adams, Tyler Stevens, Adam Wehking, Kurt Mueller, Kyle McCarthy, Jacob Wenner, Philipp Bogdanov, Evan Miller

Second Varsity Eight
1. Wisconsin, 6:15.9; 2. Stanford, 6:16.9
Wisconsin Lineup: Coxswain Kaz Kishiue-Koval, Jackson Ulmer, John Young, Luke VandenHeuvel, Nathan Petersen, William Alt, Tyler Bernstein, Henry Roberts, Alex Marett

Third Varsity Eight
1. Wisconsin, 6:31.7; 2. Stanford, 7:00.8
Wisconsin Lineup: Coxswain Cameron Pak, Tim Zogleman, Will Klauke, Matthew Bernard, Benjamin Waller, James Sullivan, Chase Covey, Matthew Palmer, Jacob Buboltz