SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The Wisconsin women's lightweight rowing team saw beautiful weather and a lot of great competition on the first day of the San Diego Crew Classic.

The varsity eight competed in Heat Two of the Women's Varsity UC-San Diego Health Cup against openweight competition, which proved to have the strongest competition of the two heats. Needing a finish in the top three of their heat to qualify for the finals, Wisconsin narrowly finished in fourth place with a time of 6:41.887, only three tenths of a second behind Loyola Marymount, who finished in third place. Drexel finished in second place, and San Diego won the heat with a time of 6:39.599. If Wisconsin had competed in Heat One, their time would have been good enough to finish in first place and qualify for the finals.

The freshmen eight competed in the Women's Collegiate Novice Laurel Korholz Perpetual Trophy Cup on Saturday. The young group of Badgers finished in fifth place with a time of 07:30.620. Texas Austin took first place in the race with a time of 06:57.932, followed by Washington, UCLA and Oklahoma rounding out the finishers ahead of Wisconsin.

Both Wisconsin teams will close out the San Diego Crew Classic on Sunday. The varsity eight will race in the second final of the UC-San Diego Health Cup on Sunday, while the freshmen will compete in the final for the Laurel Korholz Perpetual Trophy.

Straight from the river
Head Coach Dusty Mattison

On the varsity eight:
"We had great weather out here and spirits are super high. We have a really great environment out here in San Diego. With the varsity eight, we had a really fantastic race today. While the placement in fourth might not necessarily appear that way, if you compare the times from the other heat, the top four times in our heat were faster than the top heat in the other. We just missed out on coming in third to be able to advance to the grand final tomorrow, but when we thought about it, we are really happy with this experience out here. They executed a really great race, and we have things we still want to work on, but they had to fight the entire way down the course and it's important to be in those situations. The rowers were excited to be in that situation as well. Missing out on third place by three tenths of a second has lit a fire under them and they know what they need to work on. Overall, we are thrilled with how today went and feel that we are in a great spot."

Novice Coach Karly Laney
On the novice eight:
"They had a really stellar race. The fell exactly where we predicted that they would be for our first race down the course against some pretty impressive openweight crews. With that being said they are pretty excited at what lies ahead of them tomorrow to go after those crews again and hopefully turn a fifth place into a higher place on the race course.

For being maybe only the third time back on the water since spring break, they have a lot of room to grow and improve into tomorrow and next week at the Knecht Cup. They are jazzed and ready to go."


San Diego Crew Classic
Apr. 6, 2019
San Diego, Calif.
2000 Meters
 
Women's Varsity UC San Diego Health Cup Heat Two
1. San Diego, 06:39.559; 2. Drexel, 06:40.001; 3. Loyola Marymount, 06:41.593; 4. Wisconsin, 06:41.887; 5. UC Santa Clara, 06:51.139
UW Lineup – Coxswain Eden Rane, Grace D'Souza, Marilyn Garberg, Julia Johnson, Rachel Illgen, Tori Kost, Monica Rodriguez, Payton James, Brianna Ohm

Women's Collegiate Novice Laurel Korholz Perpetual Trophy
1. Texas Austin, 06:57.932; 2. Washington, 07:00.344; 3. UCLA, 07:21.822; 4. Oklahoma, 07:28.290; 5. Wisconsin, 07:30.620; 6. Sacramento State, 07:37.614; 7. UC San Diego, 08:09.600
UW Lineup – Coxswain Ellie Mallek, Sophia Krivoruchko, Kate Concannon, Sydney Novak, Lindsey Jiron, Tessa Cockerill, Lauren O'Neill, Kiera Sundeen, Ellen Pflaster