GOLD RIVER, Calif. – It was a scrimmage of sorts for the Wisconsin women's lightweight rowing program on its first day on the water at the 2019 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships on Saturday. If those results are any indication, the Badgers have come a long way in the month since Eastern Sprints.

Sunday will be a bigger test with the national championship on the line, but Wisconsin shaved about eight seconds off its lightweight eight Sprints deficit to Boston University and about seven seconds from its deficit to Princeton.

The Badgers ended up fourth in the lightweight eight races in 6:38.421, behind BU (6:37.771), Princeton (6:34.744) and top-ranked Stanford (6:29.234).

UW's lightweight four took third in its race, behind Stanford and BU.

The lightweight double sculls raced to second place, behind only BU in a race that saw the top four crews cross the finish line within two seconds.

SUNDAY TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (CT) - WATCH
Lightweight double sculls – 10 a.m.
Lightweight four -10:42 a.m.
Lightweight eight – 12:40 p.m.

Straight from the Lake
Lightweight coach Dusty Mattison
"[Assistant coach] Karly [Laney] and I are extremely proud of the Wisco lights. The overall execution that his team did today was phenomenal and I am excited for what they can do tomorrow.

"I want what happened today sink in. For them to just really to be proud. They were excited, they were relaxed and focused within their lane on what they had to do. Each crew did that. It was a really fun thing to see as an entire squad. The put together some phenomenal performances today.

"Overall, the trip has been excellent – relaxed and it's been fun to hang out and get to know each other even more.

"They are really excited going into tomorrow. They have a great energy of 'anything can happen.' We have no expectations. We just want to go out and race hard and have fun doing it."

2019 IRA National Championships
June 1, 2019
Lake Natoma
Gold River, California
2000 meters

Lightweight Eight
Heat (Race for lane assignments in Sunday Grand Final)
1. Stanford, 6:29.234; 2. Princeton, 6:34.744; 3. Boston University, 6:37.771; 4. Wisconsin, 6:38.421; 5. Georgetown, 6:41.498; 6. Radcliffe, 6:43.103; 7. MIT, 6:59.541
UW Lineup - Coxswain Eden Rane, Grace D'Souza, Rachel Illgen, Sophia Krivoruchko, Monica Rodriguez, Julia Johnson, Marilyn Garberg, Payton James, Brianna Ohm

Lightweight Four
Heat (Race for lane assignments in Sunday Grand Final)
1. Stanford, 7:09.033; 2. Boston University, 7:19.015; 3. Wisconsin, 7:21.753; 4. Radcliffe, 7:26.753; 5. Georgetown, 7:30.831; 6. Princeton, 7:42.986; 7. MIT, 7:49.408
UW Lineup - Coxswain Mya Lebakken, Tori Kost, Ellen Pflaster, Kate Concannon, Delaney Toepel

Lightweight Double Sculls
Heat (Race for lane assignments in Sunday Grand Final)
1. Boston University, 7:49.649; 2. Wisconsin, 7:50.233; 3. Princeton, 7:50.608; 4. Stanford, 7:51.478; 5. Georgetown, 7:57.203; 6. Radcliffe, 8:11.619; 7. MIT, 8:20.896
UW Lineup - Lindsey Jiron, Sarah Stacks