PRINCETON, N.J. - The Wisconsin men's rowing team traveled to compete in the Princeton Chase on Sunday. The Wisconsin 'A' eight boat brought home a first-place finish in the second race. 

The Princeton Chase allows a boat of your choosing to be raced twice. Head coach Chris Clark decided to race the 'A' and 'B' eight boats twice, which turned out to be a good decision on his end.

In the first round, the Wisconsin 'A' boat, comprised of coxswain James Catalano, Adam Wehking, Garrison Waugh, Sebastian Murrell, Breck Duncan, Edward Brody, Joseph Cleary, Isaac Krahn and Olin Frederiks, finished fourth in 12:54.35. Princeton 'A', Syracuse 'A' and Navy 'A' took the top-3 spots, respectively. Wisconsin 'B', comprised of coxswain Jonah Rane, Aidan Schmidt, Galen Quinn, Josh Wehking, Jack Turco, Lorenzo Miller, Michael Horan, Samuel Crowley and Matthew King, came in not far behind, finishing 13th in 13:11.16. 

In the second round, Wisconsin 'A' brought home a first-place finish, crossing the line in 12:51.39. The boat topped Pennsylvania 'A', the runner-up, by nearly 10 seconds as they finished in 13:00.85. Wisconsin 'B' was able to finish top-5 as they placed fourth, crossing the line in 13:16.01. 

The men's championship four, comprised of Connor Slawin, William Russell, Jeremy Falstad, Joshua Barth and Michael Santry, raced against 29 other boats and finished middle of the pack, placing 15th in 14:56.27. 

Up next: The next time the Badgers will compete will be Saturday, April 2 when they travel to Marietta, Ohio.

Straight From the Shore
Men's Head Coach Chris Clark

On the Princeton Chase
"This race, is so important for us, because we can get two races in a row with very little break. It is not stretch for us because we need as much racing as we can. In race one, the option here was you race an eight and then in race two you can race in any kind of boat... singles, doubles, quads, four, pair. We decided, which turned out to be an excellent move, to just row in the eight twice and then we also brought a coxed four. It really paid off.

On the first eight race
"In the first race, sort of a repeat of the Head of the Charles. I can see the first 1,500, we were definitely tighter, better, but just like the Head of the Charles, in the second half of the race we really fell off and lost their poise. It isn't a conditioning thing, it is simply race experience."

"You still have to maintain as you are tired, maintain their integrity for what is happening. The technique part of it really is important. The three boats that beat us: Princeton, Syracuse and Navy, you can see that. They were far stronger in the second half. So we finished fourth out of I think 40, but the guys were unhappy with it. Realized, man we can be a lot better than that. The 2V was 13th. They exceeded my expectations. Stroked by a novice who is doing a great job. Second round, Princeton, Syracuse and Navy broke their top guys down and put them in other boats, but we could only race the people who were in our race."

"The lack of summer rowing in 2020, which for some of the guys is 30 races and two major regattas. And then last year there wasn't the Canadian part of it, so that is over 40 races some of these guys have missed. There is one senior, Breck Duncan, we calculated almost 60 races. "

On the second eight race
"That first race had a 7-8 mile tail wind which really made it quick times. This race had no tail winds and we won the second round and we were three seconds faster which really impressed me. The fact that the conditions were anywhere from 10-15 seconds slower and we were still three seconds faster. We really focused on keeping it together in length, all things are important, maintain your momentum; in other words don't shoot yourself in the foot and it was significantly better. They were pretty excited about it. It was the first time they done it like that certainly this year and maybe even last year. The 2V did quite well again."

On the four
"The four, from what I can tell, was about 15 out of 30, which is a modest line-up as they would say. They really had a bad run-up at practice and so I think that is an excellent performance. A lot of the fours that were racing are some of the top kids from some of the other programs."

On the future
"All in all, it couldn't have been better. So now we are just looking forward to get after some of the final bit of rowing before Thanksgiving. We have a long way to go. We have to be more consistent. We have speed, but we still have to finish."

Princeton Chase 
Nov. 7, 2021
Princeton, N.J.
Lake Carnegie
3 miles

Men's Eight Final 1 (43 entries)
1. Princeton 'A', 12:26.67; 2. Syracuse 'A', 12:26.98; 3. Navy 'A', 12:44.62; 4. Wisconsin 'A', 12:44.62; 5. Yale 'A', 12:57.57; 6. Princeton 'B', 13:01.69; 7. Syracuse 'B', 13:02.26; 8. Drexel 'A', 13:06.35; 9. Princeton 'C', 13:06.59; 10. Colgate, 13:07.09; 11. Pennsylvania 'B', 13:08.64; 12. Pennsylvania 'A', 13:10.93; 13. Wisconsin 'B', 13:11.16

Men's Eight Round 2 Final 1 (13 entries)
1. Wisconsin 'A', 12:51.39; 2. Pennsylvania 'A', 13:00.85; 3. Cornell LTWT, 13:14.19; 4. Wisconsin 'B', 13:16.01
UW Lineup: A - Coxswain James Catalano, Adam Wehking, Garrison Waugh, Sebastian Murrell, Breck Duncan, Edward Brody, Joseph Cleary, Isaac Krahn, Olin Frederiks
B - Coxswain Jonah Rane, Aidan Schmidt, Galen Quinn, Josh Wehking, Jack Turco, Lorenzo Miller, Michael Horan, Samuel Crowley, Matthew King

Men's Four Final 1 (30 entries)
1. Syracuse 'A', 13:58.89; 2. Princeton 'A', 14:00.10; 3. Princeton 'B', 14;09.43; Syracuse 'B', 14:26.95; 5. Syracuse 'C', 14:32.07; 6. Harvard LTWT 'B', 14:36.98; 7. Navy LTWT 'A', 14:42.23; 8. Princeton LTWT, 14:42.80; 9. Harvard LTWT 'A', 14:46.14; 10. Navy LTWT 'B', 14:48.32; 11. Cornell LTWT 'A' 14:48.61; 12. Pennsylvania LTWT 'A', 14:50.62; 13. Marist 'A', 14:51.68; 14. Princeton 'C', 14:53.39; 15. Wisconsin, 14:56.27
UW Lineup - Coxswain Connor Slawin, William Russell, Jeremy Falstad, Joshua Barth, Michael Santry