The Wisconsin women's lightweights have done it again. Make it two consecutive national titles and five in six years after the UW varsity lightweight eight won the 2009 Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship Saturday on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.
The top-ranked Badgers posted the fastest splits at each 500-meter mark on the course and won going away in a time of 6:56.26. Bucknell, the only other school to win a title since 2004, placed second in 7:07.71, over 10 seconds behind the champion Badgers. The Bison just edged third-place Stanford (7:07.93) for second place. Rounding out the top six teams were fourth-place Radcliffe in 7:10.20, fifth-place Georgetown in 7:15.06 and sixth-place Princeton in 7:16.98.
'Our boat had a really good race today,' said coach Erik Miller. 'They got off the line and were just a little bit down on Stanford. By the 500, they had a little bit of a lead. At 750, they just took a crushing move and started walking away from Stanford and everybody else. They continued that strong pace through the 1000 and took another move at the 1250 and really opened the gap there and left everybody behind. It was a dominating performance, the same way they have dominated their competition all year. I'm really proud of the group. They did a great job and did exactly what we wanted them to.'
Making up Wisconsin's national championship-winning crew are senior coxswain Heidi Hunsberger (Wilton, Conn.), senior Margot Schoellkopf (Concord, Mass.), junior Kaela Erickson (Wauwatosa, Wis.), junior Dani Dewitt (Parkersburg, W.V.), junior Adrienne Winfield (Syracuse, N.Y.), junior Kat Fink (Manhasset, N.Y.), sophomore Grace Lautman (Seattle), sophomore Mia Cava (Ardmore, Pa.) and senior Lane Benes (Milwaukee).
'Our seniors did a great job today,' added Miller. 'Heidi, Margot and Lane did a fantastic job and each of them has now won two national championships. They've been real mainstays of the program - the heart of the program. They've done an awesome job. It has been great watching them develop as athletes and as people and we are going to miss having them on the team next year. '
The Badgers made the championship race by winning their heat on Friday and posting the fastest time of the day. However, Miller and the rowers hoped for a better performance in the title race. They apparently got what they were looking for.
'Today's race was a big improvement from yesterday's, ' said coxswain Heidi Hunsberger. 'We wanted to focus on cleaning up our strokes a little bit, cleaning up the whole entire race and executing it better and I think we definitely did that.
'In our first 500 we wanted to go out a little bit more aggressively to assert ourselves a little more and we did that. Stanford had an awesome start too. They got up on us, but we worked our way back by the 500 meter mark. At the 750-meter mark, we made a really decisive move and really focusing on big legs and walking away from the rest of the competition and we did that.
'Stanford still hung with us until about the 1000 and at 1000 they took a move to walk back in on us. They really pushed us at that point so we decided at the 1250 that we really had to take a move to walk away if we wanted to win this race. Instead of being frantic, we were very calm and collected about it, but it was very assertive and everyone in the boat seemed very composed.
'In the last 500, we had probably the best sprint we had all year and really worked to get away from everyone else and we widened the gaps that we already had on the rest of the boats. The last 50 strokes of the race were fantastic. It was relaxed, but extremely aggressive at the same time. Everyone in our boat was really happy with the race today and had no regrets whatsoever. We just wanted to see how much space we could put between us and everyone else. The other crews came out there and had an awesome race. Everyone really pushed us.'
After breaking through for a national title for the first time in 2004, the Wisconsin women's lightweight program has been dominant. Titles in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and now 2009 bear that out. Only in 2006, current coach Erik Miller's first year leading the program, has the program fell short of the top of the podium since first breaking through.
All four previous championships were won on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J. This year's marks the first title won for the team in California. The location didn 't change a thing. And the team still had the great fan support which is the signature of all UW athletic programs.
'There were a ton of Wisconsin supporters out here in California and it was just amazing to have all that support,' explained Miller. 'All the friends and families who made the trip out to Sacramento to watch the racing. It was great to have them there and great to have all that support.
'The team has worked really hard all year and not just the nine people in the boat today, but everybody on the team really pushed these women to get the most out of themselves every day out at practice. It is definitely the result of our strong team and a great team effort all year that put this top eight on the top at the end of the year. We raced some good competition today, but just left them behind. It was a really strong race and an awesome way to end a perfect season. I was really happy with how things turned out. It will be nice to relax and celebrate this for a little while. Then we'll get back to look forward to next year.'
