While summer is the off-season for most Badger athletes, the Wisconsin women’s lightweight rowing team has been busy, earning its second straight national title in the varsity four competition at the International Rowing Association National Championships June 2.

Held in Camden, N.J., the Badger crew held on to an early lead throughout the 2000-meter race, beating out second-place Stanford by five seconds.

“Every single practice and every single indoor training day all amounted to this one final race and so we laid it all on the table,” senior Erin Wylie said. “The idea that it was the final race and that we had put in so much work all year made us push ourselves further.”

Getting out in front early was exactly what the team wanted, according to assistant coach Heidi Hunsberger. After pulling ahead within the first 20 strokes, Wisconsin maintained its speed and never surrendered the lead. Despite late attempts by the Cardinal to move ahead, the Badgers stepped up the pace, extending their upper hand to the finish line.

A strong tailwind on the Cooper River allowed for fast conditions for the final race. Wisconsin’s past experience with the course and preparations for this type of situation left the Badgers with much-needed confidence heading into the race.

UW finished close to one minute, 40 seconds faster than the time in its qualifying heat a day earlier when an opposing headwind slowed the Badgers down.

“The girls got out to a pretty good start within the race and they kind of kept pushing out and extending on that lead,” Hunsberger said. “It was a really good race from start to finish, and they just rowed really cleanly and worked with the conditions like they needed to.”

The team had just two and a half weeks to prepare its rowers for the varsity four race, as the season is mainly spent racing in boats of eight. Hunsberger explained the selection process for this boat came out of UW’s second eight-woman boat.

The crew had competed together in the larger boat, but the four boat presented new challenges. Wylie said the smaller boat put the coxswain at the bow, not facing the rowers, and it was harder to keep a clean ride because the boat would tip more.

However, Wisconsin’s short but intense preparations paid off and came through when they needed to.

“At first they did a good job in the training, but they didn’t probably click until about a week before, when their technique really started to match up and everything came together at the right moment,” Hunsberger said.

Without a senior in the crew, Wylie stepped up to fill the leadership role. Wylie’s levelheaded approach and positive attitude helped keep the rhythm of the boat and created a great atmosphere for the others, Hunsberger said.

Then-sophomore Jenna Pavelec, the boat’s coxswain, stepped up, providing experience and insight as a member of last year’s varsity four title-winning crew.

“[Pavelec] is very smart and very aggressive when it comes to raising as a coxswain, which is important,” Hunsberger said. “She had been on the fours team that had won by a more significant amount last year, but this year’s time was a lot faster so I think this year they did a lot better job of capitalizing on the conditions and continuing to push out.”

Other members of the winning crew were soon-to-be junior Sophie Gavell and then-freshmen Sofie Madden and Lucy Wood.

The varsity eight also competed at the IRA championships with high hopes of winning the programs sixth national title but finished in fourth. Going into the race, the eights were ranked No. 1 in the U.S. Rowing Collegiate Polls after winning the EAWRC Eastern Sprints conference championship weeks before.

“It was kind of tough when one boat wins and one boat loses. It’s hard because you feel for the other boat,” Wylie said. “But everyone was back on the same level and looking back on the whole season saw that overall it was a good season.”

The lightweight crew still has plenty to look forward to next season. Graduating only one senior, the team will remain largely unchanged aside from the addition of incoming freshmen. That has both Wylie and Hunsberger excited for the possibilities of next season and continuing to build off of their success.

“Keeping that momentum through the entire team is key and making sure we are improving our technique and then looking at the final races to see what could have been done better,” Hunsberger said. “You want to see everyone working well together and supporting one another and executing the races with confidence and maturity.”

The women’s lightweight rowing program at Wisconsin has a long history of national success. The team has not finished below fifth place at the IRA varsity eight competitions since it was first held in 1997.