The Wisconsin women’s rowing team headed to Milwaukee this past weekend ready for any choppy waters that may have come its way, literally and figuratively. While the waves picked up a bit, eyes were focused on how a group of young Badgers would react during their first competition of the fall season.
What was different about this year’s squad at the Milwaukee River Challenge was the lack of experience. The Badger lineup featured just a single upperclassman, as the other junior and senior rowers stayed home, allowing the younger rowers to take to the waters to gain experience.
“We were really excited. I mean, we left [the older] girls at home to do something specific here … we weren’t sure how they were going to be able to step into those leadership roles,” head coach Bebe Bryans said. “They did a great job. We don’t get to see that always when the experienced guys are there.”
In the open eight, Wisconsin’s top open weight entry placed second with a time of 17 minutes, 53.21 seconds, coming in just behind first-place Purdue. The Badgers had only one lightweight entry for the open eight, crossing the line at 18:43.24, strong enough to place in the top half of the field in sixth place. In the open four, the Badgers took first, third and fifth place respectively, and the lightweight entries captured eighth, ninth and 12th overall.
Junior open weight rower Sophie Heywood said after last year’s results at the NCAA Tournament, the program is excited for its fresh start and looking to fulfill its true potential. Heywood said she hasn’t minded the changes made to the program and said she feels they are better for the team.
“This is really a building year for us, we’re really trying to build our speed … it was great for the sophomores to be able to sort of lead themselves a little bit,” Heywood said.
Having just two seniors in the lightweight roster and five in the open weight roster this season meant younger players were going to have to step up quickly. Relying on the young rowers has in turn made the team bond quicker as a whole team than ever before.
“On and off the water, our younger guys have just been able to blend right in,” junior lightweight rower Katie Moy said. “It’s really important that our sophomore crew kind of steps up and is able to mesh in with the varsity crew.”
Bryans felt confident that after this weekend the younger rowers got a chance to taste not only varsity-level competition but winning as well. And with such success she feels her team is ready to take on bigger challenges.
“Absolutely,” Bryans said, regarding her young team’s potential to handle tougher competition. “We are already seeing huge steps up after this weekend.”
However, the performance was not without its critique. For many of the rowers, including Heywood, the weekend showed the team has the strength to win but needs to improve on the basics.
“I think we’re still a horsepower team. We’re really fit generally. This year our biggest thing [is] we really need to hold in the technical changes, the finesse aspect,” Heywood said. “This weekend I think we need to work keeping our technique together when the conditions do get bad, really holding ourselves accountable to form … no matter what the conditions are.”
For Bryans, the impressive results in Milwaukee are just the groundwork for building throughout the season.
“This was more of a beginning,” Bryans said. “It wasn’t as much of a benchmark as it was to show everyone what’s possible … taking that experience and making our everyday practices more competitive, more serious, a little bit stronger going forward. That’s what we’re looking for.”
The women’s rowing team will travel to the Head of the Rock competition in Rockford, Ill. on Oct. 13 and look to further cement its unique mixture of something new and something old(er).
