While many students shake their heads at the latest snowstorm in disbelief, the Wisconsin women’s lightweight crew team could care less. After all, their practice field, Lake Mendota, has finally opened, liberating the 17 women from the strict indoor confines of winter.
Heading into the spring season the UW lightweight crew team could, if they so pleased, have a chip on their shoulders. After maintaining the USRowing’s No. 1 ranking for the majority of last season, the Badgers faltered just short of being crowned champions, falling to rival Princeton at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships, finishing the season as runner-up.
Led by head coach Maren LaLiberty, the lightweight squad, at the heels of a successful fall season, enters this spring season ranked No. 2, just nine points behind nemesis Princeton. However, the Badgers still don’t feel as if they have earned anyone’s respect and are now out to earn it. Wisconsin, the only team ranked that doesn’t reside on a coastline, can attribute part of that lack of recognition nationwide to its landlocked setting.
“We don’t get respect (because of our location),” said Katie Sweet, a sophomore recruit from Seattle, Wash. “We have an underdog mentality — we run with that.”
Assuming the role of underdog as the Wisconsin crew moniker, with a team composed of primarily sophomores (10) and only two seniors, they take the role very well. What the coast institutions benefit from working on water together all year, UW gains in mental toughness from having to work indoors on the monotonous erg machines for what seems to be months on end. For UW’s lightweight members, it is the hard work and extreme dedication that shines as their defining attribute.
“We’re in the middle of the nation,” said Michelle Carabollo, a sophomore hailing from Libertyville, Ill. “The water is frozen over for much of the season. We don’t have oceans. What makes us different is that we push each other very, very hard. It’s the way we push ourselves — the way we adapt to situations (that results in the team’s success).”
Six regattas dot the Badger’s regular season, which officially began this past weekend in San Diego. Already reigning back-to-back champions of the San Diego Crew Classic, the UW women’s eight-member boat adapted to strong cross winds and extended their streak to three, beating the six-team field, including five boats in the top 11, by 8.5 seconds.
“It’s a confidence builder,” Sweet said of the San Diego experience. “We haven’t really found our groove but it set up a lot for next weekend.”
Referring to Wisconsin’s travel plans to Camden, N.J., for the Knecht Cup April 12 and 13, Sweet knows the Badgers will face No. 1 Princeton for the first time this year and have a chance at reclaiming their familiar spot from a season ago. However, one race and a simple ranking just does not carry with a team that had come so close to donning that elusive championship crown.
“A nation championship is our number one goal,” said Carabollo, a coxswain.
The UW lightweights, which include both a four-women and an eight-women boat, make their championship case on the home front April 26 in their only appearance on Lake Mendota, as they host the Midwest Rowing Championships.
A trip to Ohio for MACRA Regatta in Athens May 3 and a second trip to Camden May 18 for the Eastern Sprints round out the season before the push for the championship begins. That push, scheduled for May 30 and 31, marks both the culmination of the crew season and also the final trip to Camden, N.J., of the year. The Badgers, with another year of experience under their belt, will have another advantage in the IRA championship. Arriving just short of their goal last spring as freshman, this year’s squad of sophomores seems poised to finish No. 1 because they know just how much work is required.
“We can win IRA’s this year,” Sweet stated. “We have the ability and we have the experience — it’s just a matter putting the work in.”
