The Wisconsin women’s lightweight crew team will make its first and only appearance in Madison tomorrow on Lake Wingra at Vilas Park for the 31st installment of the Midwest Rowing Championships.
The Badger rowers, facing competitors from 11 universities and three clubs, will be involved in a weekend event that will feature 12 races, one banquet and, most importantly, time to make final racing adjustments before beginning the difficult conclusion of the season. The weekend is, no doubt, an important pillar in the Badger season.
Partaking in this weekend’s festivities are Chicago, Creighton, Drake, Lawrence, Marquette, Milwaukee, St. Cloud, St. Thomas and Wheaton. However, the two schools that will be the biggest threat to spoiling UW’s Saturday are Kansas and Wichita. Neither program is ranked, but both have finished consistently in the top 15 of their races throughout the year. Wisconsin’s openweights are ranked fourth in the second varsity-eight and novice-eight categories, while the varsity-eight, predicted to win their division this weekend, are ranked No. 15. The UW lightweights, who will also race, entered the season ranked second nationally.
Last weekend, the Badger varsity-eight faced both the Iowa and host Minnesota crew teams and fell short to the Hawkeyes on three occasions and the Gophers once, finishing no better than a disappointing second place. The poor showing has head crew coach Maren LaLiberty searching for ways to revamp the boat.
“Our varsity team realizes we need to look for a faster team in our [eight-boat],” said LaLiberty, the former Minnesota head coach of the women’s crew program. “We need to pick up some speed.”
In a regatta that lacks a top-10 national power, Wisconsin will have the opportunity to do just that. LaLiberty expects to toy with and juggle formations and boat makeups against the lesser competition.
“It’s going to be (a) tuneup (regatta),” LaLiberty said. “We have two high-level regattas coming up (in the) Eastern sprints and the (Big Ten) league championship.”
The Badgers will no doubt seize this weekend as a time to concentrate on four main factors before heading into the coming regattas. The first will be to further groom and hone their varsity lineups. UW also aims to establish the highest possible and most consistent boat speeds and to fine-tune the vessels to the individual rowers — a process known as rigging.
Most important for the Wisconsin crew team, however, will be the subject of physically and mentally preparing the squad for actual racing. This aspect will no doubt come into play as the season winds down and the importance of each race steadily increases.
“You have to practice being in a regatta,” said LaLiberty. “It’s something you have to learn how to do. You have to warm up correctly and warm up right — the more we can get out and race, the better we will be. [This weekend] is another race experience for them.”
At the conclusion of the weekend, LaLiberty will hope to have either found or be closing in on the final boat combinations before the final push for a national championship arrives.
Acting as a gathering point for family, alumni and spectators, the Midwest Rowing Championships, a longstanding Madison tradition, will also provide a glimpse into the future of the program. Scheduled to follow the rowing spectacle, the banquet, which attracts around 500 people, will serve an updating function for the construction of the new boathouse.
The races will be held on Lake Wingra, not on Lake Mendota as they were a year ago, because of concerns regarding the unpredictability of the weather conditions on the latter. Every athlete on the Wisconsin women’s crew squad will be given the chance to participate in Saturday’s events.
