The Big Ten conference has announced the seedings for the 2004
Big Ten Women’s Rowing Championships.

In the fifth annual event, the No. 13-ranked University of
Wisconsin women’s openweights will take on representatives
from Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and
Indiana. Iowa will host the event on Lake Macbride in Iowa City,
Iowa.

Ohio State will take the top seed in the first and second
varsity eight races, and Minnesota holds the top seed in the other
four events, a pair of varsity four races and two novice eight
events.

The Buckeyes’ first varsity eight boat earned the top seed with
four consecutive weeks as the No. 1 squad in the nation. The Ohio
State crew, which won Big Ten Boat of the Week honors a
record-setting four times this season, is the first Big Ten crew to
rank first in the nation since the introduction of women’s
rowing as an official conference sport in 2000.

In the first varsity eight event, Wisconsin holds the No. 3
seed, behind Ohio State and No. 2 seed Michigan State. In its
opening heat, the Badgers will take on No. 6 Iowa, No. 2 Michigan
State and No. 7 Indiana for a chance to reach the final.

The Badgers will also hold the No. 3 seed in the second varsity
eight, second varsity four and novice eight events. Wisconsin will
enter the second novice eight as the No. 2 seed and will race as
the No. 5 seed in the varsity four event.

– compiled from staff reports