Last week the No. 5 Wisconsin men’s rowing team proved itself against regional competition; now it will see the best the East Coast has to offer.
Saturday the Badgers won their 28th varsity eight race in the 30 years of the Midwest Rowing Championships, competing against rowers from five other schools: Dayton, Northwestern, Washington University, Cincinnati, and Kansas State. The Badgers won their race handily, finishing more than 23 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher Dayton.
Tomorrow, however, the Badgers will compete where the challenge will be more difficult: Against Ivy League schools Dartmouth and MIT on the Connecticut River in Hanover, N.H., for the Cochrane Cup.
This is the 41st year of the Cochrane Cup and it has a tradition of being close. Dartmouth is ranked No. 10 nationally and MIT is unranked.
UW head coach Chris Clark said the competition between Dartmouth and Wisconsin has become something of a rivalry over the past years, albeit not a rivalry off the water. He says that Dartmouth would obviously enjoy beating the other Ivy League schools more, but nonetheless he says that for some reason this race is always close.
“In 2000 at home we won by about three feet and then last year in Boston they won by three feet,” Clark said.
He expects more of the same this year as both teams are ranked in the top 10 nationally.
When asked what kind of strategy he will tell his rowers before competing in such a big race, Clark simply said there is no quitting against Dartmouth. No matter how far behind Wisconsin may get, he said, the team will not give up.
Sunday the Badgers will travel to Boston to take on 15th-ranked Boston University and MIT in the Jablonic Cup.
Boston has not been as successful as Dartmouth this year, but Clark still expects tough competition. He said that anytime you race on an opponent’s home course, it should be formidable.
And Boston will be no exception.
Packing the bags: The team will be taking all of its own equipment. Wednesday Clark said the team’s boats and equipment were already headed east.
This is a luxury that crew teams rarely enjoy.
Often, rowers are at the mercy of equipment provided by the home team. However, being able to use its own equipment is an advantage for UW if only for the fact that it is one less thing to worry about.
When the boats hit the water, the coach knows that his rowers will be familiar with the vessel, allowing them to perform to the best of their ability.
