While the Midwest Rowing Championship this upcoming weekend in Madison promises to be a fun event for the Wisconsin women’s crew, the event does not provide the toughest competition. This past weekend more than made up for that, as both the openweight and lightweight crews took on the top-ranked crews in the nation. With the home races coming up, this weekend provided the women rowers a chance to prove they belonged among the nation’s elite.

With the top three teams in the field, the Knecht Cup proved to be one of the premier events on the spring rowing calendar. The field did not disappoint, as third-ranked Wisconsin faced off with second-ranked Radcliff and first-ranked Princeton in a tight varsity eight grand final. The three squads held true to their rankings, with Princeton finishing in 7:06.2, Radcliff coming in at 7:08.6 and Wisconsin finishing in third at 7:08.9. The tight bunching leaves the competition wide open, as the three schools will meet again at the Eastern Spring Regatta as well as the IRA National Championships. The Badgers fared better with the lightweight four and lightweight novice crews, each winning their respective divisions of the Knecht Cup.

“We are very pleased with the way our crews performed on a two-day event schedule against very tough competition,” women’s lightweight coach Mary Shofner said. “We look forward to seeing the same field on the same course in three weeks at the Eastern Spring Regatta, and feel that our teams will have an even stronger performance at the next setting.”

The women’s openweight crew answered a lot of their early-season questions with their performance this weekend. After defeating both Iowa and Indiana in the morning session, Wisconsin came back for an afternoon that featured top-ranked Ohio State and Iowa, for the second time. While the Buckeyes ended up with the victory, the Badgers kept within a boat’s length, just under three seconds behind. Wisconsin finished ahead of Iowa in the afternoon session. The solid performance leaves the Badgers feeling confident that they can make up the slight difference as they head into their only home event of the year.

“The crews performed very strongly today,” interim Women’s Crew Director Sue Ela said. “We learned a lot about where we are at in the season here.”

With two very challenging competitions behind them, the women’s crew returns home to Madison, where they will host their lone home event of the season in the form of the Midwest Rowing Championship. The event is open to almost any rower who wishes to compete, although most of the feature events will involve collegiate crews highlighted by the Badger men’s and women’s crews. While the field is not nearly as strong as last weekend’s events, it gives the rowers a chance to work on their form and timing, which will pay off later in the season. For the crew members, it is also a chance to show off their skills in front of friends and family.

“It’s a big meet because it’s at home. It’s the one chance your friends can come out and see you,” openweight rower Christina Strasser said. “My family can come down and we have our banquet that weekend too, so it’s a lot of fun.”

With no lightweight division, the lightweights and openweights will get the opportunity to row against one another. This friendly rivalry may very well represent the toughest competition for either crew. With the openweights generally pulling for the lightweights and vice versa, the friendly rivalry will give the two teams a chance to determine who the fastest women’s crew in Wisconsin is.

“There’s no lightweight competition, but we’ll race openweights any day” lightweight rower Eva Payne said. “We can be just as fast as any openweight team, so this is just great for us.”