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MADISON, Wis. -- Bebe Bryans emailed her lineups for the Big Ten championships to the UW Athletic Communications staff eight days before the event, which runs Saturday and Sunday at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis.

The simple act may not seem like much, but the timing -- well in advance of the conference regatta -- shows the confidence Wisconsin's head coach has in her team this season. It has been earned on the race course, but as much at practice as anywhere.

"When we finished up (spring) training down in Sarasota, Florida, we put out lineups based on the training that we'd done and the seat racing and the individual stuff that we'd done," Bryans said. "They went really fast. They went faster than any Wisconsin boat has ever gone at the end of March, (and) after a week of really hard training.

"We knew right then that somebody was going to have to do something remarkable to break into those top boats and we've made very few lineup changes since then."

In their first race of the season, the Badgers opened eyes around the country with a heat victory at the San Diego Crew Classic. Among the boats in the heat was No. 2 California. UW also gave Brown a run, finishing just over a second behind the nation's top-ranked team in a varsity eight race at the Lake Natoma Invite at the site of this year's NCAA championships.

"We had a really challenging racing schedule this year, both back-to-back time and just with the caliber of teams that we've raced, so we are pretty confident going into the championships," Bryans said. "Our goal is to keep getting faster and hopefully earn a bid to the NCAA championships."

Three-time defending NCAA champion Ohio State highlights the Big Ten field this weekend, and No. 10 Michigan stands one spot higher than the Badgers in the rankings, but there has been little head-to-head competition, or even common competitors, between the Badgers and those crews simply due to scheduling.

"We didn't have a lot of crossover between the western end of the Big Ten and the eastern end of the Big Ten so the racing is going to be kind of interesting," Bryans explained. "We are looking forward to going out on the race course and going against the best in our conference."

The Badgers boast one Big Ten team title since the championships began in 1999, winning in 2010, but UW is still in search of its first varsity eight win at Big Tens. Could this be the year?

"They know what it takes to get down the course fast, no matter the conditions," Bryans said. "One thing this year's team has is we've become confident in our own abilities, and that is something we haven't been able to say going into this championship.

"They have raised the expectations for themselves. Hopefully we've closed the gap and hopefully we'll get another shot at it after this weekend."

Racing begins Saturday at 4 p.m. CT with heats. Sunday's racing starts at 8 a.m. CT with finals of the second novice eights.

The Badgers enter the championships as the top seed in four events, including the varsity four, second varsity four, novice eight and second novice eight. UW's varsity eight, second varsity eight and third varsity four are No. 3 seeds.

A tape-delayed broadcast of the 2016 Big Ten Rowing Championships will air on BTN on Saturday, May 21 at 7 p.m. Legendary Wisconsin women's rower Carie Graves, who is a two-time Olympic medalist, will help with the call of the action.

Projected Wisconsin Lineups
Varsity Eight - Coxswain Lily Hansen, Maria Schmid, Hannah Schwartz, Anna Knutson, Lexi Siverling, Maddie Wanamaker, Gillian Cooper, Brianna Dahm, Kaitlin McKeough
Second Varsity Eight - Coxswain Katherine Condon, Gabby Simons, Dani Steinberg, Sophia Vitas, Megan Whitehouse, Callie Hebert, Margo Grover, Marissa Gibson, Andrea French
Varsity Four - Coxswain Rosie Brezynski, Maren Schultz, Morganne Freeman, Claire Scott, Monica Gerber
Second Varsity Four - Coxswain Beth Yudelman, Cheyenne Brandt, Anika Nelson, Lucia Kissinger, Emma Strenski
Third Varsity Four - Coxswain Sophia Noguera, Merritt Denham, Jessie Bowden, Lucy Chadderton, Sarah Lueken
Novice Eight - Coxswain Jane Merriman, Alicia Evans, Renee Olley, Alison Morrison, Sarah Roe, Dominica Wardell, Grace Armstrong, Madison Brunett
Second Novice Eight - Coxswain Saylor Martin, Riley Aschenbrenner, Elise Schedler, Alexandra Lohrenz, Emily Loohauis, Niamh Martin, Eliza Clifford, Lauren Ross, Olivia Mulford