Men’s rowing trends up at Eastern Sprints

Sunday, May 14

Worcester, MA

All day

Wisconsin Badgers

7th, 17 points

Eastern Sprints

Photo by: James Capobianco

Men’s rowing trends up at Eastern Sprints

May 14, 2017 | Men's Rowing

Fifth varsity eight captures title, varsity eight finishes top-10 as Badgers make year-over-year gains

WORCESTER, Mass. – With among the toughest racing conditions in recent Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Championship history, the Wisconsin men's rowing team took steps forward on Lake Quinnsigamond on Sunday.

The Badgers finished seventh as a team in the race for the Rowe Cup, and saw its varsity eight return to the top 10 after two years of 12th-place finishes.

"Weather-wise, it was a cold and miserable day," head coach Chris Clark stated. "My 26th year in a row here and I don't remember it being this bad in a long, long time. One favorable thing, the wind was howling much of the day, directly from the north, which evened out what is sometimes an unlevel playing field here due to lanes. It made for some rough rowing."

Wisconsin's 12th-ranked varsity eight finished third in its morning heat, one spot out of the grand final and in front of Cornell. Then in the afternoon petite final, the Badgers were edged out of a win by Cornell and Syracuse. The Big Red won the petite final and took seventh overall in 5:39.681, with Syracuse at 5:41.040 and Wisconsin third in 5:41.042 for ninth place.

"While there shouldn't be a parade for us in Madison, we'd been 12th the last two years," Clark said. "To autoqualify for our national championship, you need to be in the top nine. We led in the petite final until the very end. It was very tight, and we got third. Syracuse nipped us for third in that race, so we have the autoqualify. That is a huge relief.

"Even though they are not all sophomores, we row like sophomores. We've got a long way to go. There is a big upside with this group. Except for Yale and Harvard, and Cal and Washington on the West Coast, every other team is very closely matched, so we are in the thick of it.

"We've got a long way to go. The next couple of weeks should be very profitable."

Wisconsin's second varsity eight also placed ninth and though the finish matched the varsity eight, it was below what the Badgers expected.

"The 2V got ninth which was kind of a big disappointment," Clark remarked. "They have kind of been off their game for the last two weeks and while they weren't terrible today, they just didn't have the extra gear they needed."

Wisconsin's lone boat to advance out of the heat to make a grand final was the third varsity eight, which ended up taking fifth overall. Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brown all finished ahead of the Badgers, with Wisconsin reaching the 2000-meter finish line in 5:48.467, just over four seconds behind fourth-place Brown and 11 seconds behind third varsity eight champion Harvard.

"The third eight had one senior and a bunch of freshman and sophomores," Clark explained "We upgraded it after the racing in Boston by adding three freshmen to the mix and they went four or five seconds faster. Those guys have no idea what they are doing, but they did great. The third eight getting fifth is the best third eight we've had in quite a while."

As for the Badgers' fourth varsity eight, Clark was happy with a petite final victory.

"The fourth eight had a rough go in the heat and got fourth, then in the final they won the petite so they were seventh. We were happy with that. Good finish."

Wisconsin's fifth varsity eight produced the Badgers a medal when it won its afternoon grand final.

"The fifth eight had a final only and lo and behold were behind for most of the race and just powered through for the win and they won the gold medal, so that was exciting for them especially," Clark said.

"We hadn't won in a couple of years so it was also nice to have at least one of our group to have a gold medal hanging around their necks."

Now the Badgers look to the 2017 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships, which take place June 2-4 in Gold River, California.

"The next few weeks are going to be key, obviously, moving towards our national championship," Clark concluded. "The weather should be good, schools out, plenty of sun. While I wouldn't call it fun, the conditions are ripe for us gaining a lot of speed and being even more competitive the first week in June in California."

Eastern Assocation of Rowing Colleges Championships
May 14, 2017
Worcester, Mass.
Lake Quinnsigamond
2000 meters

Rowe Cup (Team competition)
1. Yale, 38 points; 2t. Princeton, 35; 2t. Harvard, 35; 4. Boston University, 26; 5. Brown, 25; 6. Cornell, 19; 7. Wisconsin, 17; 8. Dartmouth, 13; 9. Syracuse, 12; 10. Northeastern, 12; 11. George Washington, 10; 12. Navy, 6; 13. Pennsylvania, 4; 14. Columbia, 4; 15t. Holy Cross, Rutgers, MIT, Georgetown, 0

Varsity Eight
Petite Final (Places 7-12)
1. Cornell, 5:39.681; 2. Syracuse, 5:41.040; 3. Wisconsin, 5:41.042; 4. Pennsylvania, 5:41.606; 5. George Washington, 5:42.233; 6. Columbia, 5:44.049

Heat 3 (Top 2 to grand final, 3-4 to petite final, rest to third final)
1. Princeton, 5:35.944; 2. Dartmouth, 5:36.427; 3. Wisconsin, 5:37.946; 4. Cornell, 5:38.827; 5. Georgetown, 5:41.200; 6. Holy Cross, 6:02.732
UW Lineup - Coxswain Michael Callahan, Nickolas Montalvo, Erik Kernozek, Andrew Griffin, James Bernard, Tristan Amberger, Laing Wise, Kyle McCarthy, Jonah Van der Weide

Second Varsity Eight
Petite Final (Places 7-12)
1. George Washington, 5:42.980; 2. Northeastern, 5:43.140; 3. Wisconsin, 5:45.275; 4. Syracuse, 5:47.122; 5. Columbia, 5:48.766; 6. Dartmouth, 5:49.207

Heat 2 (Top 2 to grand final, 3-4 to petite final, rest to third final)
1. Harvard, 5:40.212; 2. Cornell, 5:41.111; 3. Dartmouth, 5:42.525; 4. Wisconsin, 5:42. 765; 5. Pennsylvania, 5:49.149; 6. MIT, 6:22.737
UW Lineup - Coxswain James Roen, John Hollow, Alexander Butler, Nathan Petersen, Sam Weeks, Andrew Flannery, James Lueken, Alex Idarraga, Thomas Walker

Third Varsity Eight
Grand Final
1. Harvard, 5:37.026; 2. Yale, 5:39.000; 3. Princeton, 5:42.812; 4. Brown, 5:44.123; 5. Wisconsin, 5:48.467; 6. Northeastern, 5:49.028

Heat 3 (Top 2 to grand final, 3-4 to petite final, rest to third final)
1. Princeton, 5:46.176; 2. Wisconsin, 5:46.680; 3. Boston University, 5:47.911; 4. Cornell, 5:53.470; 5. Georgetown, 6:25.448; 6. Rutgers, 6:30.648
UW Lineup - Coxswain Andrew Hamilton, Taylor Steeno, Tyler Stevens, William Alt, Dylan Adams, Kurt Mueller, Zach Ruedinger, Christoph Bub, Jacob Wenner

Fourth Varsity Eight
Petite Final (Places 7-10)
1. Wisconsin, 5:52.399; 2. Yale, 5:56.240; 3. Syracuse, 6:00.491; 4. Cornell, 6:00.968

Heat 1 (Top 3 to grand final, rest to petite final)
1. Harvard, 5:48.565; 2. Navy, 5:51.707; 3. Brown, 5:52.665; 4. Wisconsin, 5:57.001; 5. Yale, 6:02.037
UW Lineup - Coxswain Theodore Van Beek, Benjamin Waller, Miller, Jacob Hurlbutt, Tim Zogleman, Alex Marett, Timothy Glennon, Graham Mink, Kyle James

Fifth Varsity Eight
Grand Final
1. Wisconsin, 5:50.891; 2. Navy, 5:52.678; 3. Navy 6V, 5:58.883; 4. Brown, 6;02.050; 5. Princeton, 6:11.122; 6. Harvard, 6:13.921
UW Lineup - Coxswain Aurthur Condor, Cole Reavil, Jacob Buboltz, Mark Nitka, Jack Shelton, Chase Covey, Zachary Gasick, Steve Knopp, Philipp Bogdanov