Wisconsin st(r)oked for national championships

Friday, June 2

Sacramento, CA

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Wisconsin Badgers

IRA National Championship

Photo by: Paul Capobianco

Wisconsin st(r)oked for national championships

May 31, 2017 | Men's Rowing

Three-day event takes place in Gold River, Calif.

WATCH: FRIDAY – MORNING

AFTERNOON

| SATURDAY

| SUNDAY

RESULTS | IRA CHAMPIONSHIPS INFORMATION

2017 IRA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gold River, Calif.
Lake Natoma
June 2-4
2000 meters

WISCONSIN'S FRIDAY SCHEDULE
Varsity Eight Heat 4 – 11 a.m. CT
(Top two to Saturday semifinals, rest to Friday afternoon repechage)
Drexel, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Wisconsin, St. Joseph's

UW Lineup - Coxswain James Roen, Nickolas Montalvo, Laing Wise, Andrew Griffin, James Bernard, Tristan Amberger, Jonah Van der Weide, Kyle McCarthy, Thomas Walker

Second Varsity Eight Heat 3 – 11:50 a.m. CT
(Top two to Saturday semifinals, rest to Friday afternoon repechage)
FIT, Wisconsin, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, Hobart

UW Lineup - Coxswain Michael Callahan, John Hollow, Alexander Butler, Nathan Petersen, Sam Weeks, Andrew Flannery, James Lueken, Alex Idarraga, Erik Kernozek

Third Varsity Eight Heat 2 – 12:20 p.m. CT
(Top two to Saturday semifinals, rest to Friday afternoon repechage)
Drexel, Boston University, Harvard, Wisconsin, George Washington

UW Lineup - Coxswain Andrew Hamilton, Taylor Steeno, Tyler Stevens, William Alt, Dylan Adams, Kurt Mueller, Zach Ruedinger, Christoph Bub, Jacob Wenner

Varsity Four Heat 3 – 1:20 p.m. CT
(Winner to Saturday semifinals, rest to Friday afternoon repechage)
Wisconsin, Harvard, Washington, Pennsylvania, MIT

UW Lineup - Coxswain Theodore Van Beek, Cole Reavill, Evan Miller, Chase Covey, Tim Zogleman

IF NECESSARY
(Top two to Saturday semifinals, rest to Saturday lower-level semifinals)
Varsity Eight Repechages – 4/4:10/4:20/4:30 p.m. CT
Second Varsity Eight Repechages – 4:40/4:50/5/5:10 p.m. CT
Third Varsity Eight Repechages – 5:20/5:30 p.m. CT
Varsity Four Repechages – 5:40/5:50/6/6:10 p.m. CT

MADISON, Wis. – With a year's worth of blood, sweat and tears in the bank, the Wisconsin men's rowing team is set for the 2017 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships, which run Friday through Sunday in Gold River, California.

School is out for the spring, so the Badgers headed west last weekend to California to wrap up final preparations.

"We are training out here getting ready to race," head coach Chris Clark said. "Nothing unusual, in a good way, which is what we want.

"It is really a great body of water. We are rowing out of the UC Davis boathouse on the Port of Sacramento, which most people don't realize there is ship traffic here. It is just an incredible body of water here with miles of straight stretches."

Wisconsin will enter the championships as the No. 13 seed in the varsity eight after placing 19th last season and 15th the year before in the boat class that is looked upon as the national championship event.

While the Badgers have a long way to go to reach the heights of the 2008 crew that won the national championship, they are on the upswing after a couple of sub-par seasons for the program.

"The last time we were here in 2013, even by Tuesday with the racing starting on Friday, we hadn't settled on a first eight," Clark said. "We are looking forward to it. The heat sheets are out and there is nothing unexpected and we are ready to go."

In addition to the varsity eight, Wisconsin will roll out a second varsity eight, third varsity eight and varsity four to compete for boat titles and the team title, the Ten Eyck Trophy.

Wisconsin leads the country with 14 Ten Eyck Trophies all-time.

UW's second varsity eight enters as the No. 11 seed, while its third varsity eight is seeded seventh. The varsity four race is not seeded.

Washington is the top seed in all three seeded boat classes.

Last year, the Badgers' second varsity eight reached the final and placed fifth, while the third varsity eight took seventh and the varsity four grabbed fifth.

As a team, Wisconsin claimed 101 points to finish 10th overall, a three-spot rise from 2015.

"Things are going to according to the way we would draw it up," Clark stated. "We'll see how the racing goes, but we expect it to be, certainly in the first eight, we expect it to be significantly better than last year. We had a good IRA last year except for the first eight.

"Probably the only thing, it will be very hot for racing, but that is about it. The guys are already loving that after having such a cool and dreary May."