The Wisconsin women’s rowing team saved its best for last in the final races of the season on Sunday at the 2016 NCAA Rowing Championships, and earned the team its first top-10 finish since 2011 in the process.
The three-day event took place on Lake Natoma in Gold River, California.With all three of their crews racing in Sunday petite finals, the Badgers were in position for a top-10 team finish, and they delivered.First, the varsity four used the second-fastest final 500 meters in the petite final to climb past Indiana and into fifth place in the race. The Badgers used a 1:48.827 final 500 meters to cross the 2000-meter finish line in 7:22.380. That gave the Badgers 11th overall in the varsity four and 12 team points.In the second varsity eight, UW did one better, crossing the 2000-meter mark in fourth place in the petite final, good for 10th place overall. UW’s time of 6:40.722 was just under a second behind third-place Stanford (6:39.821), while Brown captured the petite final in 6:35.550. UW’s finish added 26 points to its team total.Finally it was the varsity eight’s turn and the Badgers clocked 6:26.419 over 2000 meters to take third in the petite final and ninth overall. The ninth-place finish, behind Texas (6:24.496) and Washington (6:25.145), earned the Badgers 42 points in the team competition and got them to a program-best 80 points at an NCAA championships.
