On Sunday, the Wisconsin women's crew team traveled to Rockford, Ill., to compete in the Head of the Rock Regatta. Both openweights and lightweights raced on the Rock River.
The lightweights, two-time national champions, did not have a lot of competition coming into the race. \As far as the Rock, not many crews in the Midwest are boating lightweights at this time and we are grateful that the openweight crews are offering us a challenge to really test our speed,"" lightweight head coach Mary Shofner said.
In the varsity fours, the UW lightweight women swept the event when all of the entered boats placed first through fifth in the race. In the first place boat were coxswain Erin Specht, Anaya Drew, Mary Higgins, Sara Liefke, and Mackenzie Farley, who crossed the finish line with a time of 18:06.76 minutes.
The openweight women also had a major victory. In the varsity eight race, Wisconsin's ""A"" boat won first place and beat Big Ten rival, Minnesota, by 10 seconds. The ""B"" boat placed fourth in the race and 10 seconds behind them was the lightweight eight. Otherwise, the openweight women had some difficulty on the water. Head coach Bebe Bryans had mentioned that the cause of the difficulties was technique, not effort.
The Head of the Rock also marked the first race that the novice teams competed in this season. Prior to this race, selected varsity women raced in the Milwaukee River Challenge on Sept. 17. This gave the novice women their first experience racing as Badgers. ""The novices were great and looked exceptional for this time of year,"" Bryans said.
Overall, the Badger rowers dominated the Regatta. Of nine races, the Wisconsin women placed first in seven events. Looking back on the day, Bryans said, ""All in all, it was a really good day for Wisconsin women's rowing and it was the kind of start we were looking for.\
