After a long winter of training, the No. 11 UW men's rowing team will begin its season Saturday against Michigan on Lake Mendota. The Badgers hope to rebound this season from last year's 18th place finish in the country, their worst ever showing under head coach Chris Clark.
Though the last couple years have been turbulent for the team, Clark said he is positive heading into the spring.
For a few years, I knew we were on a downward trend line, and we did what we could to fix that,\ Clark said. ""Then right at the very end of last year, at the lower level of the team, you saw an upward trend, and now I would say we're back on an upward trend. How far that will take us I don't know.""
The trend Clark speaks of refers mostly to last year's sophomores, who, after moving back and forth between varsity and junior varsity last year, excelled near season's end and have now stepped up to lead the team. Among the group of now-juniors are Scott Wallen, Andrew Kaufman, Matt Donoghue and Ben Szymanski.
Besides the juniors, Clark said that seniors Jim Murphy, Chris Anspach and captain Ryan Larson have all improved form last year and are vying for spots in the top eight.
Clark said that the team's strength ""is simply that you've got young guys that are committed to being better and have shown it.""
""The weakness is they ... haven't done much,"" Clark said. ""It's one thing to talk about it, one thing to have the potential to do it, but now and then you have to have a few breakthroughs.""
Breakthroughs, according to Clark, may include an unexpected win over a tough opponent, overcoming adversity after a tough loss or any other positive surprise.
""If you're surprised a lot in a positive way, you're going to have a good year,"" Clark said. ""I haven't been surprised that much this year, but I've been surprised more than the year before.""
Clark knows early-season rankings do not mean much, but says that the Badgers' No. 11 rank is fairly realistic at this point.
""It's not totally outrageous either way,"" he said. ""We're not a lot worse than that, but we may not be a lot better than that either. That remains to be seen.""
One of Clark's ultimate goals for the season is to get boats into the finals and in medal contention at the national championships, something the team has had trouble doing in the past two years. Clark also hopes to place highly in the overall team competition.
As for Saturday's dual meet against Michigan, Clark says it will undoubtedly be close.
""No matter how good we are I've noticed, some years we've been very good, other years we're OK, the Michigan race is always a close race, period"" Clark said.
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