After watching her novices post stellar times in Saturday's Big Ten Double Dual, UW women's rowing head coach Bebe Bryans showered the young rowers with praise during her press conference Monday afternoon.
Our novices are fabulous,\ Bryans said. ""They're doing a great job of stepping up and being really fast.""
In the fourth race Saturday morning, the novice eight recorded a time of 6:24.0, cruising past Michigan State by more than 15 seconds.
While the time also bested the novice eight boats from Michigan and Iowa, the Badgers' 6:24.0 mark was faster than almost all varsity boats. Only the Spartans' varsity eight finished faster with a time of 6:22.6.
Bryans said the novices' love of racing helped them earn the second-fastest speed.
""They love to pull hard,"" Bryans said. ""They've got a joy in racing, a reckless abandon, so to speak, and they're fearless.""
Wisconsin's novice four, novice eight and second novice eight boats combined to win five out of the six races they entered.
Yet, while the novice Badgers tore through the water of Lake Wingra, the No. 16-ranked varsity Badgers struggled to keep pace with No. 9 Michigan and No. 7 Michigan State.
""We didn't do a good job this weekend,"" Bryans said. ""We blinked this weekend, and our challenge is to race with them and not blink again.""
The Badger varsity eight boat finished over eight seconds behind the Spartans in a morning race. Wisconsin did not fair much better in the afternoon as UW crossed the finish line with a time of 6:38.0, more than seven seconds behind Michigan.
""We've had races pretty much every week against top 10-ranked teams,"" Bryans said. ""We are still figuring out our speed, figuring out our lineups.""
Bryans said she would consider moving some of the novices up to varsity if the young rowers' strong play continued.
""I'm open for anything,"" Bryans said. ""My goal is to have the fastest varsity eight on the water that I possibly can, and then the fastest second varsity eight and then the fastest varsity four.""
As the Badgers look ahead to the Midwest Rowing Championships, which will be held Saturday on Lake Wingra, Bryans said she is still searching for that winning combination.
""We have to make changes as we see them being needed,"" she said. ""And we're going to have to give the novices an opportunity to move up.""
Despite the varsity's struggles, Bryans is looking forward to this weekend's competition.
""It's a great opportunity for us to get all of our athletes on the water and racing,"" Bryans said. ""We get the opportunity to try different race plans, try different seats, putting people in different boats, and it's a good warm-up for us, for Big Tens.""
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