After a long, cold winter and open water finally abundant around the Madison area, the UW-Madison men's rowing team will begin the 2007 spring portion of its season this weekend.
The Badgers start off this year by sharing a national No. 8 ranking with Northeastern. The team will try to improve on that standing this weekend during the Windermere Classic in Redwood Shores, Calif. The going will be tough with the Badgers slated to race against No. 1 Washington and No. 7 Stanford on Saturday, with an equally difficult task Sunday when the team races No. 2 California.
The Badger team took home ninth place in the 2006 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships last June and looks to build on last year's finish this season. There is a great mix of experienced rowers and newer, younger rowers that make this season exciting for everyone involved. Twelve seniors, 15 juniors and 17 sophomores make up the team, and each brings a different strength to the program.
Unfortunately, the Badgers face a few setbacks. For one, senior captain Andrew Kaufman, considered one of the top rowers in the program, will not race this weekend as he is out for the spring with an injury. Further, the three teams the Badgers will race this weekend have had mild, warmer winters, while the Badgers have been faced with cold weather and lots of ice. As a result, the Badgers were forced to stay indoors until late March, when the ice finally broke in their area. This, combined with the skill and experience of each opponent they face this weekend, makes for a challenging opening to the spring season.
Still, optimism is abundant, and many are putting off judgments until after the weekend.
""The results will tell a lot of how the season goes,"" said head coach Chris Clark. ""The team can mentally come together and have chemistry to stay together against the top teams like that then we will be in good shape.""
The spring season begins Saturday morning with Washington as UW's first opponent.
A-—uwbadgers.com
contributed to this report
