Wisconsin rowing enters this season on the heels of the most successful year in program history. Both the women's lightweight and men's teams won national championships, and the openweight women came in second in Big Ten championships.
The women's lightweight victory is the team's fourth national championship in five years. This season the team hopes to have similar success, despite the loss of two seniors from the national championship boat.
Head coach Erik Miller said senior Kristin Hedstrom, a powerhouse rower for the Badger's who can no longer compete because of NCAA eligibility rules, will be greatly missed.
It'll be a little bit of a challenge and overall our average numbers won't be quite as good just because her score was so fast that it brought the whole team scores to a better range, but overall I think that we've still got the strength,"" Miller said.
He said the team's goal each regatta is to use their strength and skills to put together the best possible race. He said competitions ultimately come down to ""putting your best race out there on race day and hoping that it's better than the best race of your competitors.""
""I think we've been pretty lucky, and have had a good run. What we do with it is up to us a lot, but also up to everybody else,"" Miller said.
The biggest race of the fall season for the Badgers is the Head of the Charles, an annual regatta in Boston on October 18 and 19. Miller said the race is important because it's the first time this season Wisconsin will race other top teams in the country like Princeton, Radcliff and Georgetown.
Miller said fall season is primarily a chance for rowers to become familiar with each other and the sport after a summer away from the team.
""For everybody it's getting your feet back under you and getting back into training and get back into rowing with the team,"" he said.
MEN'S ROWING
The Wisconsin men's team will see if they maintained championship form for the first time at the Head of the Charles regatta in October as well.
The men's team moves forward this season without three athletes, Adam Barhamand and rowers Derek Rasmussen and Joe McMullin, who were in the men's eight boat that won the national championship last spring.
The national championship was a boost for the program, and head coach Chris Clark said after the race, ""even thought you expect it and train for it, you still can't believe your eyes when it is happening.""
Clark also said that success requires focus and dedication, and not letting good races or competitions get into your head.
""So, I've definitely found that the second you start to tout yourself highly or even poorly, you usually end up regressing into the mean a little bit,"" Clark said.
The effort Wisconsin puts into training this fall and winter will help them stay ahead of the pack come spring racing season.
OPENWEIGHGT WOMEN
The Wisconsin openweight women's team will try and improve on a successful season in which they placed second in the Big Ten championships and tenth at the NCAA Championships.
The Badgers will move forward without five rowers from last season. However, head coach Bebe Bryans is confident in her team's ability and excited about the state of Wisconsin rowing.
""It's great to be in this boathouse right now,"" Bryans said.
The team's first competition this fall is the Milwaukee River Challenge on September 20. The team will also have a chance to race against rowing alumni at the Class Day Races, held September 27 at the Porter Boathouse.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
