The top-ranked Wisconsin men's rowing team will be in Blue Lake, Ill., this Saturday to compete for the Cochrane and Jablonic Cups against a trio of East Coast opponents. The meet, to be held in the Cal-Sag Channel on the Calumet River, will be the last opportunity for the men to race before the conference and national championships.
The team will race against the boats from MIT, ranked No. 13 in the country, and 18th-ranked Dartmouth College in the morning session for the Cochrane Cup. In the afternoon, the crews will be back on the water, where the Badgers will again face MIT, along with No. 10 Boston University, for the right to take home the Jablonic Cup.
The ascension to the No. 1 ranking in the country has been a result of consistent victories for the first varsity boat from Madison. At their last meet, the Stanford Invitational, the team swept the competition from Washington, Oregon State and Stanford, all of which were Top-15 teams in the country. The Badgers finished less than a half-a-second in front of the tournament's host, No. 5 Stanford, to win the event.
Being from Wisconsin, the team is put at an annual disadvantage. Teams from other parts of the country train in ideal conditions throughout the spring; frigid and stormy weather can hover in Madison well into April, reducing the amount of time the team spends on the water and making the team's No. 1 ranking all the more impressive.
The dismal weather conditions were no more evident than on April 11, when the team had to delay its meet against Michigan. The rain and wind made Lake Mendota impossible to race on for a good portion of the morning.
Men's rowing head coach Chris Clark spoke about the weather conditions in the upper Midwest and said the time when the team is really able to log its best training is in the month of May.
The weather should have no effect on the races this weekend, and the team is looking forward to continuing its successful season against solid competition.
Paul Williams is a member of the Badgers' varsity boat and is looking forward to facing competition with their conference, the EARC.
""It's a good chance to see those opponents [MIT, Dartmouth, BU] before conference championships and try to race well against them,"" Williams said.
Clark also was looking forward to racing against three fellow conference schools, including a MIT program that is having one of their best seasons in recent memory.
""They are beating teams that they haven't beaten in not just years, but decades,"" Clark said about MIT.
Although looking forward to the competition, both Williams and Clark were most focused on having another opportunity to race and execute their own game plan in the final meet before championship season begins.
""Any competitive race in a race situation is helpful. Generally, you feel better about it when you win, that's for sure,"" Clark said. ""But it's always helpful, and one nice thing about the format we have on Saturday is it's two races, and that's the way it's going to be at Eastern Sprints a week later, so for all the teams involved, it's helpful.""
""We have a limited number of races per year, and so for each one we want to execute better than the race before. With any race, you just want to do well and execute for your own speed regardless of the opponent,"" said Williams. ""There's a couple strategy things you can do depending on what you know about the crew, but the general attitude that we have is to race our own race and hope for the best.""
The team's solid performances thus far have led them to a No. 1 ranking, and if they continue to improve every weekend, they won't have to hope for the best, they will expect it.
