The Wisconsin women's crew team will be hosting the Midwest Rowing Championships on Lake Wingra this Saturday.
The regatta is a tradition at Wisconsin actually celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The Minnesota Gophers, Kansas Jayhawks, Marquette Golden Eagles and others will be competing at the event this year along with the Wisconsin women's openweight team and the No. 1 Wisconsin women's lightweight team.
Racing well this weekend will be very important for Wisconsin in order to receive a better seed next weekend in the Big Ten Championships.
\This is an important race for the varsity,"" head women's openweight rowing coach Mary Browning said. ""We need to go up against Minnesota to help out our seedings for the Big Ten Championships, so it's important for us for the Big Ten.""
Of all the teams participating in the race this weekend, Minnesota will be the biggest concern for the Badgers.
The Gophers narrowly defeated the Badgers Varsity eight team in Iowa City, Iowa last weekend, and they will meet once more this weekend before the Big Ten Championships.
""The biggest competition we have is University of Minnesota right now,"" Browning said. ""Kansas I think is going to be there. They're a varsity program also, but they're still a new program. But, I think our biggest opponent is going to be University of Minnesota. ... We lost to them by one second last weekend which is really surprising and upsetting to us, so we're really looking to go after them this week.""
""I know that University of Minnesota is going to be there,"" openweight varsity eight senior Bridgid Meyers said. ""I also know that we're going to row against our lightweights, and they're number one in the nation in the lightweight division. It should be a good competition; it'll be good racing.""
The overall attitude of the crew team is bright heading into this weekend. The Midwest Rowing Championships is one of only two home regattas all season for the Badgers.
""We're very excited,"" Meyers said. ""It's a home race and we always enjoy those. We need to keep a straight head about it. There's some good competition out there; we need to race well. We try to have fun, but we also know that it's a serious thing this weekend.\
