Wisconsin men's rowing completes season at national championships 

Two boats of the Wisconsin men's rowing team's six entries at the 2015 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships were filled with freshmen. Those two boats produced the highest Badger finishes of the championships as the freshman eight and varsity four each finished in fourth place.

 Racing at the three-day event concluded Sunday on Mercer Lake.

 Those results provide promise for the future, however as for now, Wisconsin's top boat, its varsity eight, finished 15th overall after taking third in the third-level final on Sunday. The Badgers time of 5:44.347 was just shy of winner Dartmouth (5:43.054) and second place FIT (5:44.112).
 Washington won the overall title, becoming the first school in an IRA history that dates back to the 19th century to win five consecutive varsity eight titles. The Huskies swept five races, winning all the varsity events, as well as the freshman eight race.

 "Let's just call today the end of a tough year," head coach  Chris Clark said. "The varsity raced well in the third level, and got third. So 15th overall. The last time we've been 15th was in 2010 and fortunately the very next year we followed it up with a fourth, so let's hope that pattern can stick.

 "They are mainly just seniors in the varsity and they earned their way in there, we are just really, really underpowered. Not nearly strong enough to compete at the highest level."

 The second varsity eight reached Sunday's petite final, but ended up finishing sixth in the race and 12th overall. Harvard won the petite final in 5:42.750, with UW clocking 5:58.291 over 2000 meters for its sixth-place result.

 "The strongest kids have populated the lower boats but so far haven't been able to parlay that power into actually moving the boat," Clark said. "Most of them were in the second varsity which really had the poorest race of the day for any of our boats. They were in the B final and were last by a long shot and really not a good performance at all.

 "That boat had one senior and all underclassmen -- juniors and sophomores.  They are really going to need to step it up to be competitive next year."

 The third varsity eight also raced in the petite final, taking second behind Boston University's 5:48.647. The Badgers clocked 5:51.853 for their time and would up in eighth place, overall.

 "The third varsity, which was six sophomores, two juniors, really had been flopping and fumbling around in the bulk of the training here, but all of a sudden stepped it up and were second in the B final, eighth overall," Clark remarked. "Last year we were 13th. Excellent improvement there and I expect big things from those guys."

 Wisconsin's aforementioned freshman crews both ended up in fourth place, but it is all relative to expectations when judging the crews' performances.

 "The varsity four, which was comprised of freshmen--there were 24 boats in that event and they were still fourth. A tight fourth. Last year, with all upperclassmen, they were sixth. So for our team, that was really the best performance." The freshman eight had designs on winning a national title, and at the very least earning the Badgers' first freshman eight medal since 2000, but UW missed out, finishing just outside the medals in fourth place. Washington won, with California grabbing silver and Pennsylvania winning the bronze.

 The Badgers defeated Cal by nearly three seconds on Friday in the heats, and had nearly 10 seconds on Pennsylvania at Eastern Sprints two weeks ago, but couldn't hold that form on the final day.

 "The freshmen were a real disappointment," Clark lamented. "We hadn't won a medal in that freshman event since 2000. We've been able to parlay championships anyway, but it's a lot harder. You want to get a taste of that hardware and they managed to get fourth. As you can imagine, they were pretty crushed.

 "I'm sure they'll come back, but it was disappointing. Anyway, good performance by the freshmen all year. It was the best freshman performances we've had in a while."

 Now the program looks ahead and looks to capitalize on some promising youth on the team, as Clark explained in his final comments of the season.

 "You see a pattern with 15th in the 1V, 12th in 2V, eighth in the 3V, fourth and fourth in the next two boats down the line, and that all implies youth. It certainly looks good for the future, but this was a rough year and no one was particularly thrilled about their finish, so we've got a lot of work to do.

 "Onward and upward, and next year turn a new page and get back to the Wisco Way, which in the last couple of years is not where we want to be. We have to get back on the track and I'm sure we will."

2015 IRA National Championships
West Windsor, N.J.
Mercer Lake
May 31, 2015
2,000 meters

(Complete Results)

Varsity Eight
Third-Level Final (Places 13-18)
 1. Dartmouth, 5:43.054; 2. FIT, 5:44.112; 3. Wisconsin, 5:44.347; 4. Hobart, 5:45.662; 5. Holy Cross, 5:48.609; 6. Stanford, 5:56.014

 UW Lineup -- Coxswain  Michael Callahan,  Kyle Smith,  Peter Ginouves,  Matt Sobotka,  Vince Bertram,  William Bleifuss,  Steve Berg Jr.,  Andrew Stone,  Jonathan Dobson

Second Varsity Eight
Petite Final (Places 7-12)
 1. Harvard, 5:42.750; 2. Cornell, 5:44.939; 3. Northeastern, 5:45.188; 4. Pennsylvania, 5:51.729; 5. Dartmouth, 5:54.790; Wisconsin, 5:58.291

 UW Lineup -- Coxswain  Ben Flaherty,  James Lueken,  Graham Mink,  Sam Weeks,  Patrick Muto,  Michael Knippen,  George Perrett,  Peter Burrus,  William Horvat

Third Varsity Eight
Petite Final (Places 7-12)
 1. Boston University, 5:48.647; 2. Wisconsin, 5:51.853; 3. Cornell, 5:52.485; 4. Northeastern, 5:52.749; 5. Navy, 5:55.439; 6. Dartmouth, 6:01.779

 UW Lineup -- Coxswain  James Roen,  Sam Helle,  Laing Wise,  Steven Thom,  John Goodman,  Jack Spencer,  Jim Letten,  John French,  Alex Idarraga

Freshman Eight
Grand Final
 1. Washington, 5:39.366; 2. California, 5:44.085; 3. Pennsylvania, 5:47.034; 4. Wisconsin, 5:48.194; 5. Cornell, 5:55.310; 6. Drexel, 6:04.010

 UW Lineup -- Coxswain  Theodore Van Beek,  Nickolas Montalvo,  Andrew Flannery,  James Bernard,  Tristan Amberger,  Erik Kernozek,  Andrew Griffin,  Jonah Van der Weide,  Jacob Hurlbutt

Varsity Four
Grand Final
 1. Washington, 6:16.321; 2. California, 6:19.612; 3. Stanford, 6:19.858; 4. Wisconsin, 6:22.472; 5. Temple, 6:26.743; 6. Harvard, 6:35.443

 UW Lineup -- Coxswain  Jefferson Chan,  John Hollow,  Alexander Butler,  Christoph Bub,  Theodore Boesen

Lightweight Four (From Saturday)
Petite Final (Places 7-12)
 1. Wisconsin, 6:35.327; 2. MIT, 6:39.633; 3. Mercyhurst, 6:40.820; 4. Georgetown, 6:42.230; 5. Pennsylvania, 6:43.459; 6. Temple, 6:45.078

 UW Lineup -- Coxswain  Andrew Hamilton,  Michael Spankowski,  Kyle James,  Steve Knopp,  Thomas Walker