Hawkeyes to Compete in Big Ten Championships

April 24, 2007

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THIS WEEK: The University of Iowa women’s rowing team will travel to Madison, WI, for the 2007 Big Ten Championships. Races will take place Saturday on Lake Wingra beginning at 8:15 a.m.

RANKINGS: Four of the seven Big Ten teams are ranked among the top 20 Division I Varsity Eights. Ohio State (3rd), Minnesota (8th), Michigan (12th) and Michigan State (13th) are scattered throughout the recent polls from the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/USRowing

LAST BIG TENS: Iowa finished sixth place in overall competition and second in the varsity four petite finals last year at the Big Ten Championships. Rain and 13-15 mile per hour winds were present throughout the day of racing as Iowa improved one spot from its seventh place finish in 2005.

LAST TIME OUT: The Hawkeyes traveled to Lake Phalen, April 14, for races against Oregon State, Drake, Minnesota and Wisconsin, particpating in both varisty and novice action. The lone victory on the weekend came from the second novice eight. In other novice action, Iowa was defeated in the first novice eight by Minnesota. The varsity was swept by Minnesota, going 0-4 in the first and second varisty eights and first and second varsity fours.

HEAD COACH: Mandi Kowal is in her 13th year as head coach of the Hawkeyes. In the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Rowing Championships, she coached the Varsity 4+ teams to fourth and eighth-places finishes, respectively. Kowal began her rowing career at the University of Wisconsin in 1981. She was a two-time rowing World Champion in the Women’s Lightweight 4- (1986-1987). She was named Female Athlete of the Year in 1987 by the US Rowing Association and was inducted into the United States Rowing Hall of Fame in 1997.

QUOTING COACH KOWAL: “We look forward to putting our changes to the test and see how we fair against the other Big Ten schools we have not faced. It should be an awesome day of races.”

Click HERE for more information about the Big Ten Network.