April 10, 2010
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Complete Results in PDF Format
SOLON, IA- The University of Iowa’s rowing team hosted Louisville and Big Ten rivals Minnesota and Wisconsin Saturday. The Hawkeyes faced Minnesota and Wisconsin, while Minnesota and Wisconsin also took on Louisville. Iowa competed in the Novice 8’s, Varsity 4’s and two Varsity 8 boats. The Hawkeyes beat Minnesota 43-35, but fell to Wisconsin 52-26.
The event took place on a 2000m stretch of Lake Macbride in Solon, IA. The wind was about 6 mph for the start of the morning racing and increased throughout the day. The peak wind speed was 14 mph and then varying speeds (cross wind head) throughout the day.
Iowa won three out of its eight races against Minnesota. The Varsity 8 event is worth the most amount of points and the team of Sheila Rinozzi, Emily Vinson, Emily Katalinich, Jessica Novack, Caitlin Kuempel, Megan Erickson, Katy Kroll, Christine Allingham and Haylie Miller won the event against Minnesota with a time of 7:20.0. Minnesota boat came in with a time of 7:24.8.
“The team went to California last weekend and it was a long and tiring three days of racing,” said Head Coach Mandi Kowal. “The team rebounded well from last weekend’s racing and showed that in today’s races. We wanted to work on our lengths and times in the water. We didn’t really do a good job of that in California but we did a good job of that today.”
The Novice 8 boat had a great race against Minnesota. The team finished with a time of 7:29.1, which was 12 seconds faster than Minnesota’s time of 7:41.1.
The Hawkeyes did not win any of their races against Wisconsin but they still raced well. The Varsity 8 boat competed again in the afternoon against Wisconsin and had a very close race. Iowa was right with Wisconsin until the boat hit a buoy and the Badgers pulled ahead. Wisconsin finished with a time of 6:55.7 and Iowa came in close behind with a time of 7:00.3.
“We also wanted to work on our commitment to our race plan,” added Coach Kowal. “I wish we would have gotten a couple more wins and we need to figure out how to get more wins. We have some key people out due to injuries and illnesses and that has been affecting us a little bit but the team has adjusted well.”
Wisconsin had won all of its races against Louisville until the final event of the morning session when its boat had a crab in it. A crab is when the rower is unable to timely remove or release the oar blade from the water and the oar blade acts as a brake on the boat until it is removed from the water. Wisconsin’s boat almost came to a complete stop and could of possibly won the race if that had not occurred.
“We had really good rowing weather,” commented Coach Kowal. “Sometimes the lake is a little unforgiving and I’m glad the teams got to enjoy some good rowing conditions.”
The Hawkeyes will return to action May 1 at the Big Ten Championships in Lansing, MI.