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The women’s openweight crew team’s season continues with the Midwest Rowing Championships on Lake Wingra this Saturday, as the varsity eight try to avenge a brutal setback and the novice eight looks to continue recent success.At her press conference Monday, UW head coach Bebe Bryans said that a lack of extended practice times — the ice on Lake Mendota prohibited workout sessions up until approximately two weeks ago — has been a small setback, and the team is still working through some of the early-season details.”We are still figuring out our speed, figuring out our lineups, we knew that would be the case,” Bryans said. “It’s the one downside to having less water time than a lot of other teams, we don’t have time to play in private. When we have to make changes, it’s out there in public.”Wisconsin has, according to Bryans, been tested early and often in the 2006 campaign, which has served as replacement for the loss of practices before the first of April.”We’ve had a very challenging schedule, we didn’t hold back anything on the schedule this year for this team,” said the second-year coach. “We’ve had races pretty much every weekend against top ten-ranked teams.”The Badgers — ranked No. 16 in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/USRowing Poll — faced two such programs last weekend on Lake Wingra. In the varsity eight race, No. 7 Michigan State and No. 9 Michigan defeated Wisconsin at its Double Dual on Saturday.Bryans said her team would get the opportunity to get back at both the Michigan State and Michigan squads in an even more important regatta, the Big Ten Championships, which will be held April 29 in St. Paul, Minn.When asked if her rowers would be ready for the chance, Bryans replied, “more than I can possibly say.””I think we were not fast enough this weekend, and they were very fast,” she added. “These crews are … serious competition. I know that we can compete with them; we didn’t do a good job this weekend. I don’t need to tell my athletes that, they know it.”We blinked this weekend, and our challenge is to race with them and not blink again.”Students become the masters … for a day: The fastest time of all Saturday was unsurprisingly attained by the Michigan State varsity eight in their morning race, when they defeated their UW counterparts with a time of 6:22.6.However, the bigger shock came when the Wisconsin novice eight, in its first race of the day, accomplished the second-best time of the entire meet. The Badgers nearly overtook the Spartans’ time, clocking in at an even 6:24.”I think that time surprised everybody,” Bryans said. “They have gelled really well, they’ve got a joy in racing, a reckless abandon, so to speak, and they’re fearless.”Bryans said she has entertained the thought of retooling her starting rowers for the varsity eight in light of the novice eight’s effort, which produced a 6-0 record on the day.”I’m open for anything,” Bryans said. “Because of their performance this weekend, and in the weeks leading up to this, they’ve just dominated everybody that they’ve come up against, that isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”Looking ahead: Bryans said there are two advantageous aspects of the upcoming Midwest Championships, one being the opportunity for everybody to get involved.”Some people that haven’t gotten to race or haven’t gotten much race experience will get to race here, both for the men and the women,” she explained. “We’re going to be trying some different lineups, trying some different races, putting people in different boats, perhaps, so it’s a tune-up for the top boats and it’s a great experience for everybody on the team.”Bryans added that the Midwest Championships give the Badgers one final chance to show off their skills before heading off to St. Paul for the conference meet, and perhaps ultimately the NCAA Championship regatta in West Windsor, N.J.”It’s a great regatta for the University of Wisconsin and the city of Madison,” the coach said. “And hopefully, it’ll be a nice weekend, this past weekend was perfect regatta-watching conditions. We’re hoping to have a great day.” read more