Michigan Rowing Places Second at Big Ten Championships

Submitted by VCavman24 on

The Michigan Women's Rowing Team competed at the Big Ten Championships at Eagle Park in Indianapolis and came in second with 135 points.  Ohio State won with 160 points.  This result was expected as Ohio State has a very good team this year and is top five nationally.  Of the seven events, Ohio State won all but two.  Michigan won 0 II Varsity Fours F1.  Michigan will next compete in the NCAA Tournament.

http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-rowing/spec-rel/051913aah.html

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big10/sports/w-rowing/auto_pdf/2012…

 

Dutch Ferbert

May 19th, 2013 at 5:35 PM ^

Each rowing team has several boats. The premier boat is the Varsity 8 (so 8 rowers, plus a coxswain who steers and motivates the crew).

So most teams have a Varsity 8 and a Second Varsity 8 (sometimes called a JV8). These are the top two boats. Then they have fours (four rowers per boat). They have a first and second 4.

Finally, there are the freshman boats...which are broken down the same way with the first Freshman 8 being the best.

Each race is assigned a certain # of possible points for first place through last. The Varsity 8 races are worth the most points and the fours are worth less. Think of how they score swimming and track and field based on total points for multiple events.

The OP didnt use the most clear language (but the OP just borrowed the horrible shorhand used in the Big Ten results pdf). Michigan winning the 0 II Varsity Fours F1 means the Michigan one the Grand Final (F1, first final), in the 2nd Varsity four event. So Michigan won that event, and is B1G champ in that event. OSU won the most points, and events, so they are the overall team B1G champ.

 

DISCUSS Man

May 19th, 2013 at 2:21 PM ^

Men's rowing is going to nationals next weekend. They are a varsity club which means they are next in line to becoming varsity. Notice how I didn't say D1 since the dumb NCAA doesn't have men's rowing. They are defending national champions. 5 consecutive years as national champs.

Lost in Champaign

May 19th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^

 

The big difference between lacrosse and rowing is that the men's rowing team has already been a consistent top 15-20 over the last decade without varsity status. In fact, the only IRA teams that Michigan hasn't beat in the last 10 years are Washington, Cal, and Harvard. 

If you want a good idea of what Michigan rowing would look like with varsity status, take a look at Wisconsin. No men's scholarships, but the supportive campus culture, facilities, sway with admissions, and lack of yearly dues payments allows them to recruit and hold onto high-level walk-on athletes who would otherwise not be accepted to the university or be dissuaded by shelling out money for what is really just an extracurricular activity when no scholarships are involved. 

Dutch Ferbert

May 19th, 2013 at 5:14 PM ^

I also was going to point out that there are only 3 teams Michigan has not beaten.

Michigan men's rowing has competed with the top varsity programs for the last 10-15 years. The coaches are outstanding. They take mostly walkons who played different sports in high school, and turn them into real collegiate athletes. The team has produced three separate Olympians, one each at the last 3 Olympics. The team placed in the top 10 a few times at IRA before the varsity programs decided that they could not take losing to Michigan and a couple of the other top clubs. Michigan's varsity 8 finished in the top 10 to 12 a few times, and team finished in the top 7 or 8 a few times as well (if my memory serves me correctly). For those of you that don't know, the Varsity 8 is the premier event in rowing (and it's called the varsity 8 even at club programs), but rowing also has a team championship based on point totals for different events (kind of like swimming or track). They even had a freshman 8 finish second in the country about 10 years ago. In other words, they beat every varsity program's freshman boat at the IRA, except one.

I do not know if Michigan is next in line for varsity status (although they should be in my biased opinion as a former rower). There are a lot of factors to be considered, and who knows when or if the school will add more sports. Plus, the school would have to add another women's team if men's rowing were added due to Title IX issues.

Finally, for those of you who know nothing about rowing, it is the first intercolliage sport, and some of the first collegiate football games were opening acts for rowing races. I would highly recommend reading The Shell Game by Stephen Kiesling for an understanding of the history of collegiate athletics and college rowing (specifically the Harvard-Yale race). Also, Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam wrote a great book called The Amateurs that follows the 84 Olymic team.

DISCUSS Man

May 19th, 2013 at 4:10 PM ^

Rome wasn't built overnight. Give lacrosse a chance. They did it the hard way and went from club to D1 with a roster of club players.

Most programs get classes in, practice for a year or two and then start D1 competition. This is what the women's program is doing so I expect them to have success next year.

Look at Denver. They're the westernmost team in the NCAA and they are going to the Final 4 and won the ECAC Championship this year including taking out the defending national champion Loyola.

mgowake

May 19th, 2013 at 3:57 PM ^

I can tell you I'm glad I'm out of that. :-) what the club team does year after year is absolutely amazing. Coaching at Texas I had a bigger student body, better weather, better water and we couldn't even come close. Bravo to them.

RoZ06

May 19th, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^

Row Blue! I was on the team in 2002... Miss the sport. You'll never be more physically exhausted than after a sprint.

True Blue Grit

May 19th, 2013 at 6:10 PM ^

Competitive rowing requires you to be in extremely good shape.  I also rowed with a local club in Ann Arbor for several years and my experience with doing racing gave me an appreciation for how difficult of a sport it really is.