Crew Bows To Wisconsin After Hitting Wake
May 12, 2000 | Men's Rowing
The men's crew, after rowing a strong 1000 meters, hit a wake and never regained its stroke and lost to host Wisconsin on Sunday (May 7th).
Not only did the Terriers run into rough water, they also had the unfortunate circumstance of rowing against a Wisconsin crew that set a course record over the 2000-meter Lake Mendota course.
The Badgers were timed in 5:49.71, while the Terriers were clocked in 6:03.39
It marked the second time in 24 hours that Wisconsin established a Lake Mendota record. The day before (May 6th), the Badgers defeated Dartmouth in a time of 5:52.26.
"Wisconsin has a very strong boat this year," said Terrier head coach Rodney Pratt.
"We stayed with them for the first 1000 meters," the coach went on. "In fact, we were down by only half to three quarters of a length.
"Then, we hit a wake, and just like that, we lost another two seats and we lost our rhythm," said the coach. "If we had been able to row the second 1000 the way we had the first 1000, I would have been very happy.
"In fact, if we had been within six seconds of them at the end, it would have been a good row for us," said Pratt.
Also hurting the Terriers was the absence of two of their regular rowers. Sean Casavechia remained home in Boston with the flu, while Kevin Valent was home because of family bereavement.
In the other two featured races, B.U.'s second varsity and first freshmen also lost to the Badgers. The second varsity bowed, 5:57.91 to 6:20.15, while the freshmen lost 6:02.84 to 6:23.47.
