Powerhouses to compete at Big Tens

Some teams spend the regular season preparing for a moment like this, but in the case of the Hoosiers, they have spent all year preparing for it. The team heads to Ohio State this weekend for the Big Ten Championships, with preliminaries starting at 8 a.m. and the finals beginning at noon. \n"This is the race we have been training for since the beginning of the year, and it all narrows down to how hard we can push ourselves in these seven minutes of the race," freshman Lauren Anderson said. "Coach has prepared us well, and I am confident that we will have a great race."\nThe Hoosiers will see the same tough competition they have been up against all year. They will face off against traditional Big Ten powers Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State, while also going up against Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.\nIn practice this week, the Hoosiers have been simulating race conditions by having all the boats, varsity and novice, race against each other. \nSophomore Sarah Meyer said practice this week has been productive.\n"In order to get ready for the Big Ten Championships, we have worked with all of the (novice and varsity) eights together, including the novice, a couple days this week to get a feel for other boats being right there with us, side by side," she said. "Coach has mentioned to us a few times that we need to take what we do in practice and apply it to race day. If we can take the intensity and boat-moving togetherness that we have utilized in practice and draw on those same strengths on Saturday, I am positive we will race fast and well."\nThough the Hoosiers have not fared well against Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State thus far this season, they said they don't feel like an underdog. The team has been steadily improving all season, each time getting closer and closer to the top teams. \nFreshman Jennifer Johnson said she feels the team is ready to race this weekend.\n"The team has worked extremely hard this past week to get ready for the weekend," she said. "I'm really excited about representing Indiana University this weekend, and I'm so proud of everyone on the team. I think IU will really show the Big Ten Conference how hard we've worked in practice all year"