No. 9 IU rowing traveled to Indianapolis to compete in the Big Ten Championships and left with a third place finish for the Novice 8 team. The Varsity teams earned fourth, fifth and sixth place finishes.
The Hoosiers competed against Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St., Minnesota, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin.
The day of racing started with the Novice 8 team. IU took third place over Wisconsin by less than a hundredth of a second. Madi Anderson, a freshman on the Novice 8 team, said the third place finish was a result of the confidence and trust the team has for each other.
“We went into this race knowing we had the chance to medal and I think that attitude brought us to the finish line,” Anderson said.
The Novice 8 team finished with a time of 6:59.614. Anderson said the team was able to pull ahead in the final moments by having a stronger final stroke than Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin made a move, so then we realized we needed to respond to that move,” Anderson said. “I think towards the end, especially our sprint, we had to go. We had a harder last stroke and that's what got us the finish.”
Anderson said the team realized that all their hard work paid off after they crossed the finish line.
“We came off the water and we said all it was all worth it and we were on cloud nine,” Anderson said.
After a week off of racing, Varsity 4 freshman Niahm Monk said the Hoosiers raced on clear water this morning. The Varsity 4 team finished in fourth place, just three seconds behind Rutgers.
“The race was super controlled today because of the lovely water, so we couldn’t ask for anything more,” Monk said.
Monk said that the Varsity 4 team has only been together for a couple of weeks.
“We’re a young crew so we took that as a positive,” Monk said. “We haven’t really raced many crews with this lineup, so we just wanted to get out there and have a really super controlled race knowing what we're going for going into NCAA’s.”
The Hoosiers hope to compete in those NCAA Championships, which will take place May 28-30 in Sarasota, Florida. The field for the championship will be announced on Tuesday, May 18, on the NCAA website.
