With finals week rapidly approaching, the No. 13 Michigan women’s rowing team decided to forgo the second day of competition at the Clemson Invitational in Clemson, S.C.
The Clemson Invitational is one of the largest regattas held during the regular season and hosts many of the nation’s top rowing programs. The Wolverines had the opportunity to compete against five of those top-ranked teams – No. 3 Virginia, No. 7 UCLA, No. 14 Clemson, No. 19 Cornell, and No. 20 Duke – on Saturday.
Though Michigan’s first novice eight was the only boat to earn a first-place finish out of a possible 10 races that day, the Wolverines held their own as a team. In the morning session, Michigan’s 1v8, 1v4 and 2v4 placed second, with UCLA sweeping the first-place finishes. Of those boats, the 1v8 rowed a time of 6:34.4 – the fourth-fastest time in the three morning flights. Michigan’s 2v8 finished in third place behind Clemson with a time of 6:49.3.
“We made some good improvements,” said Michigan coach Mark Rothstein. “But there’s a steep learning curve, and we need to get a lot faster over these next four weeks.”
The Wolverines continued to show improvement in the afternoon session, as each boat rowed faster than it did in the morning. But with the addition of Virginia to the lineup, Michigan’s 1v8 (6:19), 1v4 (7:18.4), and 2v4 (7:27.9) also fell one spot lower, finishing third. The 2v8 struggled a bit, falling to UCLA, Cornell, Virginia and Oklahoma, respectively, with a time of 6:34.6. Lastly, the Wolverines’ 1n8 (6:49.4) – previously undefeated (4-0) in competition – fell to the Cavaliers by a mere three-tenths of a second.
Two weeks ago, Rothstein mentioned a potential change to the lineup, but as it turns out, seven of the eight rowers in the 1v8 have been in the lineup for all three competitions this season. One of those notables is sophomore port/starboard Jessica Eiffert, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2012, who has been a member of the 1v8 all season and remained so on Saturday.
Though Rothstein was pleased with the tenacity that his team competed with this weekend, noting that his stroke seats really stepped up to the challenge, he was unsatisfied with the results. He emphasized the importance of winning and reiterated, as he has done all season, the team’s mission to seize the Big Ten title and nationalcChampionship. Michigan’s focus and training will continue to fuel its progress, but as Rothstein mentioned, all that hard work does no good if the team can’t produce the results it needs to win a race.
When asked about the competition at the Clemson Invitational and whether he considered any of the top-ranked programs a rival to Michigan, Rothstein was concise.
“Ohio State, obviously,” he said. “(But) when you’re trying to win, everyone is your rival.”