BELLEVILLE – If the Michigan women’s rowing team was described in its recipe compilation Crew’d Food, it would be called raw.
But after Saturday’s meet, the 15th-ranked Wolverines were prepared like a fresh slab of salmon: smoked.
Taking on Clemson, No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 14 Michigan State, Michigan found itself at the bottom of the pile in its first major meet of 2007. The Wolverines finished in last place in the four-team regatta.
The Wolverines started the regatta on a bright note as the second novice eight beat out Notre Dame by seven seconds for first place. But Michigan wouldn’t climb atop of the podium again, instead registering a last-place finish in the first varsity eight boat.
Edging Michigan State for the third position by less than a length midway through the race, the Wolverines relinquished their lead, falling in last place with a time of 6:58.54.
Michigan’s first varsity four was blown away, trailing the entire race and finishing 17.83 seconds behind second-place Michigan State and 27.38 seconds after champion Notre Dame.
“If we want to be competitive, we have to get faster,” Michigan coach Mark Rothstein said.
Despite capturing second place in each of the second varsity races, Michigan didn’t make an impressive showing at its only home meet of the season at Belleville Lake.
But with a majority of underclassmen on each boat, Michigan knows there is much room for improvement before the Big Ten meet in three weeks.
“I think we raced OK on the whole,” Rothstein said. “We need a lot of development that needs to take place the next couple months and I’m confident our team will come back Monday and work even harder.”