Rowers set sail for west coast, Lake Natoma Invite

There’s no physical gold at stake, but the IU rowing team does have the opportunity to walk away from its weekend trip to Gold River, Calif., with wins against multiple nationally ranked opponents.

The team will compete in the Lake Natoma Invite on Saturday and Sunday against No. 8 California, No. 9 Stanford, No. 10 Brown, No. 11 Wisconsin and No. 13 Washington State.

Texas, ranked as the third-best crew in the South and just outside the top 20 nationally, Tulsa and Sacramento State round out the remaining opponents for the two-day competition.

“In California, we will be facing off against schools the Indiana program has never seen, some of whom are the best in the country,” senior Cara Donley said. “We need to be confident, focus on rowing our boat rather than worrying about the other boats in the race and work on having a strong start to get ahead of the other boats and stay ahead. All the girls are really excited to go to California and race a new batch of schools.”

However, the Hoosiers are familiar with one of their opponents. The team competed against Wisconsin last week at the Big Ten Double Dual. The Hoosiers lost all six races against the Badgers, but Coach Steve Peterson said he thinks there’s an advantage to already knowing the Badgers’ style.

“I think any time you get to see an opponent multiple times, you get to learn about them and the way they race,” Peterson said. “The thing is, going into this past weekend, Wisconsin had not raced, so we knew nothing about them. Having seen them and raced down the course next to them, we now have a better feel of their speed and the way they race.”

The losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota last week knocked IU out of the national rankings. After receiving 52 points in the CRCA/US Rowing Coaches Poll two weeks ago to grab the No. 20 spot, that point total fell to receiving just 10 votes in this week’s rankings.

Peterson said he believes some injuries and roster shake-ups affected the team last week. Peterson said those are all fixed.

“At this point, it looks like we will be able to get back to our normal lineups, and that has people a little more relaxed and confident in what they are able to do,” Peterson said.

He also said the roster shake-up affected the team’s rhythm and took it away from what it was doing well. He said he hopes that with a return to normalcy this week the team can get “back to the basics.”

“We have spent the week refocusing on our rhythm and what makes a boat go fast,” Peterson said. “That is where we got our speed from before, and that is where it has to come from for our upcoming races.”