Rowers healthy, ready for Big Ten Championships

There had been times this season when IU rowing coach Steve Peterson said he didn’t know what to do with his lineup.

With injuries plaguing his team, none of his rowers have been able to maintain consistency in the lineup.

That changes this Sunday in Indianapolis, when his team competes in the Big Ten Championships.

“We’re finally getting into the lineups that we expected to be in, probably at the beginning of the spring,” Peterson said. “But we’ve never actually been in them. We’re finally starting to see our true speed.”

Junior Asja Zero,  a Second-Team All-American last season, was injured in a car crash earlier this year. Because of that, she had to sit out the Dale England Cup April 26 and 27, in which IU finished third.

This Sunday, Zero will be back in the lineup for the First Varsity 8.

“I think we can definitely improve a lot upon that (Dale England Cup finish),” Peterson said. “I think some of these other results where we’ve raced against some of these crews, our expectation and what we’re seeing in practice is we should be able to be much faster than we’ve shown already this point. So it’s kind of exciting.”

IU has faced Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Iowa in other competitions this season.

In the Big Ten Double Dual meet on April 13, in which IU faced Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State, IU finished third in the 1V8 and 1V4 and fourth in the 2V8 and 2V4.

But again, the team didn’t have the right lineup.

“I don’t think I could’ve ever planned for this type of year, some of the obstacles that we had,” Peterson said. “I think the athletes have done a great job trying to work as well as you can and do the best you can with a given situation.”

Recently, the team has enjoyed some warmer weather, and the opportunity to get out on Lake Lemon. Peterson said the times the team has put up in practice have been the fastest he’s seen this year. That has him excited for Sunday.

“We’re going into it confident,” he said. “I think the best way to describe it, we’ve been cramming for an exam. Since we’re finally getting healthy these last few weeks, we’re doing everything we can to go as fast as we can. We don’t have a great basis as to say, ‘Okay, we finished here against these other crews. So we should finish here at the Big Tens.’ I think we’re definitely faster than we were when we faced these other crews, so that has us excited.”

The only problem Peterson fears is consistency. Because his team is still gelling together and working into the lineup, he fears their performance could change on Sunday.

“I think the sky’s the limit for us as far as doing well,” Peterson said. “At the same time, if we’re not able to put together that good race that we do in practice, now we might not finish as well as I think we’re capable of.”