Rowing

Minnesota rowing coach Wendy Davis said she is pleased with how her team has progressed this fall.

But after an impressive showing this weekend at the Head of the Mississippi regatta, Davis said she isn't quite sure how her team stacks up on the national rowing scene.

"Some years you're fast but everyone else is faster. And some years you're slow and everyone else is slower," Davis said. "But I'm very pleased with how we performed."

The Gophers - the only Division I school in the event - found their stiffest competition came from within.

For the past two seasons, Minnesota's rowing team has been on the bubble come NCAA tournament selection time.

And for two consecutive years, the committee has denied the Gophers acceptance.

Minnesota is determined not to repeat their recent history and make it to the NCAAs.

But senior Katie Engel said it will take the team more than one specific adjustment to make the tournament.

Many Minnesota athletes arrive on campus specifically to participate in a sport.

But Catherine Casey's path to the Gophers' rowing team was different.

In the past year, Casey has transformed from a hesitant walk-on to nearly cementing herself in place on a varsity boat.

Casey was in the dark about the intricacies of rowing until fall of 2003 when a trip to Lancaster, England, sparked her interest.

While abroad, she joined a club rowing team.

Wendy Davis described her first four years as Minnesota's rowing coach as pushing a boulder up a mountain.

And every year, she said, the boulder fell back down.

Until this year, that is. This time, the Gophers have gained national recognition somewhat ahead of schedule.

"I didn't expect this to be the year," Davis said. "I was depressed last summer.

"And then this year, starting about mid-September, it was like, 'Wow the boulder's not falling back down the mountain.' "

Although Minnesota's rowing team continued its trend of finishing fifth at the Big Ten Championships, the Gophers came home with a sense of accomplishment.

The 15th-ranked Gophers raced closely with some of the best teams in the country and left with the feeling they can compete with anybody.

Michigan State won with 130 points for its first-ever conference championship Saturday in Bloomington, Ind.

The Spartans were followed by Ohio State with 129 points, and Minnesota had 73 points.

Minnesota's rowing team has already achieved two firsts for its program this season - being nationally ranked and beating a top-15 team.

The Gophers look to add another milestone to the list when they travel to Bloomington, Ind., for Saturday's Big Ten Championships.

In four years, Minnesota has never finished higher than fifth at the Big Ten races, but coach Wendy Davis said she feels her team has the ability to do better than that this year.

After last week's disappointing loss to Southern California, Minnesota's rowing team felt it was ready to take a big step for the program.

The 19th-ranked Gophers did just that Saturday when their First Varsity Eight boat defeated No. 14 UCLA by a time of 6:10.0 to 6:13.96 at Lake Phalen in St. Paul.

Southern Methodist finished third in a time of 6:48.5.

Minnesota's rowing team thinks it has an opportunity this weekend to place itself among the top schools in the country.

And it gets that shot close to home.

The Gophers will race UCLA and Southern Methodist at 10 a.m. Saturday at Lake Phalen in St. Paul in the team's only home race of the spring season.

It will be the second time in two weeks the 19th-ranked Gophers will face a team ahead of them in the polls.

Minnesota was close to No. 12 Southern California during the weekend, but fell to the Trojans by just less than five seconds.

Several days after being nationally ranked for the first time in school history, Minnesota's rowing team began to show its inexperience.

The Gophers' First Varsity Eight boat defeated Indiana by a time of 7:12.6 to 7:23.0 in the Gophers' first race Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. Minnesota later fell to No. 12 Southern California, losing 6:56.2 to 7:01.0.

They come from vastly different backgrounds, but Megan Flannery, Laura Jatautaite and Tina Cho have all found themselves in unfamiliar territory as freshmen on Minnesota's rowing team - contributing on the varsity boats.

Flannery is a coxswain from a small rowing club in Rochester, Minn.; Jatautaite rowed on the Lithuanian National Team and Cho began rowing at a new program in Chicago.