Michigan State Crew Announces Challenging Spring Schedule
8/31/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
Aug. 31, 2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. - While the Spartans are preparing to embark on the fall distance-racing season, Michigan State women's crew set a challenging slate of opponents for its spring season, the program announced on Tuesday, Aug. 31. "We have fewer races in the fall and a lot more in the spring than we have had in the past," head coach Matt Weise said. "Hopefully, what that will allow us to do, will be to train harder in the fall and race harder in the springtime." The Spartans kick off the sprint-racing season with a March 12 contest against Notre Dame and Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn. Both the Irish and the Lady Vols were ranked in the nation's top 15 last season. On March 26, the top three Green and White boats will travel to Princeton, N.J., to face two of the nation's most respected crew programs in Princeton and defending National Champion Brown, who has won the NCAA Championship a record four times. Also on March 26, the remainder of the varsity squad will join the novices to face Eastern Michigan in Lansing. "We have to be ready to go," said Weise of the tough competition that the team will face. "Just looking at the schedule, they are really going to be challenged. In looking at our plans for practice, they are going to be ready to race and, I think, more ready to race than they have been in the past." The entire team reunites to head to Charlottesville, Va. to face UVA's Cavaliers on April 2. Less than a week later, MSU travels to Columbus, Ohio, to take on Michigan and Ohio State for the first conference competition of the season on April 9. The Spartans will host Notre Dame in their only full-team home meet of the season on Lake Ovid in Sleepy Hollow Park. The State-Irish matchup will take place either April 12 or April 14. On April 16, MSU will face Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa in Ann Arbor, Mich., just two weeks before the Big Ten Championship Regatta, set for April 30 in Indianapolis, Ind. After that, the Spartans will take on regional opponents at the Lexus Cup Championship Regatta in Oakridge, Tenn., May 14-16. The NCAA Championship will take place over Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29, in Sacramento, Calif. "All of the opponents we'll face all good," said Weise of the competition. "If we focus on just one and put all of our eggs in one basket, we would be finished by Big Tens. So, I'm looking at NCAAs, not just to get there, but to place there." Up next for Spartan rowers is the beginning of the fall competition, which kicks off with a Sept. 19 matchup against Michigan and Eastern Michigan in Ann Arbor.