No. 5 Rowing Wins Big Ten Championship – Ohio State Buckeyes
5/4/2002 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
May 4, 2002
COLUMBUS, Ohio— The No. 5 Ohio State rowing team allotted 138 points Saturday at the Big Ten championship in East Lansing, Mich., to win its first Big Ten title in the program’s seven-year history. The team finished 14 points ahead of second place Michigan, the defending conference champions.
In the morning heats, the Buckeyes qualified for all but two Grand Finals, finishing first in three morning races including both first and second varsity 8 preliminaries. With the first varsity 4 not qualifying for its Grand Final, the Buckeyes had to finish strong in all six afternoon races to have a chance at the conference title.
The afternoon began with a rousing performance by the first novice 8 that would serve as the foundation for the afternoon. The team finished with a time of six minutes, 50 seconds, finishing 5.5 seconds ahead of Michigan, who finished second. While the win earned Ohio State just seven points in the overall standings, Ohio State head coach Andy Teitelbaum said the win was the race that set the tone for the Buckeye victory.
“By far, I think the most inspiring race was the first novice’s winning,” Teitelbaum said. “That was just a huge breakthrough row for them and also gave us some extra points that we weren’t really counting on.”
After the first novice 8 victory, which followed another Ohio State win in the Petite Final of the second novice 8 competition, the Buckeyes never looked back, winning every race it needed to win the championship.
“We had a little problem with the (first) varsity 4 in the morning,” Teitelbaum said. “They didn’t qualify for the Grand Final, so we knew going into the afternoon that everybody was going to have to win whatever final they were in–and that’s exactly what they did.”
Despite Buckeye victories in both the second varsity 4 Grand Final and the first varsity 4 Petite Final, Ohio State still needed to fare well in both the first and second varsity 8 races in order to garner enough points to win the championship.
The second varsity 8 started this final run with a victory in its Grand Final, finishing with a time of 6:34.7, ahead of Michigan (6:37.0), Michigan State (6:39.3) and Wisconsin (6:49.8). This left the Buckeyes five points ahead of Michigan in the overall standings, meaning that Ohio State would need to finish at least one place ahead of the Wolverines in the first varsity 8 Grand Final in order to win. Michigan had served as the Buckeyes’ greatest nemesis over the past few seasons, most recently beating the Buckeyes in the first varsity 8 competition at the 2002 Buckeye Invitational (April 13).
Ohio State won the final race of the afternoon (6:29.5) ahead of Michigan (6:31.2), Michigan State (6:32.0) and Minnesota (6:47.8) giving them 138 points on the day and the team’s first Big Ten championship.
“It was great racing,” Teitelbaum said. “It was great to have every boat in the program put their shell on the water this afternoon and win whatever race they were in. It was a total team effort”
For their efforts in the competition, Conny Kirsch (Sr., Potsdam, Germany/Helmholtz), Karla Fiserova (So., Jindrichuv Hradec, Czech Repub./Vk Vajgar) and Tatiana Grigorieva (Jr., Moscow, Russia/Olympic Reserve) were named to the All-Big Ten First Team. Franziska Schubert (Fr., Dresden, Germany/Vitzthum) and Maxi Meissner (Jr., Schoenow, Germany/Sportschule Postdam) were named to the All-Big Ten Second Team. This is the second All-Big Ten First Team honor for Kirsch, who was also named to the All-Central Region Team in 2001. Meissner also was an All-Big Ten First Team and All-Central Region honoree last season, as well as an All-American.
Teitelbaum said the championship win gives the Buckeyes significant momentum heading into the central regional finals, May 18-19 in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
“Its going to move us ahead of Michigan in the region as a team and as a first boat so that’s great,” Teitelbaum said. “But–every year you get to the championship event and it gets really tight. There are several great programs in the region and it always comes down to who is going to do it on that day in that afternoon.”
The Buckeyes finished third in the 2000 Big Ten championship and second in 2001.
2002 Final Team Standings 1. Ohio State 138 2. Michigan 124 3. Michigan State 109 4. Wisconsin 80 5. Minnesota 78 6. Iowa 60 7. Indiana 23
Morning Results Second Novice Eight – Heat 2 1. Iowa 7:07.6 2. Michigan St. 7:10.2 3. Ohio State 7:19.1
First Novice 8 – Heat 2 1. Wisconsin 6:54.2 2. Ohio State 6:54.5 3. Michigan St. 7:01.5 4. Indiana 7:19.3
Second Varsity 4 – Heat 1. Ohio State 7:35.7 2. Michigan 7:38.5 3. Minnesota 7:41.0 4. Wisconsin 8:02.3 5. Michigan St. 8:10.3
First Varsity 4 – Heat 1 1. Michigan 7:27.7 2. Minnesota 7:31.6 3. Ohio State 7:32.6
Second Varsity 8 – Heat 1 1. Ohio State 6:36.4 2. Michigan St. 6:38.2 3. Iowa 6:45.5
First Varsity 8 – Heat 2 1. Ohio State 6:28.7 2. Michigan St. 6:32.9 3. Wisconsin 6:37.9 4. Indiana 7:20.7
Afternoon Results Second Novice 8 – Petite Final 1. Ohio State 7:12.5 2. Michigan 7:18.4
First Novice 8 – Grand Final 1. Ohio State 6:50.0 2. Michigan 6:55.5 3. Wisconsin 6:56.4 4. Minnesota 6:56.7
Second Varsity 4 – Final 1. Ohio State 7:36.0 2. Minnesota 7:44.4 3. Michigan 7:46.1 4. Michigan St. 7:59.3 5. Wisconsin 8:04.7
First Varsity 4 – Petite Final 1. Ohio State 7:38.9 2. Indiana 7:42.5 3. Iowa 7:46.2
Second Varsity 8 – Grand Final 1. Ohio State 6:34.7 2. Michigan 6:37.0 3. Michigan St. 6:39.3 4. Wisconsin 6:46.8
First Varsity 8 – Grand Final 1. Ohio State 6:29.5 2. Michigan 6:31.2 3. Michigan St. 6:32.0 4. Minnesota 6:47.8
All-Big Ten First Team
Indiana
Line Espedal
Iowa
Melissa Schink
Michigan
Tamara McBratney
Christina Meyer
Michigan State
Kristi Buzzell
Minnesota
Melissa Roche
Ohio State
Conny Kirsch
Karla Fiserova
Tatiana Grigorieva
Wisconsin
Marianna Waters
All-Big Ten Second Team
Indiana
Amy Roble
Iowa
Sarah Zulewski
Michigan
Sophie Roberge
Heather Mandoli
Michigan State
Rachel Miller
Kate Gay
Minnesota
Erin Streff
Ohio State
Franziska Schubert
Maxi Meissner
Wisconsin
Bridgid Myers
