Looking Back at Iowa Scrimmage

Saturday, October 3

Iowa City, Iowa

TBA

Indiana University

Iowa (Scrimmage)

10/5/2015 4:28:00 PM | Women's Rowing

Head Coach Steve Peterson gives his thoughts on the Hoosiers second scrimmage of the fall

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Indiana rowing team traveled to Iowa City over the weekend to participate in their second scrimmage of the fall. The Hoosiers took a pair of varsity eight crews along with two varsity fours and two novice eights to take on the Hawkeyes in a number of informal races.

Because the heats were informal and varied in length, no official results were recorded.

"I think what we learned this weekend is we are just as strong as we have been the past few years," Indiana head coach Steve Peterson said, as he enters his 13^th season at Indiana. "Despite only being on the water a few weeks and rowing in mixed lineups, the crews really went after each piece and rowed extremely aggressive and powerful. I am very proud of how the athletes handled the workout this weekend, and I am excited to see the progress we can make in the next few weeks before our next scrimmage at Ohio State on Nov. 7."

The crews competed in two 4,000-meter pieces with a set stroke rate and then five 1,000-meter pieces, also with a maximum stroke rate set in advance.

Indiana will be looking to replace Meradith Dickensheets, a two-time First Team All-American, as well as Karly Kikkert, who was a coxswain for the varsity eight the last three seasons and a number of others to graduation. The Hoosiers have added a number of very strong pieces to the varsity program this year - transfer Ailish Tinney, freshman and Junior World Champ Christina Berchtold, freshman Allison Spencer and coxswain Jade Hughes – and Peterson knows it will take time to get everyone on the same page in the water. But this weekend in Iowa City was certainly a good start.

"It was also obvious that, with so many athletes coming from different programs last year, we still have some work to do in getting them on the same page, technically," Peterson said. "But that is what I would expect this early in the season. We will continue to focus on establishing the way we want to row, and race, and by May, I think we will be pretty fast."