(UW ATHLETICS) GOLD RIVER., California – The Wisconsin lightweight rowing team closed out its 2025-26 season with a silver finish in the double sculls at the IRA National Championships on Lake Natoma on Sunday morning. Wisconsin’s 47 points helped them to a sixth-place overall team finish.
How it happened:
Liliana Elliott and Becca Rasmussen highlighted the day for Wisconsin with a silver-medal finish, marking the second year in a row that the Badgers have taken second in the event. The duo covered the 2000-meter distance in 7:43.838 to edge out Radcliffe by five seconds as Boston University came away with the event win in 7:36.678.
The Badgers posted a strong showing in the varsity four event. The crew, coxed by Charlotte Wise, notched a quick, 1:51.290 split to open the first 500 meters of the race to help them to a fourth-place finish. The crew checked in at 7:34.621, holding off Radcliffe and Stanford behind them.
Wisconsin closed out the day with the varsity eight petite final, capturing a win in the race. The 7:00.769 finish in the event held off Sacred Heart by over 22 seconds for a seventh-place overall finish.
From the shore:
Lightweight coach Hadzo “Hodge” Habibovic
“I’m proud of the team for how we performed this weekend. We definitely had some highs and lows throughout the year, and even the weekend, but we gave it our all today. It was awesome for the double to get on the podium again this year and to repeat our silver medal performance from last year. The four climbed one spot from last year and we learned some valuable lessons in the eight. We will continue to use these experiences to keep building our program and keep producing results trending in the right direction. We are excited for the years to come. I’m so proud of this team. Go Badgers.”
2026 IRA National Championships
May 31 (Day 2)
Gold River, California
Lake Natoma
2000 Meters
Team Points
1. Princeton, 67 points; 2. Boston University, 61; 3. Radcliffe, 59; 4. Stanford, 52; 5. MIT, 50; 6. Wisconsin, 47; 7. Georgetown, 40; 8 Sacred Heart, 27; 9. Gordon, 5
Women’s Lightweight Varsity Doubles Grand Final
1. Boston University, 7:36.678; 2. Wisconsin, 7:43.838; 3. Radcliffe, 7:49.867; 4. MIT, 7:50.662; 5. Stanford, 7:50.805; 6. Princeton, 7:51.107
UW Lineup: Liliana Elliott, Becca Rasmussen
Women’s Lightweight Varsity Four Grand Final
1. Princeton, 7:20.118; 2. Boston University, 7:25.473; 3. MIT, 7:31.483; 4. Wisconsin, 7:34.621; 5. Radcliffe, 7:37.186; 6. Stanford, 7:45.046
UW Lineup: Coxswain Charlotte Wise, Rylie Cordella, Charlotte Mirzaian, Adeline Hinkie, Libby Walker
Women’s Lightweight Varsity Eight Petite Final (Places 7-8)
1. Wisconsin, 7:00.769; 2. Sacred Heart, 7:22.499
UW Lineup: Coxswain Emilie Rochon, Georgia Harlow, Alexandra Palmberg, Anika Hanson, Claire Rulyak, Romy McCarthy, Audra Chesny, Olivia Palmberg, Payton Bradford
Men’s rowing
The Wisconsin men’s rowing team completed its season in 16th place at the 2026 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships on Lake Natoma on Sunday. All three Badger boats found top-three spots in their Sunday finals, with the varsity and second varsity eight crews taking 15th overall in their events.
The varsity eight boat finished five seconds faster than Saturday’s race to collect a third-place finish in the Third-Level Final. Cornell and Navy finished in first and second in the race. Washington edged California in the Grand Final of the varsity eight and went on to capture the Ten Eyck Trophy as team points champion.
UW’s second varsity eight boat found a third-place finish in its Third-Level Final as well, coming in at 5:56:390 over 2000 meters. Boston University and Drexel took the top two spots. Columbia, Navy, and Holy Cross finished behind the Badgers in the race. The Badger boat improved its time by eight seconds from the semifinal round.
Wisconsin’s third varsity eight won the Four-Level Final, winning in 6:07:000 to claim 19th overall. Trailing behind the Badgers were Oregon State and La Salle.
Straight from the Shore
Head Coach Beau Hoopman
“Across the board, every boat raced hard in the finals; in the 1V, instead of searching for some magical start, we just told them to treat it like dash camp and attack the first 500. That set them up to be in the lead for the first 1k of the race from the far outside lane. They hung on and got 15th overall, which is just one place off of last year. Going forward, that lesson of all-out attack is what we need to keep front and center. The 2V did well; they just must’ve caught what the 1V had, as their start was a little slow, and they found themselves down and finished 15th overall as well. The 3V keeps getting faster, which is a good sign for the younger novices in that boat.
“The season had its ups and downs, but ended on a good note going into next year. It’s going to be a tall task to replace the 14 guys who are graduating, but they’ve held up their end in building the speed and culture of the program.
“SOAR starts tomorrow, so we’ll be on the lookout for capable freshmen athletes.”
Senior Henry Griffin on the varsity eight
“This whole season we’ve had problems with starts and with ending up on the wrong side of close races. Today, we were able to win a close race against Columbia in part because we had a really strong start. A lot of our improvement comes from being pushed by a young, strong 2V. I can’t wait to see how much the team improves as they move up into the varsity.”
Coxswain Charles Ramquist on the varsity eight
“Going into this race, we were in the final or lane we were hoping for, but had the mentality of let’s row the fastest race we can that we can be proud of. That was the race we rowed, where every stroke was as hard as possible, and no one let off. These guys fought to the end and gave the seniors the send-off they deserved and set the tone for next year.”
2026 IRA National Championships
May 31 (Day 3)
Lake Natoma
Gold River, Calif.
2000 meters
Varsity Eight – Final 3 (Places 13-18)
1. Cornell, 5:47.435; 2. Navy, 5:47.594; 3. Wisconsin, 5:51.037; 4. Columbia, 5:51.309; 5. Georgetown, 5:54.102; 6. Holy Cross, 5:56.600
UW Lineup – Coxswain Charles Ramquist, Ethan Schumacher, Joe Siddall, Lukas Weinhold, Andrew Soman, Elias Strasman, Thomas Leuty, Ruffin Bryant, Henry Griffin.
Second Varsity Eight – Final 3 (Places 13-18)
1. Columbia, 5:51.180; 2. Drexel, 5:53.952; 3. Wisconsin, 5:56.390; 4. Columbia, 5:58.960; 5. Navy, 5:59.263; 6. Holy Cross. 6:02.492
UW Lineup – Coxswain Taj Chunawala, Raul Gupta, Luke Lehmann, Benjamin Cook, Isaac Rockwell, Julian Kuehn, William Carey, Jeremiah Lesniak, William Harper
Third Varsity Eight – 4 Final (Places 19-21)
1. Wisconsin, 6:07.000; 2. Oregon State, 6:10.157; 3. La Salle, 6:19.672
UW Lineup – Coxswain Alexander Quinn, Maxwell McCartney, Henry Wurdell, Benjamin Whelan, Connor Treccia, Oliver Zanetich, Lincoln Boehm, Patrick Trihey, Haakon Rosholt
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