May 17, 2019

Kansas prepped for 2019 Big 12 Championship

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas rowing heads to Tennessee for the 2019 Big 12 Championship on Sunday, May 19, on Melton Lake in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Racing at the Big 12 Championship will begin at 8:15 a.m. with the Third Varsity Eight event and results will be posted at herenow.com after each race.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Back-to-back Big 12 Champion Texas comes into the weekend after sweeping No. 6 Ohio State. The Longhorns finished the 2018 Big 12 Championship with 137 points after sweeping the entire field and finishing first in all five grand finals. Oklahoma closed out the 2019 regular season with victories against top-ranked opponents. OU’s First Varsity Four recorded a huge win over No. 10 Virginia, No. 13 Iowa and No. 18 Oregon State. In last year’s Big 12 Championship, OU finished 28 points behind Texas for second place.

Kansas State outpaced KU in five events at the Dillions Sunflower Showdown. The Wildcats finished 28 points ahead of the Jayhawks to round out the top three of the 2018 Big 12 Championship after their highest finish of the weekend after the Second Varsity Eight placed third. West Virginia concluded its regular season against George Washington ahead of the conference championship. The Mountaineers placed second in all four events with their closest race coming from the First Varsity Four, crossing the finish line four seconds behind George Washington. Alabama split four events against SMU in its last competition of the regular season as the Crimson Tide finished first in the Second Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Four.

LAST TIMEOUT
The Jayhawks were swept in the annual Dillons Sunflower Showdown. KU’s First Varsity Eight closed out the Showdown with the closest race of the competition. Wave the Wheat crossed the finish line less than a second behind the Wildcats with a final time of 6:24.15.

A LOOK BACK: 2018 CHAMPIONSHIP
Kansas placed fourth in the 2018 Big 12 Championship with 71 points and sixth in the Automatic Qualifying Championship with 21 points. The Jayhawks raced in the grand final in all five events on the final day of the league championship. The First Varsity Eight recorded KU’s best finish in the grand finals, placing fifth in the top final with a time of 6:58.4.

Before KU’s First Varsity Eight fifth-place mark, Kansas earned sixth place finishes in each of the first four events to close out the spring racing season. The Second Varsity Eight crossed the finish line in 7:09.9, while the First Varsity Four navigated the 2,000-meter race course with a time of 7:52.7. The Third Varsity Eight recorded a time of 7:30.6 for sixth place, while the Second Varsity Four also placed sixth with a time of 8:06.1.

PUTTING THE ‘STUDENT’ IN STUDENT-ATHLETE
Seniors Peyton Anderson, Bailey Blood, Kelly Koenigsman, McKayla Ross, Lilly Stewart, Valerie Swisher, Michaela Theis and juniors Reese Arnold, Morgan Kottas, Liana Ochoa, Riley Varuskaand sophomores London Acree, Taylor Brown, Heidi Burns, Shannon Cody, Katie Donnellan, Maggie Dupuie, Lauren Fee, Jaryn Folk, Katie Joers, Kaeli Nielsen and Anna Van Driel received Academic All-Big 12 honors for their efforts in the classroom during the 2018-19 season.

BIG 12 BOAT OF THE WEEK
Kansas’ First Varsity Four was named Big 12 Boat of the Week after its standout performance at eh George Mason Invite. The Oread won its qualifying heat after defeating West Virginia and Old Dominion with a final time of 7:31.30. With its first-place finish in open water, the Jayhawks advanced to the grand final to take on Villanova and St. Joe’s.

Coxswained by sophomore Liana Ochoa and powered by sophomore London Acree, sophomore Katie Donnellan, senior Michaela Theis and redshirt-senior Kelly Koenigsman, the Jayhawks continued their success with a victory in the grand final. The Oread won gold after crossing the finish line in 7:35.00.

JAYHAWK INSIDER: ROAD TO THE LEADER BOARD
The day started how any other would for junior rower Reese Arnold. It was the day of a 2K race on the ergs, a race that tests the rowers as they compete against their teammates to see how far they can push themselves without actually being on the water.

The record held for the fastest time on the ergs was held by Claudijah Lever, who broke it in May of 2015. The record had been standing for almost four years and Lever is known as a legend around the boathouse. Read the full story at kuathletics.com.

JAYHAWK INSIDER: WORKING HER WAY TO THE TOP
Seven years, thousands of meters rowed and countless minutes of hard work put in has all led up to one final Big 12 Championship for senior rower Kristen Underhill.

Underhill never imagined that her rowing career would take her to where she is now. After years of putting everything she has into being the best student-athlete she could possibly be, Underhill still looks back to the day when rowing became a possibility. Read the full story at kuathletics.com.

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