MADISON - Monroe native Anika Nelson has one more year left on the University of Wisconsin rowing team and she embraces every moment.
Rowing is like a power-clean type of weight lift, said Nelson, who will be a senior in the fall and is majoring in genetics, with minors in global health and gender and women's studies. Nelson is one of about 40 members on Wisconsin's women's open-weight varsity rowing team. There are a little more than 200 members on the Badgers rowing team, which also includes the lightweight men's and novice teams.
"You use mostly your legs, contrary to popular belief. Many people think it's just arms," Nelson said. "For people who do not know rowing, my coach always describes it this way, "It's like swinging a golf club as fast as you can, as hard as you can and as accurate as you can over and over, while in sync with seven other people. If you're racing you are doing that about 36 to 38 times a minute. It takes a lot of muscle and endurance."
The person who doesn't row in the boat, is named the coxswain. The coxswain steers the boat and makes calls to help the boat stay balanced in the water and to ensure it is moving at maximum speed.
Nelson is taking a break from rowing now to take a class in Madrid that focuses on human trafficking in the United States and Europe.
"International women's health is something that I would love to work on improving throughout my career and this class really feeds right into that," she said.
Nelson was on the swim team at Monroe High School for four years. She got involved with the Badgers rowing team three years ago after going to a meeting held by one of the assistant coaches who was looking to recruit new rowers. Nelson's move from swimming to rowing was a smooth shift.
"It was a pretty easy transition," she said. "It's the same idea - just do the same motion over and over as fast as you can until your body can't do it anymore. The intensity was way higher than when I was on the swim team."
In competition, the Badgers rowing teams race two eight-person boats (eight rowers and one coxswain) and three fours (four rowers with one coxswain). Rowing is a year-round sport for Nelson and the Badgers. The Badgers' rowing season is split into summer, fall and spring. In the summer, the Badgers race small boats in pairs and race in one club national. The UW rowers concentrate on distance races in the fall with the focus on the 6,000-meter race. The Badgers have four to six dual races in the spring, focusing on the 2K, and race in the Big Ten Championships and NCAA championships.
Nelson competed in every race this year except the NCAA championships. She was on the second varsity-four boat that finished third at the Big Ten Championships in a time of 7:16.914 behind champion Michigan (7:06.826) and Ohio State (7:16.572).
"Wearing the 'W' and representing Wisconsin is such a great feeling," Nelson said. "I enjoy the competitiveness, not only with the other teams but with each other. Every day during practice you are competing and earning your spot. I love that I can look next to me to someone on an erg (indoor rower) and think I want to crush them but then be put in a boat with them and have the utmost respect for them and want to work well with them."
Every rowing practice for the Badgers is recorded.
"Every split second in practice is analyzed and compared to your previous best-time as well as the other people on your team," Nelson said. "The results from each practice are then posted so the whole team knows where they stand."
Nelson said in each practice and race, the Wisconsin rowers must find the set, or the how balanced the boat is for a race.
"If you are not able to get that (set) you can be pulling your butt off, but you won't go nearly as fast as you otherwise would," she said. "You need to be pretty fit aerobically and anaerobically."
Nelson said her most memorable moments on the Badgers rowing team included setting her career lifetime best this year, but there is one race that stood out. It was a 2,000-meter erg test race, where she set a PR by a wide margin on the inside rowing machine. The women's team also set a team PR on the erg and set a new record for the fastest time on the erg in the history of women's rowing at Wisconsin.
"That was an awesome feeling to know that I had a hand in that," she said.
Rowing is like a power-clean type of weight lift, said Nelson, who will be a senior in the fall and is majoring in genetics, with minors in global health and gender and women's studies. Nelson is one of about 40 members on Wisconsin's women's open-weight varsity rowing team. There are a little more than 200 members on the Badgers rowing team, which also includes the lightweight men's and novice teams.
"You use mostly your legs, contrary to popular belief. Many people think it's just arms," Nelson said. "For people who do not know rowing, my coach always describes it this way, "It's like swinging a golf club as fast as you can, as hard as you can and as accurate as you can over and over, while in sync with seven other people. If you're racing you are doing that about 36 to 38 times a minute. It takes a lot of muscle and endurance."
The person who doesn't row in the boat, is named the coxswain. The coxswain steers the boat and makes calls to help the boat stay balanced in the water and to ensure it is moving at maximum speed.
Nelson is taking a break from rowing now to take a class in Madrid that focuses on human trafficking in the United States and Europe.
"International women's health is something that I would love to work on improving throughout my career and this class really feeds right into that," she said.
Nelson was on the swim team at Monroe High School for four years. She got involved with the Badgers rowing team three years ago after going to a meeting held by one of the assistant coaches who was looking to recruit new rowers. Nelson's move from swimming to rowing was a smooth shift.
"It was a pretty easy transition," she said. "It's the same idea - just do the same motion over and over as fast as you can until your body can't do it anymore. The intensity was way higher than when I was on the swim team."
In competition, the Badgers rowing teams race two eight-person boats (eight rowers and one coxswain) and three fours (four rowers with one coxswain). Rowing is a year-round sport for Nelson and the Badgers. The Badgers' rowing season is split into summer, fall and spring. In the summer, the Badgers race small boats in pairs and race in one club national. The UW rowers concentrate on distance races in the fall with the focus on the 6,000-meter race. The Badgers have four to six dual races in the spring, focusing on the 2K, and race in the Big Ten Championships and NCAA championships.
Nelson competed in every race this year except the NCAA championships. She was on the second varsity-four boat that finished third at the Big Ten Championships in a time of 7:16.914 behind champion Michigan (7:06.826) and Ohio State (7:16.572).
"Wearing the 'W' and representing Wisconsin is such a great feeling," Nelson said. "I enjoy the competitiveness, not only with the other teams but with each other. Every day during practice you are competing and earning your spot. I love that I can look next to me to someone on an erg (indoor rower) and think I want to crush them but then be put in a boat with them and have the utmost respect for them and want to work well with them."
Every rowing practice for the Badgers is recorded.
"Every split second in practice is analyzed and compared to your previous best-time as well as the other people on your team," Nelson said. "The results from each practice are then posted so the whole team knows where they stand."
Nelson said in each practice and race, the Wisconsin rowers must find the set, or the how balanced the boat is for a race.
"If you are not able to get that (set) you can be pulling your butt off, but you won't go nearly as fast as you otherwise would," she said. "You need to be pretty fit aerobically and anaerobically."
Nelson said her most memorable moments on the Badgers rowing team included setting her career lifetime best this year, but there is one race that stood out. It was a 2,000-meter erg test race, where she set a PR by a wide margin on the inside rowing machine. The women's team also set a team PR on the erg and set a new record for the fastest time on the erg in the history of women's rowing at Wisconsin.
"That was an awesome feeling to know that I had a hand in that," she said.
