The Big Ten conference has announced the seedings for the 2004 Big Ten Women’s Rowing Championships.

In the fifth annual event, the No. 13-ranked University of Wisconsin women’s openweights will take on representatives from Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana. Iowa will host the event on Lake Macbride in Iowa City, Iowa.

Ohio State will take the top seed in the first and second varsity eight races, and Minnesota holds the top seed in the other four events, a pair of varsity four races and two novice eight events.

The Buckeyes’ first varsity eight boat earned the top seed with four consecutive weeks as the No. 1 squad in the nation. The Ohio State crew, which won Big Ten Boat of the Week honors a record-setting four times this season, is the first Big Ten crew to rank first in the nation since the introduction of women’s rowing as an official conference sport in 2000.

In the first varsity eight event, Wisconsin holds the No. 3 seed, behind Ohio State and No. 2 seed Michigan State. In its opening heat, the Badgers will take on No. 6 Iowa, No. 2 Michigan State and No. 7 Indiana for a chance to reach the final.

The Badgers will also hold the No. 3 seed in the second varsity eight, second varsity four and novice eight events. Wisconsin will enter the second novice eight as the No. 2 seed and will race as the No. 5 seed in the varsity four event.

– compiled from staff reports