MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State women’s rowing team will get a mid-season taste of what it can expect at the Big 12 Conference Championship in May as the team heads to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the third time during the 2016-17 campaign to compete in the inaugural Big 12 Dual on Saturday.

 

The race, which was proposed by the conference office, divides the eight Big 12 teams into two groups in order to promote more intra-conference competition and help boost conference rankings. The other group, comprised of Alabama, Old Dominion, West Virginia and Tennessee – three of which are league affiliate members in the sport – will compete head-to-head in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the site of the 2017 Big 12 Championship.

 

“We have a very difficult weekend ahead,” head coach Patrick Sweeney said. “The opposition is tough, as we face the best two teams in the conference in back-to-back races. One of those teams is Texas, who is probably in the top-five in the country. The conditions are not going to be great, with high winds expected in Oklahoma. North winds at home over the past week have not allowed for enough water time.”

 

K-State is no stranger to racing on the Oklahoma River, having already raced there two times this season prior to Saturday’s races.

 

In the fall, the Wildcats’ Novice/Frosh 8+ claimed the gold medal at the Head of the Oklahoma, posting a time of15:40.823 in its first race of the season. The team also got in its first action of 2017 on the Oklahoma River in early March, competing in a head-to-head scrimmage with Oklahoma before kicking off its racing season.

 

The Wildcats are coming off its first true test of the spring, competing against an uber-competitive field which included UCF, Tulsa, Miami and Alabama, among others, at the inaugural Sunshine State Invitational. At the regatta, the Wildcats’ 3V8 recorded the team’s top finish with a time of 6:57.04 to take the silver medal, while the 2V8 claimed a bronze medal with a time of 6:51.1.

 

HereNow will provide live timing for the race and can be found here, while live 500-meter splits and as well as final 2,000-meter results will be available on the Big 12 Rowing website. The conference will also provide a live stream of the races on Periscope, as well as audio play-by-play for each race.