Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - May 15, 2014

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58 // VARSITY May 15, 2014 W hen making the daunting transition from life at home to life on a major college campus, many University of Wisconsin freshmen welcome the sight of a familiar hometown acquaintance. For UW first-years James and Sarah Lueken, finding such a familiar face is easy; it in- volves only a walk to Porter Boathouse. Twin siblings James and Sarah Lueken share not only a last name and a college campus; they also share a mutual interest in the sport of rowing. James is currently a freshman on the UW men's rowing team, while Sarah competes with the women's team. In this year's Big Ten Double Dual on April 12, Sarah rowed with the UW women's second nov- ice eight squad. After falling to Michigan State in the first round of races, Wisconsin's second novice eights battled back to win a nail-biter against Michi- gan, crossing the line exactly one second before the Wolverines. Lueken is now stroking the first novice eight, a boat she helped to defeat Minnesota earlier this month to keep hold of "The Hammer," which goes to the novice eight dual race winner between the schools. "From the get-go, she always been a really hard worker," women's novice openweight coach Nancy Larocque said. "She's one of the smallest girls in that boat, but she is a super-aggressive racer. They are both stroking the freshman boats, which is kind of funny. They are both good athletes. Sarah has a good head on her shoulders and she just has really good racing skills. She is leading that boat really well right now. She's really scrappy and she's tough and the girls really respect her." James has already competed for UW as well, as he rowed with the men's novice eight boat in last fall's Head of the Iowa and this year's Stanford Invita- tional on April 18 and 19, where the UW freshmen defeated crews from Stanford and Oregon State. And not surprisingly, because of their brother-sister re- lationship, men's novice coach Simon Carcagno de- scribes James in much the same way as his sister. "He is a fierce competitor. He's the No. 1 guy on the erg on our freshman team. He's really led the group pretty effectively right from the beginning of the year. He's naturally gifted. He's not the smooth- est rower, but he's the most aggressive guy. Every- body kind of fills in behind him and picks up on that rhythm. He's been pretty successful for us so far and

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