Badgers rowing: Culture changes lead to optimism for men's, women's programs

TODD D. MILEWSKI, STATE JOURNALThe idea of a culture change is pervasive around the University of Wisconsin's Porter Boathouse.

Badgers rowers have in recent years experienced unsatisfactory results that prompted re-examinations of personnel and the willingness to strive for new goals.

The women's openweight and lightweight teams have crossed those waters, but the men's crew might qualify as being in the most dramatic odyssey.

After a historically bad showing for the program at its conference championship two years ago, the men's rowers were in the dumps.

"It was like a gallows in the boathouse," said Alexander Idarraga, now a senior. "We had just gotten crushed. We were about to get crushed…