The Iowa rowing team’s season begins Saturday on the Des Moines River for the Head of the Des Moines regatta race.

The Hawkeyes will be well represented, fielding two 8s, 4 4s, and eight pairs. Many women will compete in numerous events, gaining experience and hoping to start the season on a positive note.

Iowa head coach Mandi Kowal said the program is amped up. This is an exciting time for the program because the Head of the Des Moines is its first event since moving into the $7.2 million Beckwith Boathouse.

With the event at the state’s capital, the rowing team gets to showcase its talent in front of a large group of Iowa boosters and fans.

“I think it is a positive thing because we are going to be getting a lot of miles, and it’s a nice, fun and competitive atmosphere,” Kowal said. “It’s nice to go there and showcase the Iowa program when there are a lot of people in the Des Moines area supporting the boat house and the program. I know they are appreciative that we are going to be coming there.”

This is the first race of the season and the NCAA championships are months away, so the Hawkeyes are using this event to analyze where they stand in terms of speed, fundamentals, and team cohesion, and they’re going to pay extra attention to correcting fundamental faults seen in practice.

Kowal said the beginning of the season is the time to correct the mistakes. Each boat has limiting factors it’s supposed to concentrate on throughout the event.

“One boat, for example, when [the rowers] get tired, their heads tend to drop, [and] their outside shoulder tend to drop,” Kowal said. “So that may be a technical focus throughout the race — each boat has specific goals that we are working on, and we will be addressing that when we secure what they are.”

Senior rower Megan Erickson said races are more important because the pressure of competition is impossible to mimic in practice. Racing environments garner emotions that are difficult to imitate in a practice setting.

“This is our first race of the season, so it will be really interesting to see where we are,” Erickson said. “I think we really want to get a sense of our speed, in relation to ourselves and other teams. It’s really just a chance to get us more experience, especially for the younger classmen who don’t have as many years of rowing.”

The 2.85 mile course will present some challenges for the Hawkeyes. The Des Moines River is wider than the Iowa River, and the section of the river they are racing on contains large, extended turns, which the rowers must make sure to account for when navigating the course.

Senior rower Sheila Rinozzi said the team has high expectations, and they have extensively gone over the obstacles and challenges the Des Moines River presents.

“There’s a couple of pretty big turns, they last probably 4[00] to 500 meters long, which is similar to the turn we have near Mayflower,” Rinozzi said. “So we talked about how to find certain landmarks and how to pick the straightest course possible … definitely don’t want to be all over the place.”