Held out of the Cornell University boathouse, the 2002 women's Pre-Elite & Development Camp ended with a rousing success as four eights took to land and water to compete in an inter-camp regatta. The camp was comprised of 39 of the best college rowers and coxswains in the country, many of them fresh off their outstanding performances at the NCAA Championships.
For the regatta, crews were formed from camp participants representing the PAC-10, Ivy League, Eastern Sprints (non-Ivy schools) and the South-Central Regions. Each crew chose a representative to compete in the 6 land events, which could earn their team handicap seconds. The land events included: 1. Trivial Pursuit- 10 questions
2. 1 mile run
3. 500 meter erg
4. 100 meter swim in the lake
5. max chin ups
6. max push-ups - military style
Next event was a 2000-meter head style race. The Sprint's team took the lead in the land events with a 18 second handicap, the PAC-10 had 17 seconds, S-C had 15 sec. and the Ivies had 12 seconds. Starting last the Ivies pulled themselves back in to contention with a first place first in the head race. Subtracting the seconds earned in the land events and with only one event to go, the rankings looked like this:
1st PAC 6:27.83
2nd Ivy 6:30.62
3rd Sprints 6:32.64
4th S-C 6:39.98
The PAC-10 was now in the lead, if the Ivies could win the coxswain toss (worth 4 seconds) they could win. They were the only team in contention to de-throne the PAC-10 crew. 4 athletes from each crew could participate in the toss of their coxswain. The Sprints crew made an awesome toss of 16 feet to win the event but the PAC-10 crew came in strong with a 12-foot toss. The Ivies had to settle for third. The PAC-10 crew held on to their lead and left the camp with the first place medals.
FINAL RESULTS:
1st PAC 6:24.83
2nd Ivy 6:28.62
3rd Sprints 6:28.64
4th S-C 6:38.98
14 of these athletes are now in Princeton completing for seats on the Nation's Cup Team. The camp coaches would like to thank Cornell University and their rowing coaches for being such generous hosts during our stay in Ithaca.
For a complete listing of the camp participants go to: www.usrowing.org/National_Team/preew.html