Props to Wisconsin's 8 with the outstanding racing. They deserve(d) crew of the week over all high school kids any day (as do all collegiate crews). Because let's be honest, the majority of row2ks results, rankings, and media coverage is based on/around collegiate rowing. A competitive level most high school kids dream about.
Just because this website is, for the most part, based around collegiate rowing, does not mean that there is no room for High School Rowing. Who do you think supplies all of the colleges with talent? How pompous are you to claim that sweeping every Eight Man event at the worlds largest rowing regatta is not deserving of crew of the week? If they had only won the Senior 8 event, I would agree that an Eastern Sprints Gold Medal is much more oustanding, but for an entire program to win gold medals at a nationally competitive regatta is impressive at any level and deserving of this honor.
What a world we live in when a high school crew winning a high school race is seen as more deserving of honor over a collegiate crew that wins Eastern Sprints by....excuse me....open water.
I agree with username:nowsk. 'Crew of the week' is meant for the crew that surprises the competition; the unexpected underdog. I guess in this case, it rules out the Cornell LMV8. Regardless, Wisco came out of nowhere to win EARC's, and deserve a HUGE amount of respect for what they have done.
As for St. Joes, great, they are always fast, are always deep, and HS rowing has no competition compared to what collegiate racing has. FURTHERMORE, they won STOTESBURY.... big deal. When (and IF) they win every race in a NATIONAL event - a REAL national event at that (like Cincinnati nationals) - then they will be shown the respect that they deserve.
Mad props to St. Joes for not only having a deep crew, but also having a deep voting base and online following. Jah-bless.
this is nonsense...prep doesnt deserve this...HS rowing does not hold a candle to what wisco, cornell or any of these other crews achieved this past week. This is the "crew of the week" poll. Let's keep it that way.
Don't be foolish. This poll is about which which crew achieved the greatest accomplishment in their particular situation at their respective level. St. Joes Prep swept all 8-men boats at Stotesbury, the largest regatta in the world. That is a huge accomplishment. Wisconsin and Cornell both did great at Eastern Sprints, but every year, a team wins the Mens Heavyweight and Lightweight 8 events. St. Joes Prep did something that has only happened twice, in the history of High School Rowing. And despite what you may think, there is competition in High School Rowing, and there are thousands of students who work their asses off to compete in the same way that collegiate students do. How arrogant are you and anyone here to assume the power of claiming that NO OTHER TEAM works as hard as St. Joes Prep? None of us care about your elitist opinion, so go hang out with your asshole Harvard buddies and talk about sweet you think you are, because we don't want to here it.
As a father of two boys in high school sports, I can say that watching all of Saint Joesph Prep crews march down the Stotesbury course and beat over100 teams for a sweep of all the "8" boats was really exciting. Thats not to take anything away from these college crews who are also competing at a high level! It is nice to see a High School program also perform at such a high level, this summer the Varsity 8 heads over to Henley... can't wait to see what happens there!
I wouldn't be surprised if Kerry Quinn ends up as the next Olympic 8 Coxswain after being the catalyst for both St. Joe's Prep and the Cornell LW V8. He does, however, need to stop calling "Prep 10's" in college.
Truly a remarkable performance by the Boys at Saint Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia. Freshmen, Lightweights, JV's, 2nd Varsity and Heavy Varsity all bring home a Stotesbury crown. Winning one is a challenge. Winning five is 'over the top'. Congratulations to the Boys and Coaches.
The accomplishment of the Saint Joes Prep Boys is something to take into account. As they swept the competition in all of the Mens Eight races, they beat over 180 high schools from all over the country. In addition, they accomplished a sweep that has only taken place twice over the 83 year history of the Stotesbury regatta. So, while I agree with NoRegrets that often collegiate teams win, I believe that the Prep Boys have accomplished something very great in sweeping this regatta.
I happen to see St. Joe's at Stotes. Nice accomplishment at a young stage in their rowing. I also agree with NoRegrets. The University puts out a "vote for us" email and all 40000 studebts get on board. The US Men Lwt.2X got 75 votes so far. Probably the rest of the National Team and some elite rowers like Xeno, Mahe and Sir Redgrave who recognize the scope of their accomplishment. Just nice to be nominated. All votes count and carry the same value. Port-o-static summed it up correctly.
Come on now - let's stay in context. To the other ~39, 873 students at a school like Wisconsin who are not on the crew team, any site dedicated to rowing is 'random'. Much like: www.onlinefalconry.com might seem random to you and me. But for all those falconeers (??) out there, it's part of the daily routine (don't ask, just the first thing that came to mind).
You really can't compare a niche sport website to that of CNN.com.
Honestly, the accomplishment of Wisconsin Men's Varsity Eight is in a league of its own compared to St. Joe's Prep. It is impressive to sweep Stotes but in the end who really cares. Most of the guys from that program will get burnt out and not row in college. College rowing is the big leagues where every program is on a more level playing field and college programs are meant to prepare those guys who are interested in rowing in the Olympics. How many teams are really in contention for the Senior 8 at Stotes? When I ask this I mean to say does anyone train as hard as St. Joe's?
Thats the whole point of their accomplishments. They train very hard at a very high level, and have just gotten to reap the benefits of thier work. In addition, if you look at years past at Stotes, it is clear that there really are other crews in contention for the boys senior 8. It seems as if you haven't done your research...
Whether that is a result of a misunderstanding of the goal of this poll or simply because the majority of voters happen to be collegiate males, I feel like the "Crew of the Week" will always be a men's varsity collegiate 8. In this case, the stroke of Wisco LW 8 WAS HIT BY AN AUTOMOBILE, causing the shift in lineups, yet they still managed to win. Personally I find their story very impressive, yet they still only land in fifth place, behind three men's varsity 8s. In an earlier poll, someone even admitted that their would be no way they would ever vote for a 2v (the 2v mentioned was a women's boat...wisco again, I believe). In my opinion, this optimizing the bias towards the men's v8. The Prep boys are making a strong showing, but overall, the trend remains. Does anyone else feel this way?
The wisco lightweights undoubtedly accomplished an amazing feat and deserve to be commended. However, the story of their struggle wasn’t widely known. You’ll have people vote first, then come to see the results and discussion. So their low vote amount is likely due to the lack of “informed” voters. On a general note: Perhaps the reason that H1V8s gets more votes is due to the size and parity of the league. The number of quality lightweight women programs is far fewer, so there are fewer quality competitors to overcome.
Agreed. The "winner" of this poll is whatever nominated crew can get the most of their people to visit row2k.com and vote for them - kudos to row2k.com for their viral marketing! Not a subjective poll at all; however, bear in mind there's nothing really at stake here. To me, making the poll is recognition enough for all crews, and I find it interesting to learn about the respective stories each week.
wisco's ltwt stroke was thrown over thirty feet when she was hit by a car last week, and every boat lineup was shuffled. and still all four boats won. i think that's saying something.
What happened in the US Light Men's 2x Non - Qual Olympic Trials is whatmost of us college and high school rowers can only dream of. One down in the best of three to an undefeated boat, and then come back to take two decisive wins. They won't get the overall votes, but they earned my respect.
I think it is impressive that the Wisconsin boat was able to win after losing their stroke. Her accident was incredibly bad and she is lucky to be alive and possibly rowing again very soon.
Yale should be up there for taking down Harvard in the heats at Eastern Sprints. What a great race. What about Columbia again? When was the last time Harvard was in the Petites and Columbia in the Grands? Ever? Nice racing Yale.
The problem with having both Wisco and Yale included in the voting is that they were in the same race and Wisco beat Yale. So the Badgers did everything Yale did and more.
Read up on regression analysis or just read the cmax explanation, then you'll understand how Princeton is still ranked ahead of Cornell. Like dresser says it's a statistical analysis, it won't automatically rank you behind someone you lose to.
05/26/2008 11:54:56 PM
06/06/2008 2:22:49 PM
05/24/2008 5:50:13 PM
crimson & gold '04
05/23/2008 2:02:18 PM
05/23/2008 5:44:07 AM
05/22/2008 7:34:23 PM
I agree with username:nowsk. 'Crew of the week' is meant for the crew that surprises the competition; the unexpected underdog. I guess in this case, it rules out the Cornell LMV8. Regardless, Wisco came out of nowhere to win EARC's, and deserve a HUGE amount of respect for what they have done.
As for St. Joes, great, they are always fast, are always deep, and HS rowing has no competition compared to what collegiate racing has. FURTHERMORE, they won STOTESBURY.... big deal. When (and IF) they win every race in a NATIONAL event - a REAL national event at that (like Cincinnati nationals) - then they will be shown the respect that they deserve.
Mad props to St. Joes for not only having a deep crew, but also having a deep voting base and online following. Jah-bless.
05/23/2008 2:03:21 PM
05/22/2008 6:27:28 PM
05/22/2008 5:51:29 PM
crimson & gold '04
06/06/2008 2:15:26 PM
05/21/2008 2:38:49 PM
05/21/2008 12:59:27 PM
05/21/2008 7:47:10 AM
05/21/2008 7:05:05 AM
05/21/2008 5:51:38 AM
05/20/2008 7:06:35 PM
05/20/2008 5:20:29 PM
05/20/2008 6:40:48 PM
05/20/2008 8:31:44 PM
05/21/2008 8:11:12 AM
05/21/2008 8:27:29 AM
05/22/2008 7:50:14 AM
You really can't compare a niche sport website to that of CNN.com.
05/21/2008 10:40:26 AM
05/21/2008 2:58:57 PM
05/20/2008 4:59:09 PM
05/20/2008 6:15:31 PM
05/20/2008 6:05:34 PM
05/20/2008 12:08:10 PM
05/20/2008 12:26:03 PM
05/20/2008 11:41:50 AM
05/20/2008 10:44:39 AM
05/20/2008 9:00:08 AM
05/20/2008 11:23:47 AM
05/20/2008 11:39:34 AM
05/20/2008 7:56:39 AM
05/20/2008 3:11:34 PM
05/20/2008 7:15:40 AM
05/20/2008 6:59:30 AM
05/20/2008 8:44:37 AM
05/20/2008 12:08:58 PM
05/20/2008 6:46:28 PM