"Isn't this nice Southern weather?" asked Oak Ridge Rowing Association's Ted Chestnutt to the awards ceremony crowd Sunday. Yes, it absolutely was. The Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee had high 70's and sunny all weekend. After the harsh spring in the Northeast, the bright sky in Tennessee was a welcome sight.
The Melton Hill Lake rowing venue recently had a facelift-to the tune of around $300,000. Reports vary on the actual amount, but nobody needs to see the receipts to verify it is money well spent. The local hosts made Melton Hill Lake sparkle for SIRAs, but are also preparing for NCAA championships May 25-27. The addition of a new starting/aligning area, bigger lane buoys (to be installed for NCAAs) and more launch and recovery docks improved what many say was already a quality race spot. The lake is actually a dammed river (no pun intended), and on occasion dam openings have apparently caused lane fairness issues, but this did not seem to be the case this weekend. This location has been hosting SIRA for just shy of 30 years, and many participants said this is their favorite course; an NCAA representative checked it out before racing this weekend and judged the site up to par for the championships.
Maroon and Orange Effect
It was subtle-two crossed ribbons on unisuits and tied to riggers - but honoring the Virginia Tech community after the April 16 tragedy was on everyone's minds. You saw other teams wearing Virginia Tech hats and t-shirts, all a very fresh memory for many young athletes at SIRA. As reported last week on row2k, VTU competed at SIRA's, albeit with a reduced squad.
Last week the coaches - Ryan Hurley (Head Men's Coach), Ali Whitaker (Head Women's coach), Dave Shuster and Athena Tang (Women's Assistant coaches) - commenced the challenging task of contacting all the rowers on Monday. To their relief, all were accounted for and on Tuesday, they started to gauge what rowers wanted to do with the rest of the season. On Wednesday, the coaches held regular practice on Claytor Lake. Friday, a greatly reduced crew showed up at SIRA regatta. Virginia Tech usually practices with seven boats; at SIRA there were two. While the maroon Virginia Tech tent did attract some attention at the regatta, but across the board, the vibe was encouraging.
"The rowers didn't feel like they were stared at - they felt like they were supported," said Shuster. Indeed, parents and rowers alike stopped by to share their feelings, visit a bit, and give the rowers (Men's V4 and Women's V8) a pat on the back for coping.
"The school's policy since the beginning is that the kids should do what feels right to them," said Shuster, regarding the decisions on continuing with the academic semester, school sports and activities.
The Women's 8 was a boat mixed from a few different line-ups, and they had to face some difficult competition. They raced well, getting stronger with every 2000, earning a C finals time (7:31.2) that would have placed them second in the B Final. The men finished in the medals in the Men's Varsity 4+ A Final behind Georgia and Emory. "The Men were in their original line-up," said coach Ryan Hurley. Great work by both crews.
With respect to the rest of the season, "we're hopeful to go to Dad Vails, but we haven't crossed that bridge yet," Shuster said .
Members of the Tech Crew had friends as victims, and all went to the Memorial during the week-but everyone copes with tragedy in different ways. For the rowers here at SIRA, perhaps the camaraderie, coach support, routine and rhythm of crew sustained them. There were certainly some emotional struggles happening in the background. They have days, weeks?months ahead of them to get their minds around the tragedy that befell their classmates; for now, there is rowing.
Southern Hospitality, Rowing-style
To the regatta staff's credit, racing went well, even ahead of schedule. The Starter had the opportunity to ask many of the crews if they wanted to start early, all agreed (who wants to sit for five minutes when you are ready to throw down anyway?). Local organizers did a great job rounding up the referees, and there were no real glitches to report on any of the three days.
A few Northern crews escaped the bitter spring and brought some new competition to the Southeast. Many of the Northeastern visitors were class acts. Gavin White's Temple Crews looked controlled and powerful, often rowing at a lower rate quite effectively and winning. Temple's Novice 4+ showed the composure of much more experienced rowers; they stayed poised and focused as boats were close in the first 1000 meters of the race. In the last 600 meters, a boost of a few beats is all it took to win by 11 seconds with a 7:02.9, ahead of Emory looking not quite as polished but very determined at 7:13.1, and Purdue 7:13.2 (had to take a view of the camera for the two-three results, phew). Temple men also won the JV race by less than second this time, but with similar style. Their time of 6:06.4 was ahead of Virginia at 6:07.0; the results were reversed in the Men's Varsity race that closed the events Sunday.
In the Varsity match-up Virginia stayed in the boat but ahead of Temple at the 1500. row2k was waiting for the sprints that had put 'W' in the column under Temple throughout the day, but it didn't materialize. Virginia went from cruising speed of 35, took one step up (as did Purdue and Temple) at about the 500, then Virginia kicked in up two more to a 38 and blew through the field to win by a little over two seconds with a time of 5:57.6, followed by Temple in 6:00.2, and Purdue at 6:03.3; UCLA, Marietta and Florida Tech finished four-five-six in the final.
Mercyhurst came down from "Dreary Erie (Pa)" with its Men's team to see some sunlight and break their normal routine a bit. Great idea! Their premier boat right now is the Men's Lightweight 8, and they won with some very nice rowing in a near photo finish with St. Joseph's (also a Pennsylvania team) with three hundredths of a second between them. Officials on the course were looking to the finish line tower for the news-who won? The final times were Mercyhurst with 6:11. 4, St. Josephs 6:11.7, and Jacksonville 6:13.4. It will be interesting to see these teams go at it again at Vails - it is possible that St. Joseph's may have a score to settle on home water. Mercyhurst Coach Adrian Spracklen says his team often doesn't get on the water until April 1, and since the school has its spring break early in the year, they often come back to ergs for nearly a month. Tough path to follow, but it seems to produce fit rowers.
But enough about all these cold weather crews?southern crews were there en masse (that's the "S" of SIRAs, right?) and the number of really talented teams was impressive. The one-year young Women's Varsity program at Alabama has produced some pretty solid rowing under Larry Davis so far; should be fun to see that program develop. Tennessee, a women's powerhouse in the region and at the national level, was taking this event off to prepare for Yale and Brown on the Housatonic in Connecticut next weekend. They are currently 10th in the NCAA rankings, and just returned from a trip to California for the Windermere Cup. University of Central Florida is the emerging force from the South, however; and a relatively young crew to boot.
"We have four sophomores in the boat right now," said LeeAnne Crain, four-year Head Coach of UCF Women. "There is just good chemistry," she adds. The boat is small too; average weight is only about 155 pounds and stroke Caitlin Pauls is a petite 5'7", sister Stephanie is six-seat. Freshman sister Jordan Pauls stroked the Varsity 4+ that earned a second to West Virginia in the finals earlier in the day. In the V8 finals Sunday, UCF won with a time of 6:38.2, followed by California State University-Sacramento with a time of 6:47.0, and Kansas State with a 6:49.9.
Crain's eyes will certainly be on the NCAA rankings this week; her crew is steadily rising. "We've done more weights and erging this year," says Crain, and so far it seems to be working.
Nova Southeastern University from Ft. Lauderdale, an NCAA Division II school, had some impressive rows this weekend as well. After winning their conference (FIRA) and the Sunshine State Championships, this was one they wanted to add to their trophy cabinet. Unfortunately Grand Valley State University nabbed that win in the Women's Club-DII-DIII Final Sunday with a time of 6:56.2, Nova Southeastern came in second with a time of 7:09.3, Florida Tech rowed in third in 7:13.0.
"We've gotten better every year? our rowing intelligence is getting better," said John Gartin before the Sunday finals. "We'll be hitting it pretty hard when we get back to campus," he adds. Finals week makes for a taper (whether any coach wants to or not) then back in action for Dad Vails. "This time of year is tough... you have to use planning and creativity to get the best results," says Gartin, who is aiming for the NCAA invite this time of year.
Bob Jaugstetter of Tulane University Crew spoke to row2k briefly to follow-up on row2k's March 2006 story DO NOT BULLDOZE about how the crew, the university and the city is dealing with Katrina's aftermath. We'll have more on this in a separate article, please check row2k!
When SIRAs closed on Sunday afternoon, there were several reluctant departures. The season is really drawing to a close in the South just as the North ramps up. row2k spoke to several crews heading to Philadelphia for Dad Vail, I'm sure Philly will give you a warm welcome! Just for fun, ask one of the cops at the Kelly Drive checkpoints if you can drive on up to park at the finish line. You ought to get the best of Philly. Good luck and really, the rowing community will be glad to see you.
A few thank you's: Ted Chestnutt from ORRA, AKA Ted from Tennessee. (In Philadelphia in the late 80's you did not need to know his last name it was just, "ya' know, Ted from Tennessee!"), Sam Dempsey, Chief Referee, launch-mates/referees Phil Mork and Bruce Wilson (who with wife Patty really provide a great deal of prep for these Melton Lake gigs), wow, all the ref's at this event-gotta' thank them for giving up their weekends for regattas, folks. Mike Forrester who called me Ed the entire weekend, and anyone who did not respond, "Where's Ed?" when I introduced myself.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|