Spotted Blade
The Other End of the Megaphone
-
It seems like only yesterday we were pulling
the shells out of summer storage, installing docks and the
coaching launches into Dunmore, and stopping off at A&W
for onion rings on the way back from a pre-season practice…
Today we're making preparations for our spring break trip
to Miami and looking for housing in the event of a visit to
Philly for Dad Vails in May. As I write this fall semester
finals are underway. Ice covers much of the south end of the
lake, snow covers the slopes at the Bowl and there are only
15 shopping days till x-mas. These days the team is putting
in only about four and a half to five hours a week on the
ergs to complement their lifting and additional cardio-vascular
work but soon they'll be shifting the focus of their training
towards more time on the Concept 2's and bumping up the volume,
with 4x10's, Roll-overs and Hours of Power. Ahhhh… don't
you miss college life!?!
Well, the Head racing season is now behind
us. A number of new faces appeared among the varsity squad
this fall, with a handful of long-time rowers coming back
from abroad, last year's novice making the step up, several
first-years with high school rowing experience arriving in
September (as has become the norm in recent years) and one
senior, Eliza Miller-Ricci `03, coming out to race with us
for the first time after spending last summer sculling on
the Charles River with Community Rowing of Boston. Among the
women, some of our rising sophomores were mentioned in the
previous issue of the Spotted Blade - Emily Berlanstein of
Reistertown, MD, who gave up a career in field hockey to explore
the world of crew, Emily Berg, a former cross country runner
who comes to us from Milwaukee, WI, and Sara Hayes who hails
from Ridgefield, CT, another talented athlete making a switch
of sports. There were also a couple other members of the class
of `05 returning for their second year with the varsity women;
both Emily Loesche and Catherine Foster came to us in the
fall of 2001 with considerable rowing experience and contributed
much to the varsity boats' success last year as freshmen.
Again, this year, the varsity were bolstered
by talented members of the incoming class; Penny Chen of Irving,
TX, Sasha Said from Norfolk, MA and Elizabeth DiCioccio, a
Buffalo, NY native and a gold medal winner in the ltwt women's
coxed four at Canadian Henley last summer, all raced with
us this fall. (By the way, the stroke of Elizabeth's 1st place
Henley boat will be joining us next fall; Julianne Jones,
also of West Side Rowing Club, was admitted as an early decision
applicant to the class of `07.)
There weren't many changes to line-ups through
the course of the season; for the most part boats rowed as
they were set early in the season: Men's lightweight 4+: coxed
initially by Nora Greenglass `03 (Rideau) and then Cory Balint
`04 (Stonehurst, Charles, Fish), with Luke Mueller `04, Mike
Reis `03, John Condon `03, Jeff Koppernolle `04 Women's lightweight
4+, 1st boat: coxed by Penny Chen `06 (Rideau) and later Cameren
Cousins `03 (Stonehurst, Charles, Fish), Catherine Foster
`05, Emily Berg `05.5, Carolyn Gersh `04, Harmony Button `03
Women's lightweight 4+, 2nd boat: steered by Sasha Said `06,
with stroke Nora Greenglass `03, Elizabeth DiCioccio `06,
Penny Chen `06, Eliza Miller-Ricci `03 Women's open 4+: coxed
by Ms. Cousins at the Rideau, then Jillian Everly `04, with,
from stern-to-bow Sarah Bunnell `04, Elizabeth Sullivan `04,
Sara Hayes `05, Emily Loesche `05
A few varsity members weren't able to race this
season for one reason or another - Paul Armstrong `04, Kevin
Sullivan `04.5, Kent Newman `03, Steve Gangemi `04, Emily
Berlanstein `05 - but we hope to have everyone on the water
in the spring, in addition to a new face or two. Returning
juniors may allow us to row two women's 8+'s if everyone can
remain healthy.
Due to a convergence of NCAA regulations and
the `02/`03 College calendar our pre-season camp was shortened
to just three days, which didn't give us a whole lot of time
to toughen up the hands but did allow for a scrimmage with
rowers from the Univ. of Vermont on Sunday afternoon, which
we followed with a cookout at Branbury State Park across the
lake. Unfortunately, even those freshmen with rowing experience
did not participate on this day as they were involved with
orientation activities.
As many of you will know by now, we've been leaving the novice
at home to train through most of the fall season in recent
years, allowing them develop technically and really get ready
for racing. They go only to the Head of the Fish, the final
competition of the season, where they've done remarkably well
since we adopted this system. Thus, it was just the varsity
who traveled to Ottawa to open our campaign at the Head of
the Rideau. Again, we found good solid competition from Canadian
rowers there, with Queens and Trent strong as usual, and we
were able to get some sense of where we stood in terms of
boat speed, with the women's open 4+ and men's lightweight
4+ finishing third in their events and the only lightweight
women's 4+ that traveled this weekend taking second place.
All in all, a good start to the year.
We aren't always able to make the trip to Rochester,
NY for the Stonehurst Capital Regatta but, when calendar and
team housing allow, it's a great addition to our itinerary,
even when the weather is cold and wet, as it was this year.
It's relatively new to the fall schedule so it might be worthwhile
to give some details here: events are staged for 8+'s and
4+'s, with both light- and open-weight classifications, and
officials use the combined times from a morning 5 km. head
race and a 1,500 meter Henley-style, side-by-side sprint in
the afternoon to determine a boat's standing. It's a full
day of very competitive rowing. With traditional eastern powers
Harvard, Brown, Yale and Dartmouth going head to head in the
Open division, and Middlebury lining up alongside the likes
of Williams, RIT, Syracuse, Colgate, Queens College, Brock,
the Univ. of Toronto, Hobart and William-Smith in the Collegiate
category, there's no shortage of excitement.
As in the past, we did very well here (despite
the troublesome steering characteristics exhibited by one
of our new Resolute shells). Our lightweight men turned in
a great performance and brought home well-earned silver medals.
We were hot on the heels of winners Univ. of Toronto and nearly
40 seconds ahead of the third place team at the end of the
day. It was the Midd open women who suffered the fickle handling
tendencies of their "black boat" which, as we learned,
requires an experienced hand, a delicate touch and lots of
luck to keep on the buoys. Suffice to say it was a learning
experience and the rest of the head season went much better.
The lightweight women fielded two 4+'s. One, rowing in their
first race of the year, with three first year team members
in the line-up, got rid of their jitters after the morning
row and had a much better piece in the afternoon. The Cousins/Foster/Berg/Gersh/Button
boat, after placing second a week earlier in Ottawa, took
the gold, winning handily by over a minute in front of Univ.
of Rochester.
Our "Parents Learn-To-Row" was held
October 5th. The race calendar didn't provide us with a nearby
regatta to which we could travel and return on the same day
as we've done in the past, so we didn't compete at all that
weekend. Instead we scheduled our annual Family Weekend event
for Saturday, which allowed rowers to either spend more time
with family members or just catch up on class work on Sunday.
We had a great turnout of moms, dads and siblings and I'm
happy to report all boats - and parents - returned to the
dock intact. (Next year's academic calendar works much better
with our fall schedule than did 2002: Family Weekend I is
the week before the Head of the Charles, which falls on our
mid-term recess, and Homecoming is the same weekend as the
Head of the Fish, so any alumni up this way can make the trip
to Saratoga Springs on Saturday and maybe get in a row on
Dunmore Sunday!)
Phil Busse `92, who is now coaching the men
and women of University of Portland (Oregon) crew, brought
his rowers east to race at the Head of the Connecticut and
the Charles. Between those two dates, they practiced here
on Dunmore, staying at our old friend Karen Rockow's North
Cove Cottages. Conditions were good for their two-a-day sessions
and only some unfortunate breakage to a rigger on the men's
boat during the Club Four event in Boston marred their trip.
We fielded two boats of our own at the Charles,
with the men and women rowing in the Championship level Lightweight
Four events. (Our open women's four entry wasn't accepted.)
Both squads did really well, finishing within 16% (men) and
12% (women) of the winning times in fields comprised of national
team and Division I level competition. Meanwhile, our alumni
women's boat of Megan Stoehr `01 (cox), Kristin Arends `98,
Lisa (Polizzi) Molloy `95, Tina Lopez-Gottardi `95 and Lisa
McAndrews `02, rowing the lovely powder blue PastYourEyes
in the Club Four division, were only slightly off the varsity
women's time! Nice job by all.
The final weekend of the season brought us
to Saratoga Springs and the Fish. Lots of excitement, of course,
particularly among the novice who would be seeing their first
ever racing as Middlebury rowers. But the big news of this
year's regatta was the cold, and the rain, and the mud. Lots
of mud! Boy, was there ever mud. Everyone did have a good
race, particularly the ltwt. women's "A" boat which
again medalled, taking silver for the second time this season.
So, what's next? Spring season. We'll see seven
seniors close out their careers with Middlebury crew in the
coming season. Cameren Cousins, our most venerable ("Is
that a gray hair!?!") and esteemed coxswain - and a true
Maine-iac - will be driving our top women's boats. Some more
recent members of the alumni group will remember Cameren as
an equestrian who, soon after arriving at Middlebury traded
in her 1-horsepower ride for a 4-oars-power steed. She hopes
to land a managerial position at a tortilla factory somewhere
in the Southwest - or anything that's far away from the cold
and wet bowels of a rowing shell, she says. Eliza Miller-Ricci,
who will be experiencing sprint racing for the first time
come April, is currently applying to grad schools, hoping
to pursue studies in physics/astrophysics, preferably at an
east or west coast institution with access to sculling boats.
The girl doesn't want much, does she!?! Harmony Button, women's
team co-captain, will likely be teaching somewhere next year,
before looking into grad schools offering a doctorate in English
Literature. Nora Greenglass, likewise, will be taking a break
from school before continuing her studies in geology. That
interval could be occupied by research work, maybe coaching.
John Condon, who has worked for a senator in DC and served
in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, will likely
continue to be involved with politics. Kent Newman, the lone
heavyweight man among the soon-to-be graduating group, and
men's team captain Mike Reis haven't disclosed information
on their post-graduation plans.
The spring agenda isn't completely set, and
exactly which post-season races we'll be headed to won't be
known until we're a few weeks into the competitive schedule,
but here's the overview. As always, if you're in the area
of any of these contests please stop by and poke holes in
the competition's boats, or just cheer on our troops. And
feel free to call or write to get the latest information about
our travel plans - race times, which events we're entered
in, etc. - as the season progresses. We will be in need of
athlete housing in the Boston/Worcester area and around Philadelphia
and/or Trenton; all offers gratefully considered.
Spring season schedule:
Feb. 15th -
(official start of spring season) Erg Rave; morning indoor
rowing 2K scrimmage w/UVM, at Nelson Field House.
March 21st - 30th -
Miami, FL, spring training trip
April 6th -
Mass. Maritime Academy, Merrimack River, Lowell, MA; w/Brandeis,
UConn (men)
April 12th -
Amherst College, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA; w/Bowdoin
April 19th -
Clark University, Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester, MA; w/Franklin
Pierce, UConn (men)
April 26th -
New England Fours Championship Regatta, Merrimack River, Lowell,
MA; numerous small programs from the region, rowing primarily
in 4+'s.
May 3rd -
New England Rowing Championships, Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester,
MA; about 30 New England DII/III rowing programs. Fours and
eights.
May 9th, 10th -
Dad Vail Regatta, Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, PA;
or
May 10th, 11th -
ECAC (formerly Avaya) Collegiate Championships, Mercer Lake,
West Windsor, NJ
and, possibly, though unlikely…
May 18th -
Eastern Assoc. of Women's Rowing Colleges, Cooper River, Collingswood,
NJ
This last is dependent upon both an invitation
being tendered and approval by the NESCAC presidents (a request
has been submitted). We'll be well into the season before
we get the final word on whether any of our women can compete
on the Cooper River.
* Boston area alum and parents - call for assistance:
How would you like to participate in running a spring regatta?
Volunteers needed to assist with launching and docking crews,
aligning boats at the start line, recording finish order…
We provide megaphones, doughnuts, sunscreen, life jackets.
All you have to do is show up and give "the youth of
today" an opportunity to enjoy competing at the New England
Fours Championship Regatta in Lowell on April 26th. Sign up
for as long a stint as you care to commit to. If you're able
to help out please get in touch; (802-443-3109, machi@middlebury.edu).
