Hello Tulsa Women’s Rowing Fans!
This weekend, your rowers traveled to Cherry Hill, NJ to compete at the Knecht Cup. The Knecht Cup is one of the largest collegiate regattas held in the United States and included competitors from as far away as California and Washington state. TU Rowing made a big competitive step on Saturday coming away from the regatta having placed almost all of its entries into the finals. Tulsa left Cherry Hill having earned one gold and two bronze medals! It was a good day to be a Tulsa rower.
The weather on the East Coast was pretty bad this past weekend. There was a severe storm brewing for most of the weekend. It is what New Englanders call a nor’easter and it is very unusual for spring. When we arrived on the race course Friday afternoon to rig and practice, the wind was blowing between 20-30 miles per hour and the docks were practically underwater. I made the decision not to practice on Friday and we honestly doubted whether or not the race would be held. Luckily, the Saturday forecast called for a moderation and our hosts from Villanova made the decision to compress the events and run all of the races in one day. This meant an incredible adjustment on the part of all of teams involved. Usually, in a large regatta, there are so many entries in each event that it’s easier to race through because the heats are generally slower than the finals. When the regatta was compressed, the progressions also changed. For instance our novice 8 originally only neede d to be top 3 in their heat to qualify for the semi-final. When the progression changed they had to have rowed in the top 6 times from all 6 heats to make to the final! It definitely presented a challenge.
Luckily, your TU rowers were up for it. One of the things we have been working on as a team is understanding that there are some things (weather, referees, other teams, etc.) that we can not control. The team took all of the adjustments with the attitude that they were ready no matter what happened. Instead of worrying about the weather or the change in racing, they sought to prove that they were up to the task even though this weekend would mark the very first time we have rowed a full 2000 meter race this season.
We started off with races in the varsity pair rowed by Lisa Simes and Danielle Guccione. These ladies are both lightweight rowers and transitioned into the pair within the last three weeks. They have done a great job taking on the pair. It’s a discipline that is slightly different than the 8’s or the 4’s because there is no coxswain and the rowers have to make all of the calls themselves. Lisa and Dani advanced through the heat in 2nd place behind NYU in a good row. They improved upon that in the finals where they found themselves in a 4 boat race at the 1000m mark with two NYU pairs and Lehigh University. NYU "A" and "B" were able to push out on our pair but as Lehigh started to move, Dani called out to Lisa for a strong move and they finished third earning TU’s first medal of the day. We are planning on racing this boat at the Dad Vail in May so it was a good that this team was able to race so strongly on its first trip to the line.
Next up were Coach Julie Domina’s novices in the 4’s. Going into this race, one of the things concerning the coaching staff was that the novices were racing the 8 and 4+. With the compressed racing schedule it meant that they were racing a lot of races in a short amount of time. This coupled with having to be in the top 6 time-wise across 6 heats and 38 entries gave the coaches a tense moment. The novices, however, had no qualms. The "B" 4+ with Jacquie Malleo, Michelle Kadin, Faith Harjo, Krysti Knoche, and Megan Wells finished 2nd in their heat beating University of Dayton, Sarah Lawrence College, and Villanova University. They missed the finals on time by .1 of a second! It was a tough deal but they learned a lot from the racing. The "A" four with Hannah Grafe, Susan Stangl, Aidan Leddy, Jennifer Anderson, and Leslie Sanditen had no such issue. They won their heat by 16 seconds and their heat was the fastest of the 6! Four of the crews in their heat made the fina l on time. The Novice "A" would go on to win the Freshman/Novice 4+ event by an unheard of 15 seconds in the final to earn The University of Tulsa a gold medal at the Knecht Cup.
Our youngest rowers would combine later to race the heat of the novice 8. The novices struggled a little in the first 1000m of the novice 8. The Universities of Buffalo and Rhode Island were able to push out ahead early in the race. The novices had a strong second 1000 meters but still fell short finishing 3rd in their heat. If the progression had not changed, it would have been enough to advance, but not on this day.
The 2nd Varsity 8 also had a tough progression. They paired in a heat that included strong crews from Buffalo, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Holy Cross, and Drexel. They had to be either 1st or 2nd to qualify straight to the final. The 2V8 knew they needed to have a great race especially since Buffalo had beaten us at spring break when we scrimmaged in 4’s. Our 2V8 did a great job in its heat in what was essentially a four boat race to the 1000m mark. At that point, Julie Burch (coxswain and co-captain) called for a strong move and they shot ahead of the field to get about ¾ length ahead. Holy Cross, however, had a ferocious sprint and was able to close to about 1 second by the end of the race. TU was able to hold on to win the heat which set them up as the crew to beat heading into the final. In the final, the 2V8 raced Rhode Island, Holy Cross, Delaware, Dayton, and our old friends, the Kansas Jayhawks. The 2V had another great race but the 8 from URI w as simply too strong. URI won the race by a commanding 7 seconds over Holy Cross who was able to exact their revenge from the heat by beating TU by 1 second. However the Golden Hurricane held on to beat Kansas by 1 second to earn the bronze. The bronze medal was sweet for the 2V8 and it marks a milestone of our development to have the 2V8 winning at the Knecht Cup. Besides Julie, this boat was rowed by Sara Schlesinger, Emily Bailey, Lindsey Bailey, Tina Jasin, Shara Derks, Chelsea Cornell, Monika Burton, and Elizabeth Peterson. It was great racing.
The Varsity 8 would finish up a day of great performances by making a big competitive jump as well. The strategy in the V8 was to take each race as a singular race. That is, instead of thinking of it as heat to semi to final, they were to race each race as a self-contained unit. In their heat they finished a strong 3rd behind Boston College and Kansas while beating MIT, Fairfield, and Temple.
This set them up for a tougher progression in the semi-final where they needed to be either first or second to advance to the final. To add to this toughness was the fact that they were racing UC Davis who has the distinction of having won the San Diego Crew Classic this year in addition to the SMU Mustangs, North Carolina Tar Heels, Colgate, and Holy Cross. Coxswain Nicole Falvo had her crew racing one of the best performances we have seen out of our V8 this year. Racing in lane six or the outside and "disadvantaged lane", TU came off the line with a weak start but quickly made up for it. By the 500m they were with the field. At the 1000m mark, Nicole was able to call TU as being up on the field which spurred the crew to attack the course even more. UC Davis was able to push back to take the win by 4 seconds while Colgate made a serious challenge but could only manage 3rd. Your TU varsity 8 advanced for the first time ever to the finals of the V8 at the Knecht Cup. M oreover, they did it by beating two teams with which we have struggled (UNC and SMU) in the V8 in the last few years. They also improved by 7 seconds from the morning’s heat to the semi-final.
The final race would line up Rhode Island, Boston College, Gonzaga, Kansas, and UC Davis. The V8 would go on to finish 6th overall of the 29 entries in the varsity 8 event. Even though the ending race was a bit of an anticlimax, that disappointment was tempered by the fact that twenty-three boats were not in the final with us. From a coaching perspective, while finishing 6th is not what you want, it’s still early in our season and that was literally our 3rd "live" 2000m piece. All of our boats need more practice racing and we’ll be getting that this week after a quick turn around to head back out to the SIRA Regatta on Thursday. Most important was to also realize that the teams we raced in the final are great teams. Gonzaga, who won the overall event, is undefeated this season after already having beaten last year’s 4th ranked team (Washington State). Rhode Island and Boston College are both moving into the Eastern Sprints league to race teams from the Ivy Group (Harv
ard, Yale, etc.) We feel pretty good about the V8 results but are even more motivated to work on what didn’t work and come back strong for SIRA this weekend. The boat was raced by Stacey Gilham, Michelle Sechser, Angela Rozowski-Vogt, Allie Bridge, Becky Jenschke, Brianna Palmer, Meaghan Dooley, and Vanessa Andrews along with Nicole Falvo in the stern seat.
Overall, we made big strides this week as a team. Now the challenge is to try and improve upon them as we move into our second big week of racing. This week, we face one of the emerging teams in the nation, C-USA foe University of Central Florida. UCF defeated UC Berkeley last weekend in California. For those of you who may not know, UC Berkeley has won NCAA Championships for the past two years. Additionally we will see SMU who will be looking for a pound of flesh from this weekend’s racing. Alabama, Murray State, Jacksonville University, Purdue, Cincinnati, and West Virginia will round out the field. It should be a very tough regatta and we are looking forward to the racing!
I’d like to leave you this week with a little bragging about one of our V8 rowers, Vanessa Andrews. We found out just before we left this weekend that she has been selected for induction into The University of Tulsa chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa society. Many of you know already that Vanessa has earned a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship this year. Now she joins the company of other famous people such as Theodore Roosevelt, John Quincy Adams, and Jonas Salk as a Phi Beta Kappa!! Vanessa is a geosciences major and wants to make a career studying earthquakes (she’s from California). Congratulations, Vanessa!
Until next time, good rowing,
Kevin Harris, Head Coach
University of Tulsa
Women's Rowing
(918) 631-2971
