Hello Tulsa Rowing Fans!
It was a good weekend in Oak Ridge, TN for your Tulsa Rowing Team. We came into the regatta after a successful East Coast trip looking to step up our game. Our weekend was characterized by good performances but not the breakout performances that we wished to have. Even though it didn’t proceed according to the script, we had a positive weekend with two boats in the grand finals and two in the petites. The thing that our team to learned was that consistency is important and that the stakes get higher as we move deeper into the season.
Our racing started with our Varsity 2- of Lisa Simes and Danielle Guccione finishing third in their heat to make the grand final. They struggled a bit in the heat and basically lost contact with the front of the pack early in the race but still finished 3rd. In their final, they had a much better race, rowing well against North Carolina State and the University of Cincinnati but finished 6th overall. This pair is a pretty good boat and is composed of two of our smaller athletes. What that means is that they have to row a little more aggressively in order to be in the same place as taller rowers. They have gotten very good at this but SIRA also showed some weaknesses in our race plan that we are going to address before next week’s Midwest Intercollegiate Rowing Championships. I am pretty confident in their prospects and I believe they will pick it up for next weekend.
The Novice 8 stroked by Jacquie Malleo and coxed by Leslie Sanditen were up next. This race was a packed race in terms of talent. TU would face Cincinnati, Alabama, and Louisville. Additionally, the race featured a new phenomena in rowing, a boat of red-shirt freshman from Kansas State University. A “red-shirt” is defined as someone who has used a year of collegiate eligibility without competing. KSU has developed their squad to a point where they are recruiting and red shirting 8 freshman every year. Because they have not raced, by the rules of American Rowing, they are still novices and thus eligible to race in the novice event. The advantages of this were obvious as their boat won their heat by 13 seconds and the final by 9. Our novices would finish 4th in the heat and 3rd in the petite final.
The 2nd Varsity 8 advanced to a 7 boat grand final by virtue of West Virginia scratching its boat. The other six boats were from UCF, Purdue, KSU, Alabama, Sacramento State University, and Cincinnati. We were disappointed because we knew our crew needed to have more “live” strokes in a racing situation. It also meant that the 2V8 was inactive for the better part of two days while waiting for its event. Ultimately, I think that hurt our crew. Even though we have a very good 2V8 crew, they let the excitement and anticipation of the race get to them. By the time they were on the line their nervous excitement had gotten the better of them and they “spun” their wheels off the line driving off at a crazy 43+ strokes per minute. Once they lost their accustomed rhythm, they were done. In a race with this level of talented competition, we needed to be in our best form from stroke one and we did not get it done. TU finished 6th just behind Purdue and ahead of Alabama. It definitely was not the showing that we wanted and the rowers were pretty disappointed when they came off the water. It was a very atypical piece for our crew but I think it was a good wake-up call. From now on, the races get harder. When the gun goes off, we have to race well. They understand that now and I suspect that practices will be very competitive between the 2V8 and V8 this week!
The Varsity 8 came next. We were very confident in the racing that the V8 has done and practices this week had been very good. We were paired against #9 Central Florida, Ohio State, Murray State, SMU, and Cincinnati. We felt that we could race all of these crews well and we did- for the 1st 1000 meters. At the 1000m mark, TU was in good shape for making the final rowing in a strong 3rd place behind Cincinnati and Central Florida. TU was a full length up on SMU and a half length on Ohio State while also moving on Cinci. Then at 700 meters to go, it happened. We had about 10 strokes where the crew simply zoned out. We got comfortable in our position and missed the fact that Ohio State and SMU were both making huge moves to come back into the race. By the time our team realized it, it was too little too late. Ohio State had come through and SMU was making a ferocious charge to get revenge for TU having beaten them at the Knecht Cup the previous weekend. Luckily, we were able to hold off SMU, beating them by .3 of a second. Unluckily, we also finished 4th which meant that we were to race in the petite or consolation final.
Needless to say, Coach Harris was not a very happy camper and neither were the rowers. In no scenario is it ok to be a length up on a team halfway through a race and end up in a situation where they almost beat you or in OSU’s case actually beat you. Therefore, after a team talk about racing “hunger” and our intentions for our season, the team showed up on Sunday morning with renewed purpose. That race saw us again paired with SMU who we knew would be gunning for us after being so close in the last race. We also saw Alabama, West Virginia, Murray State, and Jacksonville University in this race. I am proud to say that our rowers redeemed themselves by taking command of the race from stroke #1. TU led the petite final from start to finish. This time, when they led at the halfway mark, they pushed away from the competition and corrected their lull at 700m. Alabama actually made a ferocious push in the last 500 meters but TU came away victorious by .7 of a second. Even better was being able to accomplish one of the most difficult things in sports, beating SMU three times straight. SMU and TU have very even crews and we have been able to be just a little bit better to take three wins. We now have to do it one more time at MIRC in order to win the championship. That will make that race much harder with the addition of Drake University into the mix. TU’s Varsity 8 had its best finish in the past three years by winning the petite and finishing 7th overall. However, this was tempered by the knowledge that we should have finished higher and would have if we had initially raced better. I think it was an important team lesson and it translated throughout the line-ups. Ultimately, it will make us better and faster for the races to come.
All in all, not the weekend we thought we would have but probably a weekend we needed to have. Our team has gained athletic depth but we are still working on racing well in big regattas. Since TU came into the regatta highly favored as a result our results at the Knecht Cup, we needed to be more aware of the pitfalls. Now we know and are heading back to a week of exams and practices before our last regular season race with a purpose. Our team goal is to bring home the MIRC Championship and the best way to do that is to win everything. That is the goal, now we have to execute.
The MIRC Regatta is the regatta we seek to one day turn into our conference championship. It features SMU, Drake, Creighton, Murray State, and Oklahoma City University. The race will be held on the North Canadian River at the Chesapeake Boathouse in Oklahoma City, OK. Racing will start at 9am. Please come out if you can! We need the support of all of our fans for this one. Drake is a very good team and SMU will be gunning for us so we need to see a lot of blue and gold on the shore. Until then, Good Rowing!
Kevin Harris, Head Coach
