Hello Tulsa Women’s Rowing Fans!
Well, what can I say, we won! Winning is fun and it definitely beats out losing by a long shot. Your Tulsa rowers entered 9 events at the MIRC Regatta and came away with 6 gold medals and 1 bronze for the weekend. All in all it was a very good effort with which to finish our regular season.
The Varsity 8 started things out in a seven boat race with Drake, Creighton, Creighton Club, SMU, Murray State, and Oklahoma City University. We knew that Drake had done some great racing over the past weeks and were definitely looking forward to seeing them. Also, since we had raced SMU and beaten them in three races, we knew they would be loaded up and looking to come after TU. Unfortunately, TU came off the start in 5th place. In 2000m racing, there are two ways that the referee calls the start. One is a verbal command ("Attention, Go!") and the other is by flag after polling the crews. Due to some confusion, our crew missed the verbal command and was only just squaring their blades for the start when the referee started the race. What we try and teach the rowers to do in that instance is to stay on the line, take a false start, and re-start the race however, our V8 like reacted aggressively to the other boats and left the line as quickly as possible. All of this probably happened in less than 1 second.
The Varsity 8 had a great race. At the 500m mark they were 4th. At the 1000m mark they were 2nd pulling through Drake and moving on SMU. Unfortunately, the effort of trying to make up for the jumbled start probably cost us at least one place as SMU and Drake were both able to recover to finish 1st and 2nd respectively. Watching the race from shore it was obvious that our crew was racing its heart out, I only wish that I had remembered to video tape. Even though the race result did not show it, it was probably the V8’s best raced race of the season. They were not pleased with the result and you could see the fire smoldering in their eyes when they came off the water. They had come to win a championship and would not be denied! Most of those rowers would race again later in the 4’s.
Taking up TU’s banner next was the 2nd Varsity 8. The 2V8 came into this regatta knowing that they were pushing to make up for a less than stellar performance at SIRA. With the V8 down we were behind in the points standing and needed them to pull us even so that we could move ahead in the later events. The 2V8 came down the race course in style. They led from start to finish and were never seriously challenged throughout the race. The order of finish would put TU first with Murray State, SMU, Creighton, Drake, and OCU rounding out the six boat race.
The Novice 8 would be the next boat to row. The Novice 8 has been working very hard to find itself as a crew. They had been working extra hard as the season winds down to find the kind of speed that would put our crew up at the top of novice crews in our region. Unfortunately, they emulated the Varsity 8 by coming off the start in 5th place behind Creighton, Drake, OCU, and SMU. Also like the V8, the Novice 8 would pull the strongest middle 1000m of any of their opponents to end up 2nd into the last 500m. Unlike their older counterparts, the Novices were able to use their sprint and come through the field to end up 1st! It was a very strong row and it’s exactly the type of spirit our youngsters will need in the 8 in order to do well at the Dad Vail on May 11. It also put us ahead in the point standings for the championship, a lead we would never relinquish.
The Novice 4’s did not fare as well. We had high hopes for both boats going into their races, especially the Novice 4+ "A". This was the boat that had dominated the East Coast competition at the Knecht Cup and we expected good things at the MIRC. It did not turn out quite as planned. The Novice 4+ had trouble hearing the start as well and missed the first three strokes of the race. As they were moving back into field and surging for 2nd place, they made a steering error and two of their oars hit a bridge pier. Luckily, no one was hurt and the equipment was undamaged. The Novice 4’s would both finish 4th in their races and definitely took home an important racing lesson- know your course!
The Varsity 2’s also raced this weekend. We actually entered two boats with Angela Rozwoski and Michelle Sechser racing as the "A" boat and Lisa Simes and Danielle Guccione racing as the "B". We were pushing for both boats to finish in the top three and it looked pretty solid for most of the race. Michelle and Angie took off from the line and led all the way down the course to take the victory followed by OCU. Their victory was even sweeter since they actually had a broken rigger that occurred during the 1st 500m. They could not stop so Angela nursed it down the race course and they were able to get the win without any damage to the boat or rigger. Danny and Lisa rowed a strong race and were 3rd most of the way down when they veered a bit on the course. It’s an easy mistake to make in a pair but it was definitely untimely as Creighton was able to pull back through to take the 3rd place finish. It was great race for our pairs and Danny and Lisa will be representing TU
at the Dad Vail on May 11th.
Our Varsity and Lightweight 4’s had masterful races. Five women from V8 hopped into the "A" four against 5 other boats. We knew that SMU would be strong in this event as well since they had a former national team rower and some very good size in their "A" four. Let’s just say that SMU’s four averaged about 5’9, 175lbs to our 5’6, 145 lbs. Our women proved that it really is the "fight in the dog" that matters. They came off the line with victory on their minds, taking the lead within the first twenty strokes. After that point the nearest crew, SMU, never came within one boat length of our team until the 1500m mark. At that point SMU made a ferocious charge which our stroke, Angie Rozwoski, saw out of the corner of her eye. She and coxswain Nicole Falvo called up the boat at 450m to go and walked away from SMU winning by 5 seconds followed by Drake, Creighton, Murray State, and OCU. The 2nd Varsity 4+ with a mix of rowers from the 2V8 and V8 also rowed to a similar vic
tory. Allie Bridge stroked and pushed her boat into the lead from start to finish "easily" winning the race with 6 seconds to spare over SMU followed by MSU, Drake, and two Creighton shells. The Lightweight 4+ would follow with an exciting race as well. The Lights also led their race from start to finish. There was a tense moment or two when the Creighton Lightweights sprinted from 3rd place through 2nd and pushed toward 1st. Tulsa was able to again see the sprint coming and push out to take a 4 second victory with Creighton in 2nd and OCU in 3rd.
The end result was Tulsa winning its first team championship at the Midwest Intercollegiate Rowing Championships. One of the things that occurred recently on the political side of rowing is that our qualification to reach the NCAA Championships has changed. Starting in either 2008 or 2009, only full teams of a Varsity 8, 2nd Varsity 8, and Varsity 4+ will be accepted for the NCAA. It also means that at some point in the near future, teams will be able to qualify for the regatta much the same way as in other sports- by winning their conference championship. Once automatic qualifiers become a reality, we are hoping that the MIRC will become that regatta for TU. This is why this race is so important to TU. Learning how to win a team championship is the harbinger of good things to come.
It’s coming to the end of the semester so it’s awards time! Your TU Rowers once again captured the TU Athletic Department’s award for Team Community Service. The TU Rowers averaged about 18 hours per athlete putting in over 790 hours of service to organizations such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Habitat for Humanity and is the 4th time in 5 years that Women’s Rowing has won. Our rowing MVP’s for the 2006-07 season were selected and for the first time they were sophomores. Coxswain Nicole Falvo (Saratoga Springs, NY) and rower Allie Bridge (Mathews, VA) were selected as MVP’s by their teammates. They have done a wonderful job this year and luckily we have them for another two. We’ll be presenting our team awards and captains on May 8th. Rower Vanessa Andrews (junior, Davis, CA) will be inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society on May 4 at 5:30pm in Sharpe Chapel. Lastly, the Rowing Team was recognized as pushing TU Athletic Department into the top spot academica
lly within C-USA. TU had 47 athletes earn the C-USA Commissioner’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. What that means is that they had to have maintained a 3.75 GPA throughout their academic career. Of the 47 TU athletes that earned the medal, 13 were rowers. The next TU team with the most medals was Track and Field and the next college close to TU in C-USA was Memphis with 36 medals.
Next week the team travels to the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. Last year there were 39 entries in the Varsity 8 event, 32 in the Novice 8, and 22 in the 2nd Varsity 8. It is the biggest collegiate race held in the spring with thousands of participants in various events. This year looks like one of the most even fields ever in the Varsity 8. We will see old friends from this season such as University of Buffalo, University of Alabama, and Purdue University. Assuredly all of those crews have gotten faster and we will need to go after them. Additionally we will see other strong crews that we haven’t raced such as 2006 winner St. Joseph’s University and the ever present University of Massachusetts. Your TU rowers are excited at being able to race this regatta on such an even playing field. Believe me; they are working hard to bring home the best Dad Vail results yet for TU!
As always you can follow our progress at
