11/19/2006

Hello Fans of Tulsa Women’s Rowing!

Your team has returned from the wilds of Boston, MA and the Head of the Charles Regatta.  I am pleased to report that team did well on October 21-22 with strong finishes in all three events.

After practice on Friday you could tell that the Club 4+ was ready to start TU off right.  When they rowed by during their practice you could tell that they had a good feel for the race course and were ready to do great things.  They showed it on Saturday.  Their goal was to place in the top 10 and make up time on the Louisville 4+ that had beaten us earlier in the season at Head of the Oklahoma and they accomplished both.

The Club 4 started 9^th in a field of 28 teams and passed two crews that had beaten us last year pretty quickly into the race.  When they passed the TU contingent at Eliot Bridge near the end of the course, they surged up to 32 strokes per minute and pushed into the final .5 mile in one of the fastest sprints of the club event.  It was good enough for a 4^th place finish, 8 places higher than last year.  The winners were from the Saugatuck Scullers with Louisville finishing 2^nd and a strong crew from Simon Fraser University in Canada finishing 3^rd.  Overall we made up about 20 seconds on Louisville and showed vast improvement from Head of the OK to three weeks later in Boston.  Their finish was the 2^nd best by any TU crew since TU started rowing the regatta in 1999.  The boat was raced by Allie Bridge (4), Meaghan Dooley (3), Brianna Palmer (2), Angie Rozowski-Vogt (1), and coxed by Nicole Falvo.

The Lightweight 4+ was next up on Sunday.  Lightweight women at the HOCR have to have a boat average of 130lbs with no one over 138 lbs.  We easily made that goal with room to spare.  After that the women were ready to race.  They started 15^th in a field of 16 boats and had goals of finishing in the top 10, earning an automatic bid for next year’s regatta, and beating Princeton!

For those of you who may not know, Princeton is not only a power in open weight women’s rowing they also have a very strong lightweight team.  In fact, it is actually a separate team with separate boats and coaches from the open weights.   TU’s lights are making it a mission to go after them.  Our women came off the line through the BU Bridges on fire.  In an interesting coincidence, one of our TU alumna, Sue Casey Lowry, ended up starting right behind them in the Undine Rowing Club Lightweight 4+.  We knew that boat would be fast as they had finished very high up in the regatta last year and included women who were training and competing for spots on our US National Team.  Basically, when our boats saw each other, it was on!

Undine pushed through TU just after the Powerhouse Stretch but TU pushed back and held a constant distance on Undine most of the way to the finish of the race.  Our lights passed Quinte Rowing Club (Canada) almost immediately and then fought down the course for a very good 8^th place finish, just over 4% back to earn the bid for next year.  And, oh so heartbreakingly close to beating Princeton.  Princeton finished 7^th, 0.46 seconds ahead of our women!  It was great start for our young lightweight crew and a good precedent for next year’s race.  The crew of this boat was Casey Stellato (4), Bonnie Coffin (3), co-captain Monika Burton (2), Alex Stellato (1), and coxed by Gabriela Lopez.  Alex, Casey, and Bonnie are all freshmen, another sign of good things to come.

The Championship 4+ event came down the river a few minutes after the lights.  We knew that this was going to be a tougher event this year but no one knew precisely how tough until we saw the crews come down the river.  The Championship 4+ is generally made up of the best 4’s in the nation with the added twist of often having some countries’ national team crews in the event.  This year was no exception with Canada having not 1 but 2 of their squads entered as the London Training Center and the University of British Columbia.  Unfortunately, we did not know about the UBC boat until race time but that is part of the fun of the Charles.  It means you just have to go out and race!

Of our three boats, I would say that the Championship 4+ had the least satisfying race of the regatta.  Based on last year’s finish they started in 5^th place in a 20 boat field right between Princeton and Yale.  For TU, it was a starting spot between two of the best and one that we have been working toward for a few years. Unfortunately it did not work out the way we hoped.  Yale came up on our crew very quickly and we had a tough time working through getting passed.  Since good head racing involves strategy on the coxswain’s part and steering the shortest course, it hurt us when Yale passed because we, by rule, had to give way to the faster crew and move into the longer course.  My feeling is we never quite recovered from it.  I realized later that none of the women in the boat had ever been passed at the Head of the Charles.  We’ll work on it.

Even with that mental error, they still had a great race.  They finished 15^th in a tight pack with about 20 seconds between 9^th and 15^th.  We had some good splits and beat some very good crews (Michigan, Boston College, Northeastern) and were less than a hair’s breadth from beating Boston University.  We did not race our best race, but it wasn’t a bad one.  We got beat by some good crews and we beat some good crews.  What I do know is that the women of the Championship 4+ (and the other 4’s) have come back to Tulsa with a vengeance.  I have never seen women at TU work as hard as the whole team has been working after the Head of the Charles.   It’s inspiring.  The Champ 4+ was rowed by Sarah Laurent (4), Michelle Sechser (3), Becky Jenschke (2), Stacey Gilham (1), and cox Julie Burch who is also co-captain.

I need to say a word about the four women for whom this was their last trip down the Charles as collegians at TU.  Sarah Laurent, Monika Burton, Emily Bailey, and Julie Burch have all been great rowers for TU at the Head of the Charles.  Unfortunately, this year Emily could not row it due to injury but she traveled as an alternate and did awesome work supporting her teammates. She, along with Sarah and Julie will graduate knowing that they were among the first rowers to win for TU at the HOCR.  Monika last raced the HOCR in 2003 but she has been instrumental in this drive toward a successful lightweight crew.  Also, proving that rowing does not end in college, alums Sue Casey (Undine), Christine LaBarre (TRC), and Meagn Novak (TRC) all rowed this year.  One day, I hope to see a complete alumnae boat racing for TU in Boston soon!

Thanks to all of our friends and family who made the trip.  We saw the Stellatos, Falvos, Caseys, Bridges, Palmers, Dooleys, LaBarres, Lowrys, and Jenshkes.  I hope I have not forgotten anyone but if I have, thank you for coming as well.  Your support means more to us than you could ever know.  Next Up for TU is the Wichita Frostbite Regatta.  Until then, Good Rowing!                   

Kevin