Folks …
Both Blue Crew squads [Navy and Yale] opened the Fall rowing season with good performances and a number of victories. Off-season rowing also offers the opportunity for fundamental coaching and a time to test different combinations in multiple events and to integrate the former “freesh” into the varsity squads.
Navy Rowing With Successful Results at Navy Day Regatta
The Navy rowing teams won seven races last weekend in its first action of the season at the Navy Day Regatta in Philadelphia.
Navy won the men’s heavyweight collegiate 4 final, the men’s lightweight / heavyweight collegiate Frosh/novice 8+ final, the men’s heavyweight collegiate JV 8+ final, the men’s open/collegiate lightweight 8+ final, the men’s heavyweight collegiate Frosh/novice 4+ final, the men’s heavyweight open/collegiate 8+ final and the women’s open/collegiate 8+ final.
Folks …
Both Blue Crew squads [Navy and Yale] opened the Fall rowing season with good performances and a number of victories. Off-season rowing also offers the opportunity for fundamental coaching and a time to test different combinations in multiple events and to integrate the former “freesh” into the varsity squads.
Navy Rowing With Successful Results at Navy Day Regatta
The Navy rowing teams won seven races last weekend in its first action of the season at the Navy Day Regatta in Philadelphia.
Navy won the men’s heavyweight collegiate 4 final, the men’s lightweight / heavyweight collegiate Frosh/novice 8+ final, the men’s heavyweight collegiate JV 8+ final, the men’s open/collegiate lightweight 8+ final, the men’s heavyweight collegiate Frosh/novice 4+ final, the men’s heavyweight open/collegiate 8+ final and the women’s open/collegiate 8+ final.
The men’s lightweight team also had success, placing first and second in the 8+ final with times of 12:39.20 and 12:39.24. The team also placed third in the lightweight 4+ final.
The women’s team won the open/collegiate 8+ final with a clocking of 14:23.81. The boat featured two freshman and gave coach Mike Hughes a strong performance.
Yale Lightweights Post Strong Results on the Housatonic
The Yale lightweight crew team is off to a quick start to its fall season after Saturday’s results. Racing in its first race of the year at the Head of the Housatonic, held on Yale’s home waters, the varsity boat took first place in two races. The regatta was an opportunity for every member of the crew to gain valuable experience going forward, as almost everyone raced twice.
Yale’s top boat posted the fastest times in both the Men’s Collegiate 8+ as well as the Men’s Masters/Open 8+, with times of 14:34 and 14:22 respectively. In addition, Yale raced two other eights in the Men’s Collegiate 8+ event, finishing fifth and seventh in 15:06 and 15:10 respectively, one other eight in the Men’s Masters/Open 8+, finishing third in 14:44, as well as three fours in the Men’s Collegiate 4+, finishing fourth, fifth and seventh in 17:00, 17:12 and 17:47 respectively.
For head coach Andy Card, “The first race is in some way the biggest leap into the unknown of all our races, and sometimes it’s the most fun row of all for that very reason. We haven’t rowed as a team since Henley, and although we always lose a senior class we also always gain a sophomore class, and putting the new guys in with the older guys is always an interesting challenge.”
Even though the lightweights did not win every event, Coach Card was happy with his team’s performance. “I think we had some good rows out there,” he said, “and the ones that weren’t so good were improved upon in the second row. Another reason to like this race is that it whets everyone’s appetite for improvement; sometimes some stark results can kick start better performances. I think we’ll have a more informed two weeks of practice before the Head of the Charles.”
“The first race [of the season] is always a bit of an unknown,” Card said. “These combinations haven’t rowed together very much as an eight.” Still, he added, the Head of the Housatonic is a great place to start.
Card said the goals for the season include integrating sophomores to the varsity level, incorporating freshmen and helping seniors acclimate to their new leadership positions.
Heavyweights Win Three Events at Head of the Housatonic
After winning four of the five races it competed in this weekend, the men’s heavyweight crew season is off to a promising start.
Twelve boats raced in the team’s first event of the season this Saturday at the Head of the Housatonic.. Although the heavyweight team saw overall success and Yale’s lightweight team took a Collegiate Eight race, heavyweight coach Stephen Gladstone said this regatta was not about the standings.
“It’s not so much results [at the Head of the Housatonic], so much as it is training,” Gladstone said. “Races were opportunities for the team to gain competition experience. We experimented with lineups in different races to help finalize who will row in each boat for their next races.”
Yale won both the Collegiate eights and fours races against other qualifying Intercollegiate Rowing Association teams. Gladstone said the competition was most helpful because it required rowers to work with different teams of people and in different positions within a boat.
Gladstone said he placed rowers in multiple events to prepare them for the upcoming season, but the additional racing prevented the men from dominating the competition.
Still, in the Collegiate Eight, the heavyweight team encountered a few surprises. The boat the team expected to be faster came in behind another Yale heavyweight boat. In addition, a Yale lightweight boat — expected to trail the heavyweight rowers — ultimately took first.
But this meet was the freshmen’s first taste of collegiate heavyweight crew, Gladstone said, adding that the class of 2015 was .
“The freshman class is promising, but we won’t know until the racing in the spring,” Gladstone said. “The tale of the tape is in the spring races.” The 2015 Frosh are the first class he recruited since he became heavyweight coach last year.
Yale Women’s Crew | Elis sweep Housatonic
The Yale women’s crew team opened the season in style on Saturday, as it clinched the collegiate eight event at the Head of the Housatonic race at home in Derby, Conn., by a margin of over 25 seconds.
It was a dominant performance by the Bulldogs, who also tasted victory at last year’s Head of the Housatonic race, as the varsity boat cruised through the finish in a time of 15:45.3, ahead of a crew from Ivy League rivals Harvard/Radcliffe, which finished in a time of 16:10.9.
“This is a great way to start our fall season, on our home river against oldest rival, Harvard,” said head coach William Porter. “We get to see right away where we stand.”
Yale crews also won the collegiate pair, collegiate coxed four and collegiate novice eight events. The collegiate coxed four event finished a full 18 seconds ahead of second-place Harvard.
“I’m definitely happy,” head coach Will Porter said. “We won the varsity eight, we won the four, the pair and our novice eight won. And every kid was able to race as well. I was very pleased with the way we started.”
“The thing I’m excited about is that almost every kid on the team was able to race twice,” Porter said. “We haven’t done that in five or six years. It’s sort of getting back to basics for us.”
Full details of articles from Navy Sports, Yale Sports and the Yale Daily News are included below.
Row2k provides full results for both regattas:
Navy Day Regatta – http://www.boathouserow.org/rega11/Navy-Day-Regatta-2011-all-results.html
Head of the Housatonic – http://www.row2k.com/results/resultspage.cfm?UID=1331405&cat=6
Other notable results at the Head of the Housatonic include others of the “more mature” Blue Crews:
Rowing for Yale BC, LW Coach Andy Card placed second in Men’s Masters 1x [40-49]
Dave Vogel, Yale LW ’71 and long term Bull Dog LW and HW coach, doubled up, placing fifth in Men’s Veteran 1x [60-69] and second in Men’s Masters 2x.
There may be other Blue Crew alumni in these events, but these are the names I recognized. If there are others among you or of whom you are aware, get back and I will give all a proper shout out and “props”.
Kudos and Bravo Zulu to Andy and Dave for continuing to “carry the colors”.
All six Blue squads will take this weekend to continue training in advance of competition in the 47th Head of the Charles Regatta [the world’s largest rowing event] on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23 in Boston.
In addition to the Blue collegiate crews we have also learned that there will be at least three other notable entries.
Bob Blase, USNA LW ’75 reports: I’m rowing next weekend in the Grand Masters’ Singles, Event #1 at the HOCR although I’m not really race ready [Bow #47] and in the Directors’ Challenge Mixed Doubles event [following event #30 at 1645 on Saturday] with one of my sculling coaches and friend Katie Weeden, just for fun.
Tom Cook, USNA LW ’76 —
I’m still going strong with rowing out on the “Left Coast”. I will be rowing at the HOTC on Saturday 22 Oct around 10:19 for the San Diego Rowing Club in the Senior-Master Doubles Men ( Event 9, Bow #23). We will be rowing against the other 60+ boats within that 50+ event.
Dave Vogel, Yale ’71 —
My partner [at Head of the Housatonic] was John Morrell Yale ’86, Yale faculty member in Engineering and a good training inspiration. We took a bronze at the Masters Nationals in OK this summer, but seem to have started to finally get the old man in shape of late. We will race the Head of the Charles in the 50+ 2x. [Event #9, Bow #24].
Not only will Tom and Dave be facing off in the same event, their starting positions will put them in close contact for direct competition. Tom and his partner, with an average age of 60, also will be competing in the same event with 11 other crews for a Grand Master medal.
Again, if there are others among you, get back so we can give all proper credit and alert the media and fans so that they can cheer on your entries.
Row2k has already begun coverage of the HOTC. You can get more stuff at www.hocr.org.
In addition below there is an interesting article from the Yale Daily News on coxswains. Among the comments for all to enjoy:
Although coxswains might be the smallest members of the heavyweight crew team —and they don’t actually row — they play a large part in pulling the boats forward.
“The coxswain is not an adjunct to the crew,” Yale Coach Stephen Gladstone said. “The coxswain is an integral part of the crew.”
Coxswains must also help execute strategy and facilitate communication between the rowers
During races, the coxswain must steer the boat, tell the team when to change pace and ensure rowers are in sync … steering the boat is the most important of a coxswain’s numerous tasks because it is imperative to navigate the shortest possible route to the finish line.
“I honestly don’t know how they do it,” men’s heavyweight crew captain Tom Dethlefs ’12 said. “There are a thousand things to be done at once…The responsibilities they have are important and they are not easy to do.”
At practice, coxswains work just as hard as on race day. They help to record data on what exercises the rowers are doing and how long it takes them to complete these workouts … an experienced coxswain can understand the “bio mechanics of a stroke” — the way a rower’s body works to optimize the power in each stroke — and can enhance the technical development of the entire team.
“My favorite [comparison] is that of a jockey … knowing how to best use the power of the horse, when to be harsh and when to encourage, being able to see an opportunity to win a race and knowing how to take it.”
“There is a certain link between coach and coxswain that perhaps the rowers don’t have” … “a coach has a different relationship with his coxswains, adding that he will occasionally take a coxswain aside to get his or her input on how the crew as a whole is performing … they serve as liaisons between the rowers and the coach.”
“[Coxswains] are sort of like the brain of the boat”
“Coxswains are just as competitive as the rowers”
“Competing in a race requires a combination of coxing and rowing in order to win … that bottom line helps to bring the team together”
An interesting perspective of a very critical component of the “Great Circle of Rowing” — comments?
While many of the Yale Blue Crew stalwarts are familiar, many of you may not be aware of that most great competition — Bladderball. [See full article below where the Yale Daily News declares victory!].
As residential colleges and student groups fought to capture the coveted Bladderball Saturday, police officers took the prize in the end.
Bladderball — a Yale tradition banned in 1982 in which students vie to tug a coveted rubber ball to their residential college’s courtyard — resurfaced Saturday for the second time since the ban. After a day of rampant speculation, the emergence of the six-foot, multicolored ball sparked pandemonium among nearly 300 people. Though the ball popped just two minutes after it was deployed, its deflated remains moved sporadically up Elm Street until Yale police abruptly ended the game and confiscated the largest piece 11 minutes after the spectacle began.
The Bladderball tradition began in 1954 and was banned by then-University President A. Bartlett Giamatti [also President of MLB’s American League] and Yale College Dean Howard Lamar 28 years later. The game reappeared for the first time in 2009.
If you are interested in “Bladderball Throughout YDN History” and for some classic photos go to:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/oct/10/bladderball-reemerges-brief-game/
More on the fall season and the HOTC later.
Go Blue … Be One With The Boat!
Cheers!
Best Regards,
Coach, TB406 and Poker Face