Folks…
Following we have assembled a number of comments and quotes on the EARC Sprints. On site reporting from Tom Weil. Comments from Blue Crew Coaches – Andy Card, Nick Baker and Rick Clothier. Comments from Brown Coach Paul Cooke — make sure you see the remarks on the depth of the Bruno squad as well as the fact that the 1V boatings were not finalized until Thursday! The entirety of a well written article from the Boston Globe. From the Daily Princetonian, good reporting on the LW 1V and 2V. Just for perspective of achieving “gold” from Columbia Sports.
Row2k featured a video of the 2009 Eastern Sprints V8 HW Grand Final. You can check it out here:
http://www.row2k.com/video/view.cfm?vid=7208
You can get a good feel for the windy conditions and there were some interesting comments about steering by Harvard in lane 2.
Sorry, Luke. I checked the usual sources and there were not any quotable comments from Cambridge.
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Folks…
Following we have assembled a number of comments and quotes on the EARC Sprints. On site reporting from Tom Weil. Comments from Blue Crew Coaches – Andy Card, Nick Baker and Rick Clothier. Comments from Brown Coach Paul Cooke — make sure you see the remarks on the depth of the Bruno squad as well as the fact that the 1V boatings were not finalized until Thursday! The entirety of a well written article from the Boston Globe. From the Daily Princetonian, good reporting on the LW 1V and 2V. Just for perspective of achieving “gold” from Columbia Sports.
Row2k featured a video of the 2009 Eastern Sprints V8 HW Grand Final. You can check it out here:
http://www.row2k.com/video/view.cfm?vid=7208
You can get a good feel for the windy conditions and there were some interesting comments about steering by Harvard in lane 2.
Sorry, Luke. I checked the usual sources and there were not any quotable comments from Cambridge.
______________________________
Update on the IRA. Included at the end below is a letter outlining the current status of entries for the IRA National Championships.
*
Varsity HW 8+. 12 crews are qualified and the event limit is 24. Navy [10th at EARC] and Yale [15th] will need to hope for an at-large bid.
*
2nd Varsity HW 8+. 6 crews are qualified and the event limit is 18. Neither Yale [7th] or Navy [14th] qualified at the EARC sprints {top 6 finishers}. Both crews will also need an at-large bid. However such a bid is dependent upon acceptance of an at-large bid by the respective Varsity crews and attendance at the regatta.
*
Freshman HW 8+. 4 crews are qualified and the event limit is 18. Yale [6th] qualified at the EARC sprints {top 6 finishers}. However their participation is dependent upon the Yale Varsity gaining and accepting an at-large bid and participating at the regatta. Navy [8th] at the Sprints, did not qualify and would need to receive an at-large bid. Again, participation of the Navy Plebes, depends on what happens to the Navy Varsity.
*
Varsity 4+ is an open event. 19 crews including Yale have declared entries and all have been accepted. Navy did not declare an entry in this event.
As of May 11, the list of Declared Crews shows numbers that are close to the maximum number of entries in the respective events, so those crews who are looking for at-large bids can be hopeful, still being mindful of the requirement of the 1V before 2V or 1F can row:
*
Varsity HW 8+. 28 crews have declared, 12 crews are qualified and the event limit is 24.
*
2nd Varsity HW 8+. 19 crews have declared, 6 crews are qualified and the event limit is 18.
*
Freshman HW 8+. 23 crews have declared, 4 crews are qualified and the event limit is 18.
The letter from the ECAC indicated that announcement of the complete field for the 2009 IRA Championships will be made on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 as soon as the committees finish the selection process. Up until then feel free to speculate.
This weekend the Yale and Navy women will head to the Cooper River in NJ for the EAWRC Sprints. More on that later.
GO BLUE!
Cheers!
Best Regards,
Coach and TB406
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From Tom “Big Gulp” Weil:
A little on the spot post-action insight from the beach at Qunisigamond:
It was a good day for spectators. Sweet sunlight, good temperature, and a refreshing breeze. Steve Flagg, the Yale 150 lb captain in 1957 (whose father rowed heavies for both Navy and Yale) and I joined forces to cheer on three sets of Blues (when there wasn’t a conflict, Steve was also rooting for Columbia, where he went to medical school). The wind was undoubtedly a fairly constant adverse factor in the racing, pushing both crews and water in the outside lanes, but its onshore impact was not much worse than occasional sand storms, flying plastic dinner plates, and lawn chairs skating over the concrete deck at Regatta Point.
The Yale and Navy Blues were central to my favorite series – the lightweight 2V races. The first heat was slightly delayed by one of two fairly spectacular incidents during the regatta – a first Punic War style collision, in the preceding 3rd heat of the 3rd freshman heavyweights, between George Washington in lane 5 and Columbia in lane 6 that left the Light Blue vessel incapacitated and limping back to the dock (the other event, which Jon mentioned in his coverage, involved a young lady in a stake boat who was apparently so attached to her Northeastern crew that, when they pulled off the start, she went with them, over the side and into Quinsigamond).
The first 2V LW heat matched Yale in lane 2 (lane 1 was empty) against Harvard in lane 3 and Princeton in lane 4, with Penn and Dartmouth outboard, and that was how they finished, with separation increasing decisively from the start, in lane order except for Dartmouth (lane 6) leading Penn (lane 5) at the end. Good hard rowing, with no moves of any real consequence.
Now came the second heat, with Navy in lane 2, Cornell in lane 3, Georgetown in 4 and Columbia in 5, and it was a race for 2,000 meters. Cornell came strong, and were ahead with 250 meters to go, when the Mids uncorked a ferocious sprint that devoured the separation, gulping seats with every stroke, and pipping the Big Red at the line. Awesome display of Navy control and desire.
And then the final, which overlaid on the heats results, ran close to form. Yale had another excellent row, pushed down the course for 2,000 meters by the Blue and Gold, followed by Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and Georgetown. So it was the Blue taking gold, and the Blue and Gold silver, and, on a day when there was a bit too much of brown (Brown) and red (Cornell, Harvard and Wisconsin) on the podium, it was a joy to see these two blues together on the first and second steps.
As a final note, there were several other good closing charges, but Brown’s heavyweight varsity sprint to cut Harvard down in the last 100 meters (and complete a Brown sweep of the V, 2V and F heavyweight races) was a real barn-burner on par with the Navy 2V LW dash.
Best, Tom
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From Steve Nimitz USNA ’76:
If you were tuned in to the broadcast of the 1V LW race, you may have picked up the comment (paraphrased) as the crews entered the middle 1000, “Navy is making a move. They’re used to this water. They row on the Severn.”
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From Yale Sports:
Head Coach Andy Card said he was proud of all the Bulldog crews for their performances today. He added, “I was especially proud of the junior varsity boat’s performance. The JV crew dominated the sprints by open water. They have done a great job all year, no matter what the situation, and today’s performance was a remarkable achievement.”
The Bulldogs also finished second for the Jope Cup in overall points, losing to Harvard by a score of 32-31.
Coach Card finished by saying, “I am proud of the varsity boat. They have some good rows under their belts, but they have gone through a period of struggle, however we aren’t done yet, by any stretch.”
_________________________________
And From the Yale 150s Website [I suspect courtesy of D.B. Cooper]
Sprints Gold for 2V, bronze for 1F & 3V, 1V IRA-bound
Yale’s lightweights got three medals at windy Lake Quinsigamond today, including a dominant 2V performance that saw Yale win pillar-to-post, as they have all season. The varsity crew, which has battled to separate from the dynamic 2V all season, accomplished some internal metrics to build on as preparations for the national championship go forward.
The 1F had another great race in the final. Despite leading the race at a few points, the Yale 1F couldn’t quite keep the pace of deserving champion Cornell, and the Bulldogs were just edged at the line by Harvard by 0.321 seconds. The 3V couldn’t find the extra gear needed in the last 500 to overcome Harvard and Cornell, and the crew, which had previously bested Harvard and Cornell during their undefeated regular season, had to settle for bronze. The history-making 4V 4+ had a good row to come in second behind MIT’s 2V 4+, and the 2F finished as seeded, in fifth.
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From Navy Sports:
“We had the goal coming into the first varsity race of winning and we were second most of the way in the final,” stated Navy head coach Nick Baker. “We went out and gave ourselves everything we had, but that unfortunately allowed Georgetown come in at the every end and nip us for third place. It was good to beat Yale across the finish line and it shows how tightly packed the boats are.”
“The second varsity crew was the highlight of the day, as they came from behind twice today,” said Baker. “The boat showed a lot of determination. We were last off the line in the morning heat, but got back to second and passed Cornell at the very end. We were trailing in the grand final, but came from behind to pass Harvard right before the finish line.”
______________________________
“Today was a good day of racing for us,” stated Navy head coach Rick Clothier. “Our first varsity, first freshmen and second freshmen crews beat their seedings and we were able to trim down a lot of the time deficits from earlier in the year.”
“I am really pleased and proud of our guys on the first varsity crew,” said Clothier. “The conditions were tough on the outside lane, but they competed and were able to finish four notches ahead of our seeding coming into the weekend with better times than two teams seeded higher than us.”
“I’m also proud of the performance by our first freshmen boat,” stated Clothier. “Their eighth-place finish is the highest by our plebes since winning the petite finals in 2005.”
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From the Boston Herald:
Although there were sun-splashed skies above Lake Quinsigamond yesterday afternoon, Brown coach Paul Cooke proved to be a savvy weatherman.
“It never rains; it pours,” Cooke said after his heavyweight rowers swept to victories in the varsity, second varsity and freshman races to capture the Rowe Cup, emblematic of heavyweight dominance at the 64th annual Eastern Sprints Regatta.
The traditional dunking in the lake of the winning coach followed.
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From the Worcester Telegram:
We had started inching up beforehand, started building some momentum. Somehow, I felt a whole lot of power coming from behind me. All the way home it felt great.
— Scott Morgan, BROWN VARSITY EIGHT CREW MEMBER
Paul Cooke’s Brown University crew team is so deep that he often shuffles his lineups on a daily basis. So it should come as no surprise that the seats on his best boat weren’t filled until Thursday.
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From the Boston Globe:
Eastern Sprints
The Boston Globe
Brown overpowers Harvard to complete sweep
WORCESTER – The race was more than halfway over, Brown’s boat was about five seats behind Harvard’s, and in a strange way, Bears coach Paul Cooke saw it as a positive sign.
He remembered being behind Harvard at the San Diego Classic in April and finishing neck-and-neck.
The very next week, when the crews battled in Boston, the Bears fell behind by nearly a boat-length but they pushed so hard down the stretch they ended up within a single second of the Crimson.
At yesterday’s Eastern Sprints on Lake Quinsigamond, Cooke saw those five seats and said to himself, “They’re not quite as far out as they were last time. Maybe we can come through.”
His oarsmen were thinking along the same lines.
Thinking back to the way Harvard finished in San Diego, junior stroke Scott Morgan said, “They had shut down, and we were trying to sprint through.”
With the varsity eight heavyweight grand final, the Ivy League title, the Rowe Cup, and a trip to the IRA national championship all waiting for the crew that crossed the finish line just 500 meters away, Brown made another push.
“We were starting to get a little momentum going,” said senior coxswain Rob O’Leary. “We basically knew that, at 500 to go, we had to really start shifting into that next gear if we wanted to take them.”
Seat by seat, the margin started to shrink.
“I just felt a lot of power come from behind me,” Morgan said. “We started moving a couple of seats, then we were two seats down, one seat down . . .”
By the time they reached the finish, they were two seats ahead, overpowering the Crimson in the final 15 strokes to win in 5 minutes 41.363 seconds, 1.262 seconds ahead of Harvard.
The win completed a clean sweep of the heavyweight sprints for Brown, which edged the Crimson in the freshman race and won by open water in the second varsity run, stretching out a four-second win over Wisconsin.
Though Princeton won the varsity lightweight grand final, Harvard was able to snare the Jope Cup, tallying the most points in the three lightweight grand finals.
Brown’s heavyweight grand final win was its first since 2000, and sixth in school history, along with its sixth Rowe Cup.
It was the first time a team had swept all three races since Harvard did it in 2004, and Cooke said it spoke volumes about his team’s depth.
“We have a bunch of really strong guys,” said Cooke. “Very dedicated and very tenacious. I think that’s kept us a potential winner all year long. We felt as though we’ve had the dedication, the commitment, and the training that we could win if we put it together.”
Cooke hasn’t gone with the same eight oarsmen all season.
“We’ve gone through a ton of lineup changes,” Morgan said. “Almost a new lineup every week.”
The eight oarsmen on the water yesterday had been assembled Thursday afternoon.
Seeing the way the second varsity blew Wisconsin out of the water, Cooke joked, “I honestly hoped that I hadn’t messed up. I was really impressed. I hadn’t expected it to be that dominant.”
“Those were the guys pushing us at practice every day, making us get faster,” O’Leary said. “Most of those guys have rowed on our boat at some points and helped to make the varsity what it is.”
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From The Daily Princetonian:
The lightweight first-varsity race was the last of the day. The Tigers had won all their races on the season by at least three seconds. This would be the final race before IRA Nationals and the one needed to complete an undefeated season. When the gun went off, both Princeton and Yale got out to fast starts, but the Tigers soon edged past the Bulldogs for a three-seat lead. Yale was only about a seat above the rest of the pack, and Harvard quickly overtook the Bulldogs. Still, Princeton had a five-seat lead on the Crimson, and both boats began to pull away from the field.
The Tigers were trying to push out on Harvard, but the Crimson hung on. Princeton maintained its five-seat lead until the 500 mark, at which point the Tigers, finding another gear, upped their lead to an entire length on Harvard.
Princeton pushed harder in the final sprint, earning an insurmountable lead. The Orange and Black rowed through the finish with a time of five minutes, 41.4 seconds, beating the Crimson by a solid 2.5 seconds. Georgetown, Navy, Yale and Cornell closed the race in that order.
The 2V lightweight boat also made its grand final. The Tigers and the Crimson jumped out at the start, but after the opening moments, all the boats were more or less even. Princeton and Yale eventually edged past the field and continued to pass and re-pass each other for a number of lead changes.
Halfway through the race, however, the Bulldogs took a three-seat lead, and the Tigers gradually lost steam over the remainder of the race, allowing Harvard to move into second place.
Yale led coming into the sprint, followed by Harvard, Navy, Princeton, Cornell and Georgetown. Princeton ultimately fell back of the Crimson and the Midshipmen and finished one second behind the Big Red for a fifth-place finish in a time of 6:02.3.
The first-varsity lightweights will attempt to put the finishing touches on their perfect season during the first weekend of June, when the team travels to Sacramento, Calif., for the 2009 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships.
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From Columbia Sports:
Lightweights Strike Gold at Eastern Sprints
[Coach’s Note — I guess that “Gold” is a matter of perspective …]
Rebounding from a sub-par morning of racing, the Columbia men’s lightweight rowers struck gold at the Eastern Sprints when their first place in the Petite Final of the Varsity Eights clinched a trip to the Golden State, California, for the National Lightweight Championship in June. The Lion second varsity and freshman eights joined their varsity counterparts in the Petite Final winner’s circles.
The mood after the morning heats at Lake Quinsigamond was one of gloom. The varsity lightweight eight, needing to finish in the top three to make the Grand Final, as it had done last year in one of the Sprints’ major surprises, fell to fourth, well behind third-place Yale. The second varsity and freshman eights also took fourth in their heats.
But the Lion lightweights engineered a complete turnaround in the afternoon. Responding to more than 100 wildly cheering parents and alumni, Columbia’s lightweights won all three of their Petite Finals, a superb reversal.
“There was a lot more fire in the afternoon,” assistant lightweight coach Ed Golding noted. Head coach Scott Alwin, although not overwhelmed by the improved rowing, was certainly encouraged. After “a disappointing morning,” he said, “it was a solid, but not great afternoon.”
Alwin was cautious in praising his crews. “We don’t want to be known as a program that [just] wins the Petite Final,” he said. However, he couldn’t contain his enthusiasm when speaking about the varsity lightweights.
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From Row2k:
IRA Declared Crews and Automatic Qualifiers as of May 11 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Gary Caldwell, ECAC Rowing
CLick for full-size image
The IRA travels to Lake Natoma CA in 2009
We have now completed all of the regional championships with the exception of the PAC10 Championships which will be held this coming weekend. Bucknell University’s Women’s Lightweight Eight was the sole automatic qualifier from the Dad Vail Regatta this weekend, and there were no automatic qualifiers from the ECAC/NIRC as the finals were blown away. Dedicated automatic qualifiers not utilized from those championships will revert to the at large pools in their respective events.
List of Declared Crews for the 2009 IRA Championships as of 6:30 Monday morning, May 11, 2009. Please note the following as it applies to the attached list:
The following Men’s Heavyweight Entries have earned automatic qualification through competition at their regional championships:
Varsity Heavyweight Eight: (12)
Gonzaga University – WIRA
University of California – San Diego – WIRA
University of San Diego – WIRA
Brown University – EARC
Harvard University – EARC
University of Wisconsin – EARC
Cornell -University – EARC
Northeastern University – EARC
Boston University – EARC
Columbia University – EARC
Syracuse University – EARC
George Washington University – EARC 2nd Varsity Heavyweight Eight: (6)
Gonzaga University – WIRA
Brown University – EARC
University of Wisconsin – EARC
Boston University – EARC
Harvard University – EARC
Cornell University – EARC
Freshman Heavyweight Eight: (4)
Brown University – EARC
Harvard University – EARC
Cornell University – EARC
University of Wisconsin – EARC
In addition, Princeton’s 2nd Varsity Heavyweight Eight, Freshman Heavyweight Eight, and Yale’s Freshman Heavyweight Eight have earned automatic bids to the 2009 IRA, pending acceptance and attendance of their respective Varsity Eights from the at large pool, and subsequent attendance of those crews at the championships.
The following Men’s Lightweight Entries have earned automatic qualification through competition at their regional championships:
Men’s Varsity Lightweight Eights: (7)
Princeton University – EARC
Harvard University – EARC
Georgetown University – EARC
Yale University – EARC
United States Naval Academy – EARC
Cornell University – EARC
Columbia University – EARC
The following Women’s Lightweight Entries have earned automatic qualification through competition at their regional championships:
Women’s Varsity Lightweight Eights: (1)
Bucknell University – Dad Vail
Please note the additional items:
1. To be eligible for The Open Four event you must qualify both a Varsity Heavyweight Eight and a Freshman Heavyweight Eight.
2. The Varsity Four Event is an Open Event and all crews entered have been accepted.
3. The Women’s National Championship Lightweight Eight Field will be determined by that event’s selection committee.
4. Please remember AMENDED ENTRY DEADLINE (Fax/Email): Monday, May 18, 2009 at 3:00 PM EDT (12:00 PM PDT)- Fax number:- 617-629-7612
5. Announcement of the complete field for the 2009 IRA Championships will be made on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 as soon as the committees finish the selection process.