For the first time ever, Women's Rowing is in serious contention for a bid to the NCAA Division III Championships. It is a nervous time - but rowers are used to stress and are hanging together.
"Rowing has been called the ultimate team sport," said women's crew captain Laura Ratz. "Every girl in the boat has to give it up for the girl in front of her and trust that the girl behind them is giving it up for them. That's where the speed comes from."
She added, "Then the boat will fly."
Stuck in a low, long, thin boat in the middle of a large body of water may seem like a sufficient incentive to cooperate, to an outsider. Rowing is a complex sport that combines intense physical exertion, precise technical execution, and challenging mental endurance.
Head Rowing Coach Mike Davenport frequently tells his rowers that a winning team is built off the water and success lies in attention to the details.
vThis season, the team has been putting extra emphasis on land training. "We've been doing Power Hours with Mike Duquette and running sprint workouts and that has made a huge difference with our conditioning," said Ratz.
Davenport added, "Power Hour twice a week had a huge impact."
Yet what many people might not know is that rowers normally spend half of their training time out of a boat and on dry land.
In rowing, there are two physical spaces that rowers face: the erg and the boat. Erg, or in laymen's terms a rowing machine, is a machine that uses ergonometric exercising. Whole practices, especially in the cold winter months, are spent doing time or distant "pieces" on the erg to get rowers into peak athletic condition.
Erg tests, held like regular exams, are usually 2,000 meters or 5,000 meters that often cause rowers to feel intense nausea as they anticipate the test that could determine their placement in the first or second boat.
Assistant Coach Jessie House said that there have been a lot of tests this season making it "a tough year."
"But," she added, "I think overall, the girls have prevailed with their hard work and dedication."
Ergs measure a rower's speed, strength, and endurance. Mentally taxing, rowing on an erg also tests a rower's ability to overcome physical exhaustion in combination with accurate technique to maintain their goal numbers.
Davenport said, "The goal for [this] season was for everyone to identify their potential and work toward that."
Rowing in an actual boat, or shell, is the culmination of weeks of rigorous physical and mental endurance on the erg. Then another set of skills needs to be honed. Shells usually raced on the collegiate level are singles, quads, and eights. "The coaches have really been stressing technique this year," says Ratz.
To be successful and fast, a boat of rowers must learn to move perfectly in sync, the tiniest imbalance or discord takes valuable time off of a boat's speed. To coordinate all these movements and steer the boat of backward-facing rowers, is the coxswain.
"The coxswain is a completely unique position," said Ratz. She added that, out on the water, coxswains have all the authority and decision making responsibilities of a coach.. Coxswains provide both steering, direction, and motivation. Ratz points out that this is not easy, "Coxswains can win or loose a race. [They] have to know what to say and when to say it." "It's been intense," said senior men's team's coxswain Ashleigh Genevich, reflecting on her four years on the team. "I think all of my expectations have been met."
Earning All-Region Honors at the Mid-Atlantic D-III Rowing Championship last weekend, Genevich coxes the men's lightweight four that has won all its races but one this season.
The men's team has had a "great" year, according to new men's head coach John Leekley.
"I don't think I could have asked for a better coach," said Genevich. "Previous coaches have had a few screws loose, but he definitely knows what he's doing which make it a lot easier." The men's team hopes to medal this weekend at the Dad Vail Regatta, the largest collegiate race in the country. After winning last weekend's Mid-Atlantic D-III Rowing Championship, the women's team is ranked first in the Mid-Atlantic region and 14th in the nation for D-III. This weekend they are hoping to do well at the ECAC National Invitational Championships to better their chance of getting an NCAA bid. But in the end, said Davenport, "it's just a medal [and] it's not the determinant of why we do what we do."
So what's the reason? Said Davenport: "It's tough, it's different, you do it in the middle of nowhere - you do it for you."
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