While this was the third regatta for the team this season, the level of competition that they faced this time around featured some much bigger names than the first two. In the 12 heats the team participated in, they raced against the likes of the University of Texas, Ohio State University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Florida.

Given the high levels of competition, the team was happy with its performance. “We were extremely happy with how we did,” senior and men’s team captain Derek Turnbull said. “The novices won a gold medal against teams with top coaching. The lightweights were up against 10 other schools that recruit guys.”

The Men’s Novice Lightweight 4, referenced by Turnbull, took the gold in its A Final with a time of 7:09.30. The boat, with freshman rowers Paul Goedeke, Jeff Gerold, Geoff Gunter, George Steenkolk and freshman coxswain Ally Rifkind, managed to take first over Clemson University, the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Virginia Tech University.

“We were ahead from the beginning and we were really comfortable going into the race,” Gerold said. “Ally did a really great job in that race, motivating us to be strong off the start.”

Three other Wash. U. boats made it to A or B Finals events. The Women’s Novice 4 made it to the A Final before finishing in sixth with a time of 8:33.55.

In B Finals, the Men’s Novice 4 took sixth in 7:44.46 while the Women’s Varsity 8 took fourth place out of six at a 7:31.41 clip.

“Considering the makeup of our team, I thought we did extremely well,” sophomore Lindsay Lozito said, referencing the fact that the team only has one junior and is otherwise all sophomores and freshmen. “We did a lot better than we could’ve hoped.”

The Men’s Varsity 8 competed as well, although its 6:17.42 in the first heat gave it fifth place for the event, not enough to move on to the semifinals. Then again, it wasn’t the place that mattered to the team, but rather the performance.

“We were seeing how we could do against these D1 schools,” Turnbull said. “We had a good race. We know we’re not going to get medals against D1 schools.”

The team is back on the river in two weeks when it heads to Topeka, Kan., on May 1 for the Great Plains Rowing Championships. With this being the final regatta before nationals on May 22, the team is beginning to fine-tune its selection of boats.

“We have to talk about whether to practice and race our 8, or we can go back to 4s which we know we’re really good at and go for the gold in those events,” Turnbull said.

Courtesy of University Rowing Association

Members of Washington University men’s crew team hold the Case Cup, given to the team with the most overall points, after winning it in the URA championship.

Just 1.6 seconds and two points separated the Washington University men’s crew team from a race victory and the overall points trophy. When the Washington University men’s crew team reached the end of the final race in the University Rowing Association championships, it had earned both.

The Wash. U. victory over Rochester in the men’s Heavyweight Varsity 4 earned 12 points to Rochester’s nine, giving them the needed two-point boost for the overall win.

“In the end it came down to a few races where the varsity team came in first,” senior co-captain Derek Turnbull said.

Co-captain Jewell Thomas, juniors Andrew Warshauer and Ryan Bowers, coxswain Rui Hu and freshman Eamon Callison represented Wash. U. in the crucial Heavyweight 4. They made an important sprint halfway through the course, overtaking the squad from the University of Chicago.

“Halfway through, we made our move,” Thomas said. “We crept up on them. It was a very well-rowed race; Chicago and Rochester were ahead of us at the start.”

“We just have a really young team,” sophomore Miranda Timonen said. “This is a building year for us. We’re very pleased with how we performed against Rochester.”

Like the men’s team, the women saw the regatta as a positive indicator for the rest of the season.

In the women’s competition, the Bears finished in second behind the Yellowjackets, who claimed the top spot in each varsity race. The Varsity 8 proved to be the most exciting race, as the Lady Bears edged Rochester’s B boat by 0.7 seconds for second place. According to Timonen, Wash. U. made its move about 250 meters from the finish, erasing a boat-length deficit to overtake the Yellowjackets, a varsity program.

“This is sort of an opener to our official season…sort of a barometer, and were really pleased,” Timonen said. “It’s really been fantastic to see [the freshmen] develop as rowers.”

The URA represents the equivalent of a conference championship for Wash. U.’s crew squads. Schools from the University Athletic Association, including Rochester, the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University, competed for the title. But the URA is not officially part of the UAA or the NCAA.

The men’s overall-points trophy win left team members optimistic about future competitions.

“It’s my thought now going into this spring [that] we’re going to have one of the fastest crews that Wash. U. has seen in a long time,” Thomas said. “We have the opportunity to row in some of the high profile [regattas].”

The Bears are back in action at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Regatta in Oakridge, Tenn., on April 17.

With additional reporting by Johann Quas Hiansen

(L to R) Freshmen Emily Bullen, Anne Dohmen, Diana Goeller and sophomore Jordan Entin compete in the Novice Women’s 4+ at the Parent’s Weekend Classic on Oct. 25. (Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life)

The cool, gentle wind and lapping waves of Creve Coeur Lake contrasted with the intensity of crew teams slicing through the water.

The Washington University club crew team came out on top in the majority of races at the Parents Weekend regatta. The Bears competed against Mizzou, the University of Illinois, Saint Louis University and the University of Chicago.

Some races, like the Varsity Men’s 8 and the Novice Women’s 8, were decided by three seconds or less.

Others, like the Novice Women’s 4 race, were decided by a much larger amount of time. The boat led by sophomore coxswain Jordan Entin and crewed by freshmen Emily Bullen, Hana Toribara, Diana Goeller and Anne Dohmen came from behind despite some technical difficulty at the start of the race. “My seat came off the rollers within the first five minutes,” Goeller said. “I didn’t want the oar to drag in the water, so I had to put the oar under my knee, and I’m turning around and trying to fix it.”

Once those on the boat understood they were encountering technical trouble, they adjusted.

“Normally it’s easier to set up the 8 because you aren’t worried about the boat tilting back and forth,” Bullen said. “When we just got out there today, once we started moving, we got the hang of it.”

It was the first time these Lady Bears had passed a boat in a race situation, and it was fitting as Illinois edged Wash. U. by 0.6 seconds at Northwestern University a few weeks ago. “Once you hit Mizzou, you couldn’t really stop,” Bullen said. After the boat walked up on Mizzou, the team overtook Illinois and SLU, finishing with a time of 14:16 on the 3,200-meter course. Illinois finished second with a time of 15:05. “Eating my vegetables and brushing my teeth finally paid off,” Toribara said.

Race times only tell part of the story, because boats were started at staggered intervals. A key component of the team is the coxswain who guides the boat. “All you see is the oars, but you can figure out what’s going on from what’s happening to the oar,” Entin said. “The role of the coxswain is to…bring the entire boat together so we can all work as one.”

“The rowers should have nothing to think about. They are 100 percent physical force,” junior David Ingber said. “You don’t get in the boat, you don’t put your oar in…You don’t do any drills without it coming from the coxswain’s mouth. We’re the brains and eyes of the boat.”

To get to their level of unity and skill, members of crew wake up before 5 a.m. and practice for a few hours six days a week on the lake.

For many Wash. U. students, waking up before the sun rises is unthinkable. Many members did other sports in high school such as gymnastics and track.

“It helps me keep my life in balance,” junior Ryan Bowers said. “It makes me go to bed early. It makes me get all my homework done.”

Ultimately, it’s the team atmosphere and the friendships that keep people coming back. “There’s something really bonding about waking up at 5 a.m.,” Bullen said.

The crew team wraps up its fall season in Wichita, Kan., at the Frostbite Classic next weekend but returns to practice this week.

“I wouldn’t wake up at 4:45 a.m. every day if I didn’t love it,” Ingber said. “When the boat’s moving right, it’s a feeling you don’t get anywhere else. It’s hard to put into words. When that boat’s flying and the sun’s coming up, it’s a beautiful day…It definitely makes up for the days of rain and snow that we’re waking up and rowing in.”

The regatta, which is considered the capstone of the fall season, features more than 2,000 boats in dozens of races with more than a quarter of a million spectators in Boston.
The Bears battled cold wind and rain while racing in a field of 38 boats from various states and divisions. Wash. U. finished with a time of 16:37.290, edging out Rochester Institute of Technology by .152 seconds and Lehigh University by .292 seconds. The Red and Green defeated 21 crew teams overall, including squads from Duke, Boston College and UAA rivals University of Rochester and Emory University.

“Our guys might be smaller…but the amount of spirit and tenacity that they brought is really the whole point of our sport,” senior captain Jewell Thomas said.

With a staggered start and penalties, the team had little clue as to their final standing throughout the race.

“It takes a lot of self-motivation and a lot of work from the whole team and the coxswain to really get there,” junior Andrew Warshauer said.

As they navigated the approximately three-mile-long course, Wash. U. overtook two boats. A big part of the Bears’ success was attributed to junior coxswain David Ingber.

“I don’t think anybody this weekend steered a shorter course than Dave,” Thomas said. “Other boats would go real wide around these turns, but our oars would be draping over the buoys as we came around.”

Entering the regatta, there were some concerns. Six members of this year’s crew had never competed at the Head of the Charles. But the team did not seemed fazed.

“From the first stroke, it was just power,” Thomas said. “You could feel we were going to go, you could feel that this was just going to be a really, really beautiful race just from that first stroke.”

“It’s defintely the fitness that brought us to the level we’re at,” junior Ryan Bowers said.

The crew team practices six days a week with at least three hours on the water. This practice is augmented by running, rock climbing, weightlifting or other forms of exercise.
The team bond was another key factor in their high performance.

“If you’re not [in sync], the boat instantly falls apart,” Bowers said. “You get wet, the boat will tip from side to side…It’s actually a kind of scary feeling.”

“Ninety percent of a crew race is staying relaxed and trusting that there’s going to be power from the guys around you,” Thomas said. “The more relaxed you are, the faster the boat is going to go.”

Other members of the team that competed included juniors Connor Graham, Todd Anderson and Stephen Washburn, and seniors Derek Turnbull and senior Kirk Altman. The future is bright, as the the majority of the relatively young crew will return for the 2010 Head of the Charles.

The Red and Green have two more regattas to round out the semester, with a home competition in Creve Coeur during Parent’s Weekend and the Frostbite Classic in Wichita, Kan., in November.