Fundraising with Amazon.com -- Use our link for Case Crew!
May Results:
$32.78 raised
as of May 16 - Thanks!!!
Over $7,200 raised since Oct'07!
Do all your shopping at Amazon using our link to access the site and Case Crew will get at least 6% of each purchase. Also, consider
buying a gift certificate first to buy your product and double the amount raised.
The campaign so far has been very successful.
But using the link everytime you visit Amazon is critical for us to get credit for each purchase. Thanks!
Please Note: Amazon doesn't make it perfectly easy for us to get credit for purchases.
Many people use the link to add items to their shopping cart and then purchase them at a later date. However, we only get credit if you use the
Amazon Link
when you actually make the purchase. Therefore, when you return to Amazon you must use the link provided
at the point your credit card is charged for us to get credit.
3 of 5 Crews Advance at Dad Vails; Women's Pair Takes 5th Overall
May 11-12, 2012:Case Crew sent it's largest squad ever to this year's
Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta -- a race that serves as the national championship for small universities.
The city of Philadelphia and the Schuylkill River hosted 127 colleges and thousands of athletes for the 74th edition of the "Vails."
The team entered five boats into this year's race: women's varsity pair, two men's singles, women's novice 4+ and men's novice 4+.
This was the first time ever that the team sent multiple boats to the event.
Heats are always held on Friday and the major goal for most programs is to experience Saturday racing in the semi-finals and then
hopefully the afternoon finals. Crews that made the Saturday semis were Caitlin Bowerman and Mallory Miller in the women's pair along
with Patrick DelBarba and Doug Brubaker both in the men's single event. The men's and women's novice crews finished agonizingly close
to Saturday racing by taking third in their heats. However, it was only the top two to advance leaving them hungry for next season.
Caitlin is a veteran of Vails finals having teamed up with Katie Puttmann '11 last year to
take 6th overall. This year she found a new partner
and the pair have been training all year with the Vails finals in their sights. Sporting a new women-specific
Pocock shell the pair advanced out of the heat relatively easily even after a relatively unclean
start. Their time was the 5th fastest overall coming out of the heats.
The real excitement was held for the Saturday morning semi-final. Case drew lane 5 with
Loyola College from Maryland in Lane 6.
The Philly 2000m course is not straight and the higher number lanes have a tighter bend, which Loyola failed to execute.
The result was a collision with our Case women bringing things to a halt for nearly 20 seconds. Caitlin and Mallory
finished the course and immediately protested the interference and not being able to contest the final. The referees
upheld the protest and Case was allowed to have Lane 0 in the final for 7-across racing!
A few hours later Caitlin and Mallory were gearing up for the race of their life in tough Lane 0. They would be racing
within feet of the grandstand and the roaring support section. Their time of 8:47.4 was good enough for 5th overall and
was vindication for their place in the final by finishing ahead of varsity status programs from
Nova Southeastern and
Stetson. Overall winners
were UMass who finished an impressive 26 seconds ahead of our women.
Our next semi-finalists both came out of the same event. Typically schools are not allowed to enter multiple crews in an event, but the
men's single is classified as an "exhibition" event. Freshman Patrick DelBarba and Junior Doug Brubaker have been focusing more
on sculling this season and since Vails doesn't offer the double they decided to each enter a single. Both scullers finished
second in their respective heats and lined up for the semi-final first thing Saturday morning.
Patrick was dealt an unlucky hand having drawn the fastest of the three semi-finals. Only two from each semi would advance to make a 6-boat
final. Unfortunately the two scullers from Oklahoma City University
and the University of Pittsburgh would take gold and silver in the event
later that day leaving Patrick to watch the race from shore. Patrick actually had the third fastest time overall out of the semi. Unbelievable.
Doug put together two fantastic pieces in the heat and semi, but was just slightly off the pace in his semi. He finished 2 hundredths of a
second behind the sculler from Colgate to take 6th in his semi and 16th out of 18 in the semis.
In the men's novice four, the line up of Evan Lanese, Gavin Brown, Matt Brown, Matt Holdren with Jeff Chin coxing took on a strong field
including alumnus and SARA secretary Brian Chorney's Endicott College team from
Boston. Also in the heat was the crew from Bowdoin who beat up on our guys over spring break. After spring brink the guys re-doubled their
efforts literally taking on two-a-days to gain speed and experience. They got faster, but weren't quite able to match the speed of heat
winners Tennessee and Bowdoin. With only the top two crews advancing our guys were shut out this year.
However, showing real class the guys from Bowdoin came over to the trailer to congratulate Case and recognize the speed improvement and to say
they gave Bowdoin a scare. Much respect.
The women's novice 4+ of Katie Kershenbaum, Abby Sevier, Stephanie Merlino, Chloe Milliman and Jamie Shah coxing also took third in their heat
and missed Saturday racing. The two advancing crews were from varsity-status programs from Colgate
and SUNY Buffalo.
A large portion of the team is planning on staying in Cleveland to continue training and many learning to scull. Stay tuned!
April 28, 2012:Case Crew travelled west to Grand Rapids, Michigan to compete
in the MACRA Regatta hosted by Grand Rapids Rowing Association. The event serves
as a mid-spring tune up for large colleges like Michigan,
Purdue, Ohio State,
Grand Valley, Northwestern
and U Chicago
and their preparation for Dad Vails and ACRAs.
The event features 7-lane 2000m racing with morning heats and afternoon finals. The weather was cold and rainy, but the
water was calm making it perfect spring racing weather.
Leading the charge for the varsity were juniors Mallory Miller and Caitlin Bowerman in the women's open pair. They
beat the University of Cincinnati crew to take gold in their event. Next up on the medal podium was freshman Patrick
DelBarba in the men's open single. Patrick took home gold by beating six other scullers including his own teammate Doug
Brubaker who grabbed sixth in his first ever 2000m sprint in the boat class.
The Novice Men's 4+ grabbed the bronze medal for their efforts during the day. The crew of Patrick Delbarba (s), Matthew Brown (3),
Gavin Brown (2), and Evan Lanese (b) with Anna Czekaj coxing won their heat ahead of Notre Dame by over 10 seconds.
In the final they couldn't quite match the speed of Michigan and Purdue finishing in third two lengths off the winner. This is an
amazing achievement for this young crew and bodes well for their appearance at Vails in a couple weeks. A second novice men's four
raced in a separate heat, but were not able to qualify for the finals.
MACRA Gold: Mallory Miller, Patrick DelBarba & Caitlin Bowerman
The women's novice team brought an eight and a four to race. The women's novice 8+ was a final only affair and saw our team
lined up against six other Midwestern powerhouse schools. Within a 100m of the start the crew stated overlapping Northwestern
and the inevitable clashing of blades occurred. The two crews didn't quite gain their composure after clashing and finished at
the back of the pack. There is a nice picture sequence here.
Case Crew Women's Novice 8+ (near) just off the start against Northwestern (middle) and GVSU (far).
The women's novice 4+ of Chloe Milliman (s), Stephanie Merlino (3), Abby Sevier (2), and Katie Kershenbaum (b) with Ann Czekaj coxing
finished 3rd in their heat, which was fast enough to garner a place in the final. In their heat they finished ahead of crews from
Northwestern, Cincinnati,
Marquette and Xavier.
For their final the regatta was running a few minutes ahead and the crew missed the
start. Even though they showed up a few minutes early for the start, the dock master failed to check them in and notify the starters.
This mishap cost the women a chance at a medal, but will definitely put a focus on the lead up to Vails.
April 21, 2012:Case Crew headed to Pittsburgh for the annual Car-Du-Pitt scrimmage.
The race is very similar to the Cleveland Collegiate Regatta,
but since Pittsburgh has wider, straighter water the race can accommodate more crews. This year's event was billed as the
Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh (plus Rochester) showdown with all colleges from the traditional
Rust Belt towns racing.
The team brought most of the varsity and novice squad to the event. The Allegheny
River course conditions were flat today and the teams raced with the current. However, a little rain and spring temperatures didn't
dampen spirits. First off the blocks were the novice eights. With many of the novice squad starting this spring, the Car-Du-Pitt
was meant to gain some vital racing experience before MACRAs and help the coaches select who might be in the novice fours at
Vails.
Men's Novice 4+ Heading to the Start Mallory Miller (cox), Matt Holdren (s), Matt Brown (3), Gavin Brown (2), Willis Matthews (b)
The Novice Men's 8+ looked strong and together, but were outmatched by a seasoned crew from the University of Pittsburgh.
The Novice Women's 8+ event has five crews entered including varsity programs from the University of Rochester,
Robert Morris University and Duquesne University.
The novice women held their own, but couldn't quite match the speed of the other crews finishing in 5th place.
Since the event was a scrimmage and limited to five lanes, multiple heats were run as finals for the fours. In the women's
varsity four, the Case women lined up against Duquesne, Pitt and Robert Morris. They finished in second place behind Duquesne
by about 15 seconds.
Men's varsity 4+ receiving shirts from Carnegie-Mellon.
Last up were the Men's Varsity and Novice Fours. The varsity men challenged Carnegie-Mellon
to bet their shirts based on the outcome of the race. It was a great bet, because Case ended up winning by over 15 seconds to Rochester
and 34 seconds over CMU. In the last race of the morning the Case novice men won their heat in convincing fashion against Pitt and CMU.
Students, Alumni and Parents Compete in 2012 Alumni Regatta
April 14, 2012: Students, Alumni and even a couple parents took to the Cuayahoga for 600 meter sprints and bragging rights.
With enough rowers to field both women's and men's alumni eights, the event was big, competitive and fun. The day's events
included nine races across many boat classes, an amazing dedication ceremony, and an evening of drinks, food, and camaraderie at
Great Lakes Brewery.
The morning program consisted of three races in pairs and doubles. First off was the men's double which saw
the varsity men's top athletes face off against Tim Marcovy and Doug Rathburn. Freshman Patrick DelBarba and
junior Doug Brubaker have been sculling the double all season and proved the superior crew over the course from
Nautica stage to the boathouse docks -- about 600 meters. Tim and Doug took full advantage of the rule that
false starts don't apply to alumni, but it was still not enough with Patrick and Doug B. taking the full advantage
back within the first 20 strokes.
In the next race student Caitlin Bowerman and alumna Katie Puttmann reprised their
2011 Dad Vail finalist line up in the pair
to take on alumnae Patty Travis and Jess Schneider in the double. Yes, pair against double! Coming in front
of the boathouse Caitlin and Katie looked in control, but a wide turn made the final result less than a length
in their favor.
Alumni men's 4+ of Tom Hudak (s), Chris Shoemaker (3), Dan Bachmann (2), Nate Uber (b) and Jess Schneider (cox).
The final small boat race pitted current varsity pair Caitlin and Mallory Miller against sorority sisters Laura Kruse and
Abby Sevier both in pairs. This was Abby and Laura's first race in the pair after an
initial practice a couple days before
(click for some cool photos of their practice). The inexperienced pair put up a valiant effort and had a lot of fun, but
ultimately the more experienced crew of Caitlin and Mallory won by open water.
There were two races in the men's fours. The first race saw a strong alumni crew of Tom Hudak, Chris Shoemaker,
Dan Bachmann and Nate Uber fall by only a length to the men's varsity crew of Patrick DelBarba, Doug Brubaker,
Matt Moss, and Jeff Chin. In the second race the father-son duo of Brian and Patrick DelBarba sat stern pair with
novices Matt Steadman and Larry Muhlstein. They raced the mostly novice crew of Matt Holdren, Matt Brown, Doug Brubaker,
and Evan Lenase who ultimately prevailed by open water.
Alumnae Women's 8+ cruising to victory.
Two fours races were held on the women's side as well. First up was the alumnae crew of Miranda Cullins, Sarah Rubin,
Lauren Boucher, Jessica Schneider with Katie Menosky coxing against the varsity women's four of Mallory Miller,
Caitlin Bowerman, Ruth Dickey, Chloe Milliman with Anna Czekaj as cox. The varsity women proved too fast for the
alumnae women finishing over a length ahead on the outside lane. In the second women's race alumnae Cheryl Thompson
and Patty Travis teamed up with Patrick DelBarba's mother, Caroline, and WRRA rower and CWRU alum Eileen Gordon.
Katie Puttmann was at the tiller. Eileen is a Case alumna but didn't pick up the sport until after she graduated and
joined the WRRA Summer Rowing League. The alumnae/friend boat bested the women's novice crew of Katie Kershenbaum,
Jamie Shah, Ava Kotvas, and Stephanie Merlino by open water.
In the eights both alumni crews were mercifully pitted against mostly novice crews. Even though the student
crews put up a valiant effort, but the alumni eights won by open water each time. The stability of the big boats
helped the alumni crews find their rhythm and both crews looked strong powering down the sprint course. The final
mixed eights were scratched due to the worsening weather.
After racing concluded everyone gathered for a dedication ceremony for the new women's lightweight Pocock pair.
But before the dedication, SARA president Doug Rathburn presented SARA VP Dan Bachmann with a
trophy blade to honor his
leadership gift to the new Pocock four last fall. Tim Marcovy and Doug Rathburn then christened the new pair the "zusammen."
This latest addition to the Spartan Navy
resulted from trading in the older positive alpha pair along with cash gifts to SARA.
You can see details of the christening here.
At the end of the christening, Doug had a surprise announcement for the team. Crew alumnus and benefactor Paul Buchheit '98
has decided to support the hiring of a part time coach for the team. Paul has committed $50,000 to SARA for coaching
over the next few years. The SARA board has entered conversations with the university on how the gift and coaching
position will be implemented. The intent is that a paid coach will be in place next fall.
Case Crew members thanking alumnus Paul Buchheit '98 for his support of the team.
At the end of the program all of the alums plus some student guests met in the boathouse boardroom for the
annual general meeting. But before the meeting Matt Van of
The Jolly Scholar restaurant provided everyone a nice BBQ lunch.
The team recently christened their newest four "The Jolly Scholar" due to the support Matt has showed the team.
Those in attendance at the AGM heard details on equipment, fundraising and plans for the coming
year. The membership also elected a new member, Chris Shoemaker, to the Board. Minutes of the meeting will
be posted soon.
Later that evening over 30 students and alumni met at Great Lakes to swap stories of the glory days and plans
for the future. Overall it was the most successful event to date, and we hope to see you next year! Special
thanks to Danette Bush and Dan Bachmann for sharing so many photos. Take a look at the album below where we've
posted over 400 photos from the weekend.
Full results and lineups from this year's race can be found HERE (html).
March 24, 2012:Case Crew took on its cross town rivals
Cleveland State and John Carroll in the tenth annual
Cleveland Collegiate Regatta.
The annual challenge pits the three colleges against each other in
a heat and final format. Each team races a short 500m heat and the two fastest crews then
face off in a longer 1400m race around two bends on the Cuyahoga. The race, formerly known as the Homeschools Regatta,
opens up the rower's lungs a bit, provides a early season test of speed for the teams, and helps with coxswain development
due to the turns and race strategy.
Case women's varsity four on their way to a win against John Carroll.
Anna Czekaj (cox), Chloe Milliman (bow), Ruth Dickey (2), Mallory Miller (3) and Caitlin Bowerman (stroke).
Here is a Race Report from Anna Czekaj '13 [edited]. She is normally a coxswain, but raced today in the JV 4+.
I ROWED (right?? I row too! haha) in the Womens Novice 4 race, which included a heat. With all three boats
lined up at the start, we started out slow but within seconds we got the lead. It was a clear win and an amazing
effort by all the women in the boat. EVEN After the heat, it was down to JCU and us. Since we won the heat, we
took the inside lane which meant prime opportunity for cutting a corner very close. Caitlin Bowerman ’13 did an
amazing job coxing and we got the lead. We ended the race at least three boat lengths ahead with a margin over 40 seconds.
The next race was the varsity men’s race, and they looked amazing. You can tell that everyone was following each
other and that the pressure was on by the way they sped away from their competition! The best part is that CSU
has been practicing this four for more than a semester and they are going to Dad Vails with it and we
practiced our Varsity four... once? The Case Men finished the race with two boat lengths ahead.
Next up was the women’s varsity 4+ where I coxed and a novice rower joined in bow. There was no heat. Our competition was
JCU. We had the far lane (without the ability to cut the turn). I had a game plan in mind and just had to make sure
the rowers trusted me. The race started. JCU did a high 20 which overpowered our high 10. They had a slight lead but
were rushing up their slides like crazy. Recognizing the inefficiency, I this called out for ratio, which instantly
caused our boat to react to keep us neck to neck into the first turn. I stayed close to JCU the entire straight
stretch down. The power increased as the heels went down into the second turn. We didn’t pull away until the last
turn. It's a good feeling when the rowers give you what you asked for and we won by almost 12 seconds.
After that the men’s 8 went. I didn't cox this one, but even though a couple kids in the boat didn't really have
much practice in they still won and looked strong.
Last up was the mixed 8 with me coxing. On the water we realized that we only had two varsity members in the boat
(Caitlin and Mallory) and that everyone else was a novice. There was a heat in this race and we were also rowing the
Marcovy, which takes
a while to get up to race speed. I knew that in the heat we wouldn't win unless we REALLY got it going. I called
for the first five strokes, a high twenty and then a 15 to lengthen. We were in the far right lane, JCU in the
middle and CSU at far left. In the start of the race, we were behind… However, after some clashing of oars and poor
steering from the other teams we rowed right past them to win the heat.
In the mixed 8+ final 1500m race, and the last race of the morning, it was CSU and us. They had 6 varsity rowers
and 2 novices. We had a weaker start but that didn't stop us. We had the inside corner, and I took advantage of it.
We pulled ahead in the straight stretch and we won by over 2 boat lengths. We finished the race and everyone was
happy, and I sang my traditional mixed 8 win song (Build Me Up Buttercup).
We sang it the entire way back to the docks.
IT WAS AWESOME.
Matt Vann, Manager of The Jolly Scholar restaurant
After racing concluded the team dedicated their new Vespoli V1 coxed four. The team traded in the Hot Sauce this winter, which
was roughly the same shell confifuration but from a previous generation. A new restaurant on campus has been supporting the team with
food and refreshments for their events so they decided to name the boat The Jolly Scholar -- the same name
as the restaurant. This keeps the tradition of naming after a restaurant, and the restaurant's manager, Matt Van, was on
hand to sprinkle Champaign on the bow.
Here is a link to more information on The Spartan Navy.
Case Crew Coxswain Anna Czekaj '13 Profiled in Case Daily
March 23, 2012: CWRU junior and crew coxswain was recently profiled in the Case Daily. The Daily
is a news feed for campus events and highlights notable people and happenings around campus each day. Besides crew Anna
is heavily involved in campus activities including Phi Mu, University Program Board, Student Turning Point Society,
Lambda Eta Mu Greek Honors Service Society and Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honors Society along with the upcoming
Dance Marathon
As part of the profile she sat down with the editors to answer 5 questions about herself and her time in Cleveland.
Anna aspires to hit all seven continents before graduation. The picture to the right shows her in the Alps around
Lucerne, Switzerland. She was in town to watch the 2011 FISA World Rowing Cup.
You can read the full profile at the Case DailyHERE
or an archived PDF copy HERE.
Case Crew Heads South for Spring
March 10-15, 2012: The team headed south to Camp Bob Cooper
near Clemson, South Carolina for a week of warm weather training. The team participated in two and three practices per day in a mix of boats.
Both the varsity and novice teams gain valuable miles and near the end of the week they scrimmaged
Carnegie-Mellon, Liberty,
and Bowdoin.
Case Crew Alumnus Tapped to Give 2012 Commencement Address
March 1, 2012: Gmail creator and Case Western Reserve University alumnus and rower Paul Buchheit
(CWR ’98; GRS ’98, computer engineering) will speak at the 2012 commencement address May 20 in Veale
Convocation Center. Paul was a rower at Case for two years and has been a very generous supporter
of the team and rowing in Cleveland. He provided one of the lead gifts that secured a permanent boathouse
for Cleveland in the summer of 2010.
Paul has had a distinguished technology career starting out at Intel Corp. after graduating from CWRU. After a year at Intel,
he left to become Google’s 23rd employee in 1999 where he went on to create Gmail and the first AdSense prototype.
After retiring from Google in 2006 he founded FriendFeed, which was later sold to Facebook. He is currently
a partner at Y Combinator which provides funding, advice and networking opportunities to promising startups.
You can read the full press release at the Case DailyHERE
or an archived PDF copy HERE.
Case Crew Rows 568,485 meters in 24-hour Erg-a-thon
From Abby Sevier '15, Case Crew Fundraising Chair: I was put in charge of running Case Crew’s annual erg-a-thon
event held February 24th to the 25th, and I’m happy to say that due to the entire team’s hard work and dedication, it was a giant
success! We ended up raising over $1800 from donations from friends and family as well as from students on
campus.
As for the event itself, we brought over six ergs from Veale so students who were interested in the
club could try out the rowing machine. As an extra incentive, we offered two gift certificates donated from
Guys Pizza Company
to the male and female student who had the best 500 meter time. This turned out to be a tremendous success as
we had over 20 students who attempted to win the gift certificates. The winner for the women ended up pulling
an average 1:54 split and the winner for the men was a 6’7” boy who pulled an average 1:24 split that even
impressed Patrick DelBarba (the team's current top erg). We are currently trying our hardest to recruit both these members.
The crew club itself came together and managed to pass the entire 24-hour period with at least one team
member on an erg. The entire team managed to erg a total of 568,485 meters which is the closest we have
ever gotten to our goal of erging to Dad Vails,
a distance of 690 kilometers from Cleveland to Philadelphia.
Another record that was broken was that we had six members of our team erg a full marathon (42,195 meters), including three novices.
Caitlin Bowerman, Patrick DelBarba, Doug Brubacker, Chloe Milliman, Evan Lanese and myself braved the
challenge and we are currently planning to do it again next year, but this time with ten people!
Case Crew Throws the Hammer Down!
February 11, 2012:Case Crew posted a dominate result in this year's Hammer Ergatta winning the team
points honors for Men, Women and Overall against cross-town rivals from John Carroll
and Cleveland State. The team overall posted 196 points against 120 for CSU and 108 for JCU.
Across the three colleges 18 women and 22 men raced. With the new points system in place since 2010, the team is
awarded a point for each person beaten. Therefore, the fastest women's time garnered 18 points, second fastest got 17 points, and so on.
The system accommodates many teams easily while rewarding team depth and speed.
Case Crew entered 8 events with 21 athletes and the team won 5 of those events. In two others the team took silver.
All-in the team took home 12 medals from the event held in Adelbert Gym on CWRU's campus.
These stellar results meant the team reclaimed the Hammer Cup, which was given up to JCU last year by only one point.
CWRU now claims the overall record for Hammer Cup wins
with 9 total versus 8 for John Carroll and 1 for Cleveland State.
Leading the way for the men was freshman Patrick DelBarba with a time of 6:27.9. This time won the Open Men's category and was
the fastest time overall at the event. Behind Patrick in the Open race with a time of 7:07.5 was Matt Moss in 5th place.
The novice men entered 9 athletes across the heavyweight and lightweight events. For the Open Novice Heavyweights, Matthew Holdren
pulled the fastest time of 7:06.6, which was good enough for 2nd place. For the Lightweight Novice Men Willis Mathews pulled
the second fastest college time in 6:49.3 ahead of 2nd place CWRU finisher Gavin Brown who pulled 7:21.4.
For the women, novice openweight rower Abby Sevier led the way winning her event with the time of 7:50.9. Valerie Mitchel
followed her into third place with a time of 8:37.6. On the lightweight novice side, Chloe Milliman pulled 8:26.9, which
was good enough for silver and Katie Kershenbaum took bronze with 8:31.0. Varsity rower Caitlin Bowerman finished in 2nd place
with a 7:51.8 behind 5'11" tall Lauren Penkala from JCU.
The coxswains also got into the mix this year by pulling 1000m. Anna Czekaj won the event with a time of 4:15.4 and
novice Ava Kotvas took third in 4:57.3.
The last event for the team was the 6x500m relay. Case entered three teams comprised of three women and three men each.
The top team won the event in 10:04.2, which was over 20 seconds faster than second place John Carroll. In third
was the second team from Case in 10:32.7 and Cleveland State in 4th. The final team from Case took 5th.
Race results from the 2012 event can be found HERE.
A summary of results from all 18 years of the Hammer Cup can be found HERE.
Alumni & Friends Break 2 Million Meter Mark for First Time
Rower
Meters
1
Ken Klika
352,451
2
Patrick DelBarba
256,001
3
Tom Hudak
250,035
4
Doug Rathburn
240,347
4
Brian DelBarba
234,769
6
Kelli Anderson
201,018
7
Evan Halprin
148,000
8
Mark Schoenenberger
122,179
9
Tuck Pescosolido
87,348
10
Erin Brandt
71,000
11
Katherine Allen
65,685
12
Brian Chorney
57,000
13
Caitlin Bowerman
53,480
14
Tim Marcovy
45,386
15
Chris Bowley
43,081
16
Erynn Rathburn
34,572
17
Meg Grow
25,870
18
Lauren Boucher
25,802
19
Ruth Dickey
25,700
20
Sarah Rubin
15,000
21
Gavin Brown
14,000
22
Matt Steadman
10,000
23
Fraser Hewson
9,000
Total Team Meters
2,387,724
February 3, 2012: Twenty-three alumni & friends pitched in to row 2,387,724 meters in the annual C2 January Virtual Team Challenge
(JVTC). For the challenge rowers had to row as many meters as
possible between January 1 and January 31 then log their daily meters using the Concept 2 Logbook. The results were then ranked against
other teams. The SARA team finished in 47th place out of 330 teams with each member averaging over 100,000m! Thank you to everyone that participated.
This year marked the third time a concerted effort was made to log meters for this challenge and the third time we bested our URA rivals from
the University of Chicago. We beat their alumni team, but were passed by the students (a separate ranking group) who pulled 100km more meters.
Leading the charge for SARA was CWRU Assistant Dean Ken Klika who took top honors with 352,451 meters! Family DelBarba (father Brian and son Patrick)
also teamed up to pull a combined total of 490,770 meters. Six people broke the 200km mark and earned a free Case Crew hat – including the first
ever alumna to break 200k for the challenge, Kelli Anderson.
Let's keep it going next year!
Father and Son Take On Pittsburgh; Team Takes 3rd Overall
January 28, 2012:Case Crew headed to the Steel City for their first 2,000m test in
competition at the Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints.
The team traveled with a mixture of varsity and novice rowers. Into the mix were freshman Patrick DelBarba and his father Brian
racing for Three Rivers. Patrick pulled the fastest men's time of 6:25.3 for the team taking fourth place in the Open event.
Earlier in the morning his father Brian pulled a 6:41.6 to take 1st in the 40-49 year old category.
Also in the Men's Open event with Patrick were Doug Brubaker with a time of 6:56.2 (15th place) and Matt Moss with 7:13.5 and 19th place. The Pittsburgh
Indoor Sprints serves as a satellite regatta for the CRASH-B race in Boston. People that pull a certain "gold" standard time earn a free
trip to race in Boston. While no one from the team qualified for a free trip, the official satellite designation draws an incredibly large
field of rowers. This year's event drew 600 entries and is in the top ten events in the world.
Novice Gavin Brown being coxed by Club President Mallory Miller
The novice men brought four athletes to Pittsburgh. In the Open Novice category Matt Brown pulled a 7:20.0 and was good enough for 7th place.
The Lightweight Novice event had three CWRU participants: Gavin Brown with 7:21.0 and 7th place, Evan Lanese with 7:42.1 and 10th place, and
Matthew Steadman with 7:48.5 and 12th place.
On the women's side only two athletes pulled 2k. Junior Caitlin Bowerman did her piece in 7:53.2, which was good enough for 8th place. Novice
Ava Kotvas then had a go in the Lightweight Novice event and earned 12th place with her time of 10:32.6.
For the last event the team mixed it up -- literally -- for the team 6-person relay race. The relay teams of three men and three women completed
a total of 3000 meters, or 500m per racer. Case's team consisted of Doug Brubaker, Ava Kotvas, Matt Moss, head coach and alumna Patty Wolford,
Caitlin Bowerman and anchored by Patrick DelBarba. The team's time for 3k was 10:30.2, which placed them 8th overall out of 13 teams. You can
watch a YouTube video of the relay here. In the collegiate team points competition, the team
finished in third place behind the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University.
Case Men Best Local Rivals at Head-to-head Erg Challenge
January 21, 2012: John Carroll hosted Case and Cleveland State for a friendly round of Anaerobic Threshold testing with the Case Men claiming
top honors along with the team winning the overall title. The previous two years had only Case and JCU racing each other, but the teams invited Cleveland State
to the party this year. The teams raced over 5,000 meters (women) and 6,000 meters (men) with each rower awarded one point for each rower they beat.
Then the points were tallied to crown a winner overall and for the men and women. JCU won the women's crown.
Case, CSU & JCU Erg Challenge Participants
The men showed up in force and dominated their event. The nine men from Case were led to victory by freshman Patrick DelBarba with his winning
time of 20:47.5 (1:44 splits). Novice Willis Mathews pulled 22:44.9 for the second fastest team time and 4th overall. Half a second off Willis
was Doug Brubaker in fifth and Matt Moss in sixth with a time of 23:05.6. Five other men's novices (Matthew Holdren, Gavin Brown, Matt Steadman,
Evan Lanese and Edwin Bernardoni) also competed gaining valuable racing experience and capturing 14 points for the team.
The men's team doubled JCU's point total with 62 points. JCU finished with 31 points while Cleveland state were awarded 27.
The Case women's ranks were thinned by an event on campus. However, the top three scores on the team garnered spots two through four putting
them only 27 points off JCU who brought 9 athletes to the event!
Junior Caitlin Bowerman pulled a 20:50.5 5k (2:05 splits) finishing 2nd behind Lauren Penkala of JCU by 2.5 seconds. Caitlin was followed
by law student Ruth Dickey with a time of 21:08.7 and novice Abby Sevier with a time of 21:12.4. Rounding out the results was novice
Ava Kotvas' time of 27:52.4.
After combining points from both teams Case was declared the overall scrimmage winner with 95 points against John Carroll's 77 and Cleveland State's 39.
The event is a fun tune up for both teams. Next up for Case is the Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints next weekend and then the Hammer Ergatta
on February 11. If you're around please go and cheer the students on!
Below is the spring racing schedule for Case Crew.
If you're in the area or would like to help organize the cheering
section for an event please email the webmaster.
Alumni Events: This spring we'll hold our 7th spring alumni regatta in Cleveland! The event will follow the
"standard" format of student/alumni racing in the morning followed by the SARA Annual General meeting (AGM) after racing.
Then in the evening we'll all meet up at Great Lakes Brewery for networking and story telling. If you
would like additional information please contact Doug Rathburn.
It's okay if you haven't rowed in a while. For many Case Crew alums
the SARA alumni events are the only time they step into a shell all year, and we manage to have a great time. Give it a try!
Double Your Gift to Case Crew! UPDATE: Gifts starting to roll in!
UPDATE (May 13): Alumnus Pete Whittaker '04 became the first "founder" of the coaching edowment!
The gift was matched by the SARA Board and he will be listed with the university documents and press released as helping
secure a permanent future for the team. More details on the campaign and match below:
UPDATE (April 9): Alumnus Eric Matyac '94 G'96 has made the first major gift to our last leg of the
Alumni Victorious Campaign. Eric has chosen to sponsor
a seat in the new four, and his gift was matched by the SARA Board as previously announced. More details on the
campaign and match below:
We are kicking off the final leg of the Alumni Victorious Campaign.
We've been emboldened by the generosity of Case Crew's alumni, family and friends so we've set an ambitious goal for 2011.
We would like to raise a total of $50,000 this year to go towards the purchase of a new coxed 4+ and to
establish a permanent coaching endowment at the university.
To kick start the campaign and to recognize the 20th anniversary of the team this fall, the SARA Board will 100% match the first donations
up to $20,000. If you get your donations in we only need $30,000 in new donations to hit the $50,000 goal!
We'll be sending out periodic updates throughout the year, and we're targeting christening the new shell at the 2011 Head of the Cuyahoga.
The 2011 Appeal Letter has much more detail regarding the rationale behind the shell and endowment. Please take a few minutes
to read it. There are many donor recognition levels to choose from, and please don't hesitate to contact a Board member with any questions.
Please send donations to Fraser at the address below. Also designate if you'd like the funds to go toward the shell or endowment.
All donations will be recognized, but check out the bottom of this page
for various naming opportunities or shoot us a note with any questions.
Checks can be made out to Spartan Alumni Rowing Association.
Fraser Hewson
Spartan Alumni Rowing Association
31646 Electric Blvd.
Avon Lake, OH 44012-2010
Leave Your Mark on Case Crew
We are pleased to announce the first capital campaign for Case Crew! The team continues to benefit from the generosity
of your Annual Fund contributions. However, it's time we, as alumni, parents and friends, leave our mark on the team
by providing them with competitive equipment.
The new Pocock 4+, the Dorothy A. Hudak, to replace the Sweet J has been delivered and was dedicated at the
2008 Head of the Cuyahoga. Also, a trailer was given to the team at the 2009 Head of the Cuyahoga. The new four and trailer have been huge steps
in building the Spartan Navy, but we still need another four.
Please take a moment to read about the Alumni Victorious Campaign
and consider a donation. There are still many naming opportunities left.
Tons of Photos and Race Results
SARA is continuing to build a comprehensive database of old Case Crew photos and race results.
We've reached almost 4,000 photos, but are constantly on the look out for more!
If you have any photos or results to add please email Doug Rathburn.
We'll even convert old negatives to digital, post them on the SARA web site and mail the negatives back to you.
Click here for the SARA Photo Gallery or on the logo to the left to view the thousands of photos.
Also, if you have any paper copies of old race results we'd appreciate a copy.
Click here for the SARA Race Result Archive to
see past results and which ones are still needed. Thanks!
2012 Dad Vail Men's Single Sculler Patrick DelBarba '15
