News Archive from the Fall 2008 Season

Women's Team Success in Columbus; End of an Era

Team Photo at the 2008 Speakmon Regatta marking Tim Marcovy's last event as head coach.
More photos from the event can be found HERE

October 25, 2008: The traditional end-of-season regatta for the team also signified the end of an era. Coach Tim Marcovy, head coach from 1992 to 1996 and since 2002, marked the end of his coaching career at this year's Speakmon Regatta. Tim launched his crews for the last time to great success garnering three medals at this year's event. A huge portion of the Case Crew alumni base have been coached by Tim, and he'll be sorely missed. Tim has been planning his exit for awhile and has been working diligently to build up a stable of capable coaches to fill his size 14's.

Powered by grad student, Miranda Cullins, the women's team finished 1st in the Collegiate Eight and second in the Collegiate Four. The "A" four in the Collegiate event was only beaten by a crew from Robert Morris University who are varsity rowers. Miranda then jumped into a single to win against five other scullers in the Open Single event. The "B" entry in the Collegiate Four finished eighth ahead of Wittenberg University.

With temperatures in the 50's and a slight head wind for the last 2/3 of the course, Columbus provided the "perfect" fall rowing weather. The men's team was not able to challenge for medals but had strong showings in the open events. The men's Open Four finished ahead of entries from Denison, Xavier and Wittenberg to finish 14th. The men's Open Eight (with two novices) finished in 9th ahead of Wittenberg and a high school entry.

Novice racing is always a dubious endeavor in the US, with wide ranges of abilities and experience levels entering the "novice" category. Case Crew always enters their "true" novices that just learned to row less than two months earlier into the Speakmon every year. The system is set up to give novices a taste of how exciting racing can be and to encourage people to stick around for winter training for ultimate inclusion on the varsity team in the spring. Given Case's training philosophy, novice crews rarely contend for medals in Columbus versus other teams that race their novices for a full year. This year's crop of novices struggled to find speed and finished near the end of the pack in all races. However, the novice team is large and dedicated, which has always boded well for the spring championships.

Race results can be found HERE.

2008 Speakmon Regatta Photo Gallery

Coach Marcovy Bends an Oar in Boston

Photo courtesy of Row2k

October 18, 2008: Rowing for WRRA in the Men's Senior-Master Eight [50+], Coach Tim Marcovy took 32nd out of 41 crews at this year's Head of the Charles in Boston. This world class event draws crews from around the world and is one of the most competitive fixtures on the fall regatta calendar. WRRA garnered an entry into the Senior-Master 8+ event and the club's members embarked on a months-long selection process for the priviledge to wear the purple, white and green. Sitting in 6-seat, the Case Crew Head Coach helped power the crew down the course to finish 18% off the winning entry from Team Attager, which usually holds many ex-national teamers and Boston rowing stalwarts.

If there were any other alumni racing in Boston please let us know. Case Crew were unable to get any entries accepted into the regatta this year and are finishing out their season at the Speakmon Regatta in Columbus, Ohio. Race results can be found HERE.

New Regatta, More Medals in Columbus

October 11, 2008: The men an women of Case Crew headed to Columbus for the Fall Classic Regatta hosted by Westerville Rowing Club. The team did not get an entry into this year's Head of the Charles so they headed to this new regatta held on the Hoover Reservoir (as opposed to the Griggs Reservoir where Speakmon is held).

The women's team were dominant in the Collegiate Eights and Open Fours garnering gold medals in both. The women's 8 crushed the second place crew from Miami University by nearly a minute. The women's "B" four just missed out on a medal to a new team from the University of Toledo. The men took silver in the Open Four sandwiched between in-state rivals from the University of Toledo and Miami University with all three boats within 8 seconds of each other. This performance by the varsity crews bodes well for the Speakmon season finale.

The Speakmon Regatta is traditionally the first opportunity for novices on the team to get their first taste of racing. Due to the format and closeness of the regatta, the team brought a few novices down to see how they got on in eights and fours. Given that they just started rowing a couple weeks ago just finishing is a result. Let's hear it for the novices and hopefully many return for the Speakmon in a couple weeks!

Race results can be found HERE.

2008 Columbus Fall Classic Photo Gallery

Women Show Speed Before Pittsburgh Head Cancelled

September 27, 2008: The team headed to Pittsburgh for the annual Head of the Ohio regatta to compete on the 2.6 mile Allegheny River course. The women's team continued to show early season speed with Miranda Cullins finishing second in the Open Single and the women's four of Boucher, Puttmann, Cullins, Novak and Ma (cox) finishing a strong fifth in the Open Four. The women's four took on 20 other crews and they bested a large share of competitive collegiate crews. The men also entered the Open Four and Club Eight events but were unable to show enough speed to get to the medal stand. Racing was cancelled due to harsh weather before the women could test themselves in the Open 8+ event.

Race results can be found HERE.

2008 Head of the Ohio Photo Gallery

Alumni More Generous Than Fast in Cleveland

September 20, 2008: SARA had the largest turn out for the largest ever Head of the Cuyahoga. SARA had entries in the Mixed 8+, Women's Open 4+ and the Men's Open 8+. With over 260 crews entered in the regatta and Case Crew entries in all of the SARA events, the alumni had their work cut out for them. In a good sign for the undergrads they were able to best the alumni in each event while the alumni were able to have solid rows. Even though the alumni didn't take home any hardware, they still broke out their check books to help the team. For the first time ever SARA entered an alumni women's boat into the race. The boat consisting of Erin Brandt, Marta Mazzawi, Shannon Armstrong and Tanuja Pillai took 8th out of ten in the Women's Open 4+ beating Case Crew's "B" entry. The alumni women also beat the entry from the University of Toledo while the Case "A" boat took fourth. In the big boats SARA fielded a mixed and open men's eight. The mixed 8 was tagged with a 20 second penalty that pushed them from 7th to 9th place. Without the penalty the alumni crew would have finished only 1 second behind the entry from Case.

SARA Alumni Men's 8+ Left to Right: Brian Chorney, Fraser Hewson, David Schurig, Dan Bachmann, Doug Rathburn, Chris Denzel, Nate Uber, Rachel Liu and Chris Pfahl 2008 Head of the Cuyahoga Photo Gallery

In the men's open 8 the alumni line up were chased down the course by the Case entry. With Coach Tim Marcovy sitting in 5 seat (only 7 varsity men available for the regatta), the Case line up pushed the alumni all the way from West 3rd Street to the boathouse. The undergrads put on a fine display for the crowds and passed the alumni right in front of the docks and continued on to finish 4th. Both the alumni and undergrad crew finished ahead of Cleveland State.

SARA Alumni Women's 4+ Left to Right: Marta Mazzawi, Shannon Armstrong, Erin Brandt and Tanuja Pillai

For the second year in a row, SARA has dedicated a brand new shell at the Head of the Cuyahoga. This year SARA dedicated the "Dorothy A. Hudak" in memory of SARA board member Tom Hudak's mother. With a lead gift from Tom and his father, Tom, SARA presented the team with a new Pocock coxed four. Three of the seats were named after donors and each of the oars and cox box were named too. Lead donors for the shell are: Thomas F. & Thomas D. Hudak - Shell name Stacie Ringleb & Mark Schoenenberger - Coxswain seat Dan & Gina Bachmann - Stroke seat Hugh & Pat Rathburn - Two seat Heather Babish , Amy Kozlowski, Rachel & Vivian Liu and Pete Whittaker - Oars Carol Carter - Cox Box In other racing, Case Crew took home the bronze in the Women's Open 8 and Sarah Rubin & Miranda Cullins took the gold in the Master Women's Double. Race results can be found HERE (html).

Spartan Navy +1

September 3, 2008: We did it! Thank you to everyone that made the new shell possible. The latest addition to the Spartan Navy is a beautiful, brand new Pocock Hypercarbon box-coxed 4+. Our 2008 goal was to replace the Sweet J, and all donors were honored at the naming ceremony held during Head of the Cuyahoga on September 20, 2008. The lead donation was made by Case Crew founder, Tom Hudak, and his father in honor of their mother and wife. Click Here to view photos from the dedication ceremony! Thanks to everyone for the support.

The shell was purchased as part of the SARA Alumni Victorious Campaign

Tom Hudak Tells a Tale of Yore

Alumnus Tom Hudak '92 has written an account of the founding of the team. Tom founded Case Crew, still rows in Pittsburgh and is a Board member of SARA. To read his account of starting Case Crew Click Here. Also if you'd like to help Tom and other alums keep the team afloat please consider a donation.

Alumni play a crucial role in almost all college rowing programs. Please take a moment and click on the Orange Coast College Alumni Day Video. Obviously, it's a different college but the video production is amazing, and the "underdog" message translates well to Case Crew. (Click on the link and select "Alumni Day Video")