News Archive from the Fall 2009 SeasonMiranda Cullins Competes in Fall Speed OrderNovember 14-15, 2009: Case Crew coach Miranda Cullins competed this weekend at the USRowing East Coast Fall Speed Order in Princeton, New Jersey -- part of the US National Team qualification process. The Case graduate student finished 35th out of 39 national team hopefuls in her single. Her time of 19:13.7 placed her within 10% of the winning time and ahead of current national team member Laura Larsen-Strecker. Definitely a great result for her first Speed Order. The Fall Speed Order is meant to provide a long distance physiological test for current and hopeful national team members early in the annual training plan. On Saturday each rower pulled a 6,000 meter piece on the rowing machine. The results on the erg provided the starting order for a 4,500 meter head race on Sunday. Miranda pulled an average 1:52.5 for the 6k erg placing her in 28th.
Miranda was invited to the USRowing Pre-elite Training Camp in Bloomington, Indiana this past summer. She has continued her training plan throughout the fall semester and hopes to make a future national squad. We wish her luck as she makes the transition from Case Crew rower and coach to the national stage! Click here for a row2k.com article about the event.
Race results can be found HERE. Women Earn Medals in Every Event at Speakmon
Race results can be found HERE. 2009 Speakmon Regatta Photo Gallery
The SARA line up somehow was given bow number 4, which meant they were lined up between Holy Cross and the Rude and Smooth from Harvard. In total four crews from Harvard, two from Princeton, three from Williams and the rest of the Ivy League were in the race. The guys from Rude and Smooth inquired about our age at the start. Their hey-day was well before all of the SARA guys were born (except maybe Doug), and wondered if it was fair to be racing with them. However, they were still THE Harvard crew from the 70's and the boys from Case set a goal to stay ahead of them. For the race, the alumni went off at a 33 and quickly settled into a rhythm at ~30 strokes per minute under the BU bridge. They maintained that rating throughout the body of the race and felt strong. Crews from Hobart, Georgetown, Harvard (another one) and Cornell (clashing oars under Eliot) did eventually pass the SARA crew -- including an exciting three abreast adventure under Weeks that got us on row2k -- but the old boys in Rude and Smooth stayed firmly behind. The final verdict saw SARA beating Rude and Smooth on the water, but were bested by 43 seconds due to the age handicap. Given that the handicap is meant to adjust for age, the crew was excited by the speed of the line up and how they could hang with the former national champions.
Interestingly row2k.com did a feature article on the alumni eights race (or pdf version), which claimed the SARA crew had the "Least Accurate Alumni Name" in the lot. You can check out the results to see some of the other creative names. SARA finished their event in 27th place out of 34 crews. They were the highest placing crew from a club program and beat line-ups from Columbia and Princeton. Case Crew garnered two entries into the Club Fours event -- one for the women and one for the men. The line-ups are below:
The men's four finished in 52nd place out of 55 crews. The women were assessed a one minute penalty for interference under one of the bridges, which knocked them down to 52nd place out of 54 crews. The men were all underclassmen so hopefully this experience will encourage them to build more speed throughout the winter season for Dad Vails. For many of the women there will be no more head races in Boston under the Case banner. Graduation beckons, but don't worry because you can always row with us next year as SARA! That evening most of the alumni, rowers and a few parents headed to the Boston Beer Works near Fenway Park for dinner and reminiscing. But it was early to bed, because many of the students volunteered for the regatta the next morning. It snowed on Sunday, and that's all that really needs to be said.
A couple alumni competed in the regatta as well for other teams. The results were:
Race results can be found HERE. 2009 Head of the Charles Photo Gallery Tough Day for Fours in Pittsburgh; Regatta Utimately Cancelled
Miranda Cullins in her single won her event while besting the second place finisher by nearly a minute. In men's racing, Case Crew fielded an Open 4+ and Novice 4+, with both placing at the end of the pack. The Men's Open 4+ of Matt Moss (stroke), Chris Cichewicz, Adam Wilson, Nick Beese and Grace Eder (cox) powered through strong winds and high waves holding off two boats coming up from behind for the entire course. The Men's Novice 4+ Dan Seery (stroke), Ben Lorman, Kenji Ishida, and Ben Connell with Jessica Schneider (cox) battled for a long stretch of the course with John Carroll's Novice 4+. The JCU and Case novice boats had a large gap in front and behind resulting in a mini dual race. By the end JCU persevered placing a few spots ahead of Case in the final standings. The Women's Varsity 4+ survived what could be called a character building outing. The crew of Jessica Schneider, Margaret Wilkes, Sarah Rubin, and Katie Puttmann with Kenji Ishida coxing in his first ever regatta headed to the start excited to race. On the way to the start the weather got worse and the cox-box failed. While waiting in the starting area two boats swamped near the finish and racing ceased. However, the team had to row all the way back to the finish area to the docks anyway -- all of the rowing without the glory. According to Sarah Rubin, "Luckily, HOTO is fun even on a bad day." Race results can be found HERE. 2009 Head of the Ohio Photo Gallery Great Weather and Racing Greet Alums in Cleveland
Case Crew founder and SARA Board Member, Tom Hudak, raced in a number of events for Three Rivers. We're not sure exactly how many events, but he sure got a good mental image of all the bends in the Cuyahoga. At last count he finished 1st in the Masters 8+, tied for 2nd in the Open 2x, and 4th in the Men's Master A-B 1x. Former Case Crew head coach Tim Marcovy, rowing for WRRA, won his first-ever Head of the Cuyahoga medal in the single beating out 11 other scullers in the D-F category. Great job Tom and Tim!
While we did not have a formal dedication like we do for shells, taking delivery of the new trailer was still a big deal for the team. In the mid-1990's the team shared a trailer with WRRA and John Carroll. But after an accident (not by Case) the team has been without a trailer for almost ten years. To get to races they had to beg, borrow or rent space on other team's trailers. SARA bought the 2007 Vespoli 36' Transporter trailer from Lesley University who were disbanding their rowing team. The trailer had almost no miles on it and SARA Board member Brian Chorney brokered a great deal for us. Click here see photos from the new trailer.
Complete race results can be found HERE.
2009 Head of the Cuyahoga Photo Gallery Club Sports Highlighted in The ObserverSept. 18, 2009: An article in this week's Observer highlighted the efforts student athletes put into making their sports a reality on campus. Sports club administrator, Pat Kennedy, sums up the club sports experience: Like any state, the rise and fall of a sport depends on the efforts of its citizens. For the 20-plus years they've been on campus, club sports have come to life and been mercilessly snuffed out by student interest. Clubs are responsible for recruiting their own members, and doing their own fundraising. They are allotted supplemental funds based on what associate athletic and club sports director Pat Kennedy calls "goal-oriented budgeting." As in, how many recruits does a club think it can get this year? Will it need cash to travel? The "goal-oriented budgeting" Mr. Kennedy refers to is smallest cash allotment of all UAA schools by over $8,000 to its next closest peer. Many restrictions on how the team uses its budget exist including not being able to pay a coach amongst others. Case is the only school of its UAA peers that is explicitly prevented from paying a coach so even though the students do everything themselves they are very limited in resources and the tools needed to be successful. From the article: Jessica Schneider, the president of the crew club, understands this struggle too well. She commends the efforts of the athletic department, but believes funds dispensed for varsity t-shirts and pizza at meetings could be better spent. She recently spent 12 hours selling beer at a Browns game to help fund her sport. At all of the other UAA schools the money Jessica raised would go into equipment and coaching to make the team fast. At Case it just provides for their existence: travel and rack rents. The other schools set funding levels for existence and the kids fundraise for speed. Thanks to all alumni that are helping us close the gap. You can read the full article HERE (html) or HERE (pdf). |
You can read a detailed race report from the coaches and rowers in the 
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