Welcome to the Spartan Alumni Rowing Association

Case Wins Hammer Cup; Leads Series

Of course, the novices weren't to be outdone by the varsity squad. Caitlin Bowerman won the Open Novice Women's event with a time that would have given her 5th place in the varsity event. Mallory Miller beat three women from Cleveland State to claim gold in the Lightweight Novice event. Douglas Brubaker pulled a sub-seven minute time to take home bronze in the Men's Novice event.

After finishing up their 2,000 pieces and cooling down, the squad broke into two teams to compete in the 6 x 500 meter team relay. The relay requires each team member to pull 500m and then jump up off the machine to make room for the next rower. Case continued a long tradition of winning this event beating JCU, CSU and two teams from WRRA.

Head coaches Patty Wolford and Preya Nixon had this to say about the race:

Case Western did a phenomenal job at the Hammer this year. The women won the overall points trophy, and then the entire team brought home the Hammer trophy! Numerous personal records were set, and for some, this was their first 2k. After the individual events, the team split into 2 groups to compete in the open relay. Both Patty and I were impressed with the teamwork and encouragement from everyone - the results are a true testament to their hard work ethic. Case athletes were also assisting in running the event, and the organizers were very impressed with how diligent everyone was.
We are looking forward to seeing many alums at the Home Schools/Alumni Regatta on April 10th.
We want to thank you again for making this event possible for us-we truly appreciate your support.

Race results from the 2010 event can be found HERE.
A summary of results from all 16 years of the Hammer Cup can be found HERE.

2010 Hammer Ergatta Photo Gallery

Case & John Carroll in Head-to-head Erg Challenge

February 13, 2010: In lieu of attending the Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints, CWRU travelled to John Carroll's campus for a head-to-head competition. Individual rowers from each team faced off against each other with the winner taking one point. The women raced over 5,000m and the men pulled 6,000m. Katie Puttmann pulled the fastest time for the Case Women and Nick Beese pulled 21:53 on the men's side. John Carroll ended up taking the overall competition by a score of 7 to 4.

Next weekend, Case will be competing with John Carroll, Cleveland State and Baldwin Wallace for the Hammer Cup! From Co-head Coach Preya Nixon, "We are looking to break the tie between JCU. The team has been training hard, and has started doing more interval/AT work. Having already done two 2k's this season, the athletes are looking forward to bringing the trophy home!"

If any alumni or parents are in the area, please stop by and support the Spartans on Sunday, Feb. 21st between 9am-12noon (the team will be sticking around to assist the race directors for the remainder of the day, however).

Race results can be found HERE.

2010 JCU 5k/6k Erg Challenge Photo Gallery

Adam Wilson Profiled in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

February 5, 2010: Current men's team rower Adam Wilson was profiled in this week's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Wilson is a 2007 graduate of Jeannette High School in the southeast suburbs of Pittsburgh, and he is now at Case with a double major in mechanical and aerospace engineering. The article discusses why he joined Case Crew and his accomplishments at recent regattas. Co-head coach Preya Nixon also discusses the team and the commitment required to the sport. The full article can be found HERE (html) or HERE (pdf).

Alumni row 1.4 million meters in Concept 2 January Challenge

Cleveland Boathouse Proposal Highlighted in The Observer

January 22, 2010: Case's student newspaper, The Observer, today highlighted the Cleveland casino project and it's affect on rowing in Cleveland. The article quotes Case Crew president, Margaret Wilkes, about details for a planned new boathouse further down river. However, the major challenge for the project is securing funds for the new home before March 31, 2010. Without this new site, rowing in Cleveland and at Case could end.

As a short term fundraising measure, Case Crew turned over the organizing of The Hammer Ergatta to the Cleveland Rowing Foundation. Historically, Case and John Carroll swap organizing duties every year and each team keep any excess funds raised for their year. Foregoing this year's Hammer funds will impact the team's budget, but it's necessary for the boathouse campaign.

CRF Rivergate Park Web Site: details and status for the project

The full article can be found HERE (html) or HERE (pdf).

Spring 2010 Regatta Schedule - Updated

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.

Please, check back often as details and regatta attendance for the team may change.

Alumni Events: This year's spring alumni regatta will be held on April 10 in conjunction with the Home Schools Regatta. Combining the races gives rowing and non-rowing alumni a full day of events to participate in. If you're not rowing you can come down to the boathouse and watch some racing against John Carroll and Cleveland State. After the morning collegiate racing, alumni will line up against the students for our usual format racing. We should be all wrapped up by mid-afternoon -- in time to get freshened up for refreshments at Great Lakes. It should be a good time so come on out!

SARA Annual General Meeting (AGM): SARA will host it's AGM directly after the alumni regatta on April 10, 2010. All dues paying members of SARA are elgible to vote during the proceedings. If you'd like to be considered for an officer or board of directors position please contact Doug Rathburn.

Fundraising with Amazon.com -- Let's Start 2010 Strong!

Cleveland Boathouse Proposal Highlighted in The Plain Dealer

Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative concept drawing of the site

December 16, 2009: The dream of a permanent home for Cleveland rowing is upon us! The Cleveland Rowing Foundation is in talks to purchase the seven acre Commodore's Club site just down river from the current boathouse. The proposal, dubbed Rivergate Park, was highlighted in The Plain Dealer and online at Cleveland.com.

It's still early days for planning, but folks in Cleveland are cautiously optimistic about securing the site. A multi-million dollar fundraising campaign is underway to secure funds by March 31, 2010. The CRF board is calling in all of their chips for donations and approaching numerous charitable boards throughout the region to help. The mayor is behind it and many local organizations are throwing their weight into the project. The site is ideal and it currently has a building that can house all current clubs without much modification.

So what does this mean for Case Crew? Not much in the short term other than (possibly) higher rack rents and rower fees. There's a building currently on the site that can comfortably accommodate the current square footage for shells. The longer term vision (10-50 years) is to have a collegiate boathouse row with each team having their own dedicated space in a new building(s).

The full article can be found HERE (html) or HERE (pdf).

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!