Welcome to the Spartan Alumni Rowing Association

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.

Race results can be found HERE (html).

2012 Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints Photo Gallery

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.

Erg Challenge 2012
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!

Race results can be found HERE.

2012 JCU 5k/6k Erg Challenge Photo Gallery

Spring 2012 Regatta Schedule

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.

Date:	Event:	Location:	Results:	Photos:
January 21	JCU & CSU Erg Scrimmage	University Heights, OH - JCU Campus	results	photos
January 28	Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints	Pittsburgh, PA	results	photos
February 11	The Hammer Ergatta	Cleveland, OH - CWRU Adelbert Gym
February 24-25	24 Hour Ergathon	Cleveland, OH - CWRU Campus
March 10-15	Spring Break - Camp Bob Cooper	Clemson, SC
Mar 23 or May 5 tentative	Cleveland Collegiate Regatta	Cleveland, OH - CRF Boathouse
April 14	Alumni Regatta & SARA AGM	Cleveland, OH - CRF Boathouse
April 21	CarDuPitt	Pittsburgh, PA
April 28	MACRA Championships	Grand Rapids, MI
May 12-13	Dad Vail Regatta	Philadelphia, PA

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!

Fundraising with Amazon.com -- Use our link for Case Crew!

January Results:
$86.19 raised
as of January 31 - Thanks!!!

Over $6,000 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.

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.

Read the 2011 Campaign Letter to hear about our final push to the finish!

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!