RowingRelated

The California and Stanford men's and women's varsity squads will renew their rivalry tomorrow at Redwood Shores, with the men's Varsity 8s competing for the Schwabacher Cup, and the women's 1Vs going head-to-head for the Lambert Cup. In honor of the late Jill Costello -- a major contributor on the Cal women's team, who passed away following a battle with lung cancer last June -- the men's squads from Cal and Stanford, as well as the Stanford women, will wear aquamarine ribbons (Costello's favorite color), and the Cal women will wear alternate uniforms/make use of specially painted blades (also aquamarine). The racing will begin at 10:10 am on Saturday morning, with the men's Varsity 4+ race, and will culminate with the two Varsity 8 races at 11:15 (men) and 11:30 am (women). If you are anywhere around the Bay Area this weekend, this will be an event worth seeing, with some of the finest collegiate talent in the US on display. Men's events: The...

This week's video comes to us from The Montlake Cut in Washington, where the Bears took on the Huskies over the weekend for the 100th Schoch Cup. The match-up is the first head-to-head race between the two teams since the Bears came from behind to defeat UW in the Grand Final at the 2010 IRA Regatta, claiming the National Title by just over 0.2 seconds. The UW program is extremely deep, as was in evidence in the 2V and V4 races over the weekend, but Cal battled very well in the 1V, finishing just under 3 seconds back of the No. 1 ranked Huskies, and won the Frosh event by over 5 seconds. The above video is gives a behind the scenes look at the racing over the weekend, as well as some quality footage from the racing. UW Husky Crew's YouTube Channel also posted two other worth-while videos from this weekend. First, an interview with Hans Struzyna (2nd place in the Men's Open at the 2011 Crash B Championships): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpCo6mzI-aI And last, but ...

Following closely on SIRAs, the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association holds its Championship Regatta this weekend at Lake Natoma, CA. Based on the results from 2011, there are some clear front runners on the men's side for WIRAs , as well as some newcomers with a chance to make the Grands in the Varsity 8. The favorites to win this year in the Varsity 8 are the Tritons from UCSD , likely by open water. Zach Johnson's boys have made steady improvements throughout the year (as we've discussed ), and are coming off solid results from both Crew Classic and SIRAs -- they'll be looking to dominate this regatta and cap off a solid season on the West Coast as they prep for IRAs this June. Beyond that, there are a number of teams with the potential to make the Grands this year, all within a second or two of one another. Some squads that could find themselves in the hunt are UCLA, UCI, Orange Coast, UCD, Washington State, and Sacramento State (coached by UW alum Dustin Kra...

National Team: Congratulations to Gevvie Stone and Ken Jurkowski , who had success at the first NSR over the weekend. Jurkowski, who explains that he has only been on the water for three weeks in his post-race interview with USRowing, won the Men's 1x by a narrow 1.2 seconds over Glenn Ochal , who has been in the 2x with Warren Anderson for some time. Unfortunately, we didn't see Anderson, nor did we see Will Miller , both of whom finished ahead of Ochal at the Speed Order earlier this month (Anderson won the event, with Miller finishing in 2nd place, 5 and 1.5 seconds ahead of Ochal, respectively). Where were Miller and Anderson this weekend? We thought they might be rowing the 2x and focusing on that, but they were beaten in the 2x at the same April 1st Speed Order by Ochal and Piermarini. It's difficult to understand how McLaren decided whom to send over to NSR, as Silas Stafford and Sam Stitt (who won the Men's 2- on Friday) were the only sweep rowers to make t...

The Princeton LWT V8 racing at Redwood Shores (Photo: © Jim Sykora) The Princeton Lightweight Women have been making waves so far this Spring, beginning with open water victories over both of last year's top teams from the IRA final at Redwood shores. The Tiger Lights attended the Women's Pac-10 Challenge, March 26-27, and took on three different opponents in two days. The Princeton Varsity 8 defeated the perennially quick Wisconsin on Saturday, with a margin of over 10 seconds separating them from the Badgers. They accomplished this after besting a St. Mary's Openweight crew earlier that day. The Tigers continued their success on Sunday, defeating last year's IRA Champion Stanford by over 11 seconds, to finish out the weekend and begin the season in dominant fashion. In addition to the great results from the Varsity 8, the Princeton 2V has posted a 4-1 record, with their only loss coming to Wisconsin. Most recently, the Tigers took on crews from Bucknell and M...

Wisconsin 2V warming up (Photo: B. Kitch) OCC Varsity 8 enters the course (Photo: B. Kitch) Cal Frosh racing (Photo: B. Kitch) Cal 2V rows to the line (Photo: B. Kitch) Wisconsin Frosh racing (Photo: B. Kitch) Cal 3V rows to the start (Photo: B. Kitch) The top picks (pics) from Redwood Shores last weekend. Like the photos? Leave a comment and let us know. Thanks!

This year's Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta boasted one of the deepest men's fields in recent memory, which made for a very exciting weekend, filled with intense racing despite the storms and less-than-ideal weather that delayed racing at times. In the Varsity 8 things got started with a bang, with crews fighting to secure the top spots in Saturday afternoon's semifinals. All the top seeds advanced with relative ease in the first three heats. The fourth heat had the most drama as a feisty Notre Dame crew put the pressure on GWU all the way down the course and fought valiantly for the win hoping to secure an easier semifinal, but came up just 0.3 seconds short at the line. The semifinals were filled with very competitive racing in a two-to-advance format. Delaware was the biggest loser in the semis missing out on the final by just less than a second and were only 1.1 seconds away from semi winner Virginia . We were very impressed by Delaw...

Last week was a busy one at RR, with our first piece for Rowing News on the 2010 Cal Men's Varsity Eight throwing out the first pitch at a Giants game Wednesday night, and some great racing over the weekend at Redwood Shores. There were several barn burners, as Cal and Wisconsin showed some fantastic speed -- the Varsity Eight race was dead-even through 1500m, with Cal inching ahead as the two crews approached the line (both crews crossed in times within 4.5 seconds of the course record). Wisconsin's 2V got the better of Cal, who made a late push and came up short, while the Cal Frosh dominated -- this is a crew that may be on pace to win at IRAs this June. This week's video, created and produced by RowingRelated, showcases the Varsity Eights from Cal and Wisco, Stanford and OSU, and Orange Coast College and UC Davis, as well as the Cal 3V pitted against 1V from Santa Clara University, the 2V race between Cal and Wisco, and Cal v. Wisco Freshman Eight race. In addition...

(Photo courtesy of USRowing) While you may be familiar with Megan Kalmoe from her successes at UW, where she was an All-American, or from the 2005 U23 World Championships, where she took home the gold medal in the W4-, or from her fifth place finish in Beijing in the W2x, you might not know how much more there is to Megan than meets the eye. In addition to her rowing and training, Megan takes the time to be creative, and has a strong grasp of the sacrifices that she needs to make for her training, both physically and psychologically. Here, Megan catches up with RR about her beginnings in the sport, her experiences rising through the ranks, elation and disappointment in Beijing, and what motivates her as she continues to strive toward further success in London. RR: How did you get started in the sport? Do you feel that your multi-sport background from high school helped you to develop more quickly as a rower? When did you realize that you could take the sport to the next level? M...

As we predicted last Fall, Steve Gladstone appears to have had an immediate and powerful effect on the Yale program, and now the Bulldogs will look to be duking it out with Harvard, Princeton, Boston University, Wisconsin and Brown in the Grand Final at Eastern Sprints next month. In the Yale dual with Brown, just over two weeks ago, the Yale Varsity 8 was very strong at base cadence, understroked Brown for most of the race, and simply failed to execute a sprint -- something that, as Gladstone indicated after the racing was done, and Yale had won in every other boat category outside of the 1st Frosh (just 1.2 seconds behind Brown), they had not yet worked on at that time. For video footage of the 1V race between Yale and Brown, click here . Noticeable in the video is the distinctive Gladstone blade placement -- the Yale V8 does a very nice job of getting locked on quite early. Another Gladstone trademark -- apparently 50% of the Varsity 8 lineup has changed this week; the squad is dee...

This week's video comes from the Toronto Star, and examines the build-up to the 2008 Olympic Games. The video features some nice shots of the Canadian men's squad training indoors and on the water, as well as short interviews with the athletes and legendary coach Mike Spracklen. The level of intensity within this training program is palpable, as is the willingness of the athletes to do absolutely whatever it takes to succeed at the Games. Spracklen's distinctive coaching style comes through, even in these short clips -- he is as famous for figuring out how to motivate his athletes as he is for his extremely demanding training regimens. As the collegiate season builds toward the Championship racing later this Spring, the short, subtle lessons about work and about team ethos from this video are well worth keeping in mind. Note for FeedBurner subscribers: Click the title of the article to view the video on our website. Upcoming interview: Megan Kalmoe , UW All-American, ...

Having begun rowing as a high school freshman, Will Daly has found success at every level of the sport during his rowing career. After graduating from BU, Daly was selected to the US U23 Lightweight 4- in 2005, and from then on he has continued to represent the US at the senior level -- a stint that took him to the Olympics in the LM4- in 2008, following a gold medal in the LM8 at the 2008 World Championships. Here, RR catches up with Will on his early career, his experience in Beijing, and his goals for London as USRowing looks to take advantage of the new facilities in Oklahoma City, which now hosts the US Men's Lightweight National Team. RR: How did you get started rowing, and when did it really take hold as something you wanted to pursue at the college level? WD: My rowing career started in high school, Kent. I started rowing my freshmen year, I was really scrawny and I didn’t even make the third boat, so I ended up rowing club, but still loved it. My junior year we went ...

Putney Embankment - Finish of the HoRR (Photo: B. Kitch) Last Saturday, the Eights Head of the River Race (HoRR) took place on the Thames, making use of the same course as the Boat Race, albeit in reverse (from Mortlake to Putney). There was quite a showdown between last year's winner Molesey Boat Club, home to one of the biggest names in British Rowing, Andrew Triggs-Hodge. Leander started in second position, based on last year's results, and managed to reclaim the title despite two last-minute changes to their lineup due to injury/illness -- Tom Broadway was replaced by Ben Duggan (of Brown University, and bronze medalist at the 2009 U23 World Championships representing Great Britain), and club captain Rick Egington was replaced by Simon Hislop, fresh from his victory in this year's Boat Race as stroke of the Oxford Blue Boat. While Leander may have lost some horsepower, they certainly had plenty of experience, with 2008 Olympic gold medalist Pete Reed in the 5 seat, a...

Now that all the racing is done and Mission Bay is once again surrounded by a park rather than a hundred boat trailers, it's time to take a look at our predictions from last week, and the performances of the top crews in San Diego last weekend. Women's Events: NCAA Teams Well, we picked the right teams, if not in the right order. USC showed that they have plenty of speed and depth in their program over the weekend, pushing Stanford and Cal into second and third, respectively. Cal was in Lane 4, which can make a difference, with USC in the more sheltered Lane 2 -- but then, that is why the heats matter in San Diego. An interesting note on the USC squad -- of the 37 rowers listed on their Varsity roster , 17 are internationals. Zenon Babraj has done a great deal of recruiting overseas, and it looks like it's paying dividends in terms of boat speed for the Trojans, as they took first place in the Varsity 4+ as well. We picked Washington to win the 2V and the Freshman/N...

WSU Men's Rowing following WIRAs, 2010 (Photo: A. Ericsson) Recently, there's been much reason to discuss the Washington State men's rowing team, as the boards on Rowing Illustrated suggest. After breaking into the medals for the first time at the ACRA Championships with a silver in the Novice 8 in 2009, the Cougars took first place in the Varsity 8 at the 2010 WIRA Championships, and later took home the bronze medal in the Varsity 8 at ACRAs. Here, RR asks Cougar Head Coach Arthur Ericsson about his own rowing background, the nature of building a club team at Washington State, and the team's goals for Spring 2011. RR: How did you first get involved with the sport? How would you describe your own rowing background as an athlete, and what made you choose Washington State? AE: Sadly, I did not stumble across rowing until just after college when I saw a 'Learn to Row' sign for a community program. I fell in love with the idea of the sport right then and the...