The Huskies returned home from the Chase in Princeton, New Jersey late Sunday night. The weather there was pretty perfect--warm and sunny, windy but not terribly so. The results were mixed for the Northeastern women: The V8 placed 8th overall in a time of 15:07 and the JV8 was 27th in 16:02. Yale's V8 (the 2007 NCAA Champions) won the race in 14:28. Virginia's A and B boats claimed the second and third spots.
Both boats came off the water feeling positive, having rowed aggressively. The V8's performance wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't a bad result. The JV8, however, underperformed. Both the result, the number and who placed ahead of them was disappointing given their size, fitness and overall potential. They were beat by some crews Northeastern typically has no problem beating: The Columbia JV8, the Cornell JV8, the Princeton C, D and E 8s.
That's the good thing about a sport that's about racing--it's who gets from A to B fastest, with no points for style. You line-up to find out how fast you are, and there we go. That's how fast we were that day.
Next up: The Green Monster, this Saturday, November 3rd--and all-freshman race up at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Princeton, here we come!
This weekend, the NU women Huskies will travel to Princeton, New Jersey, for the Princeton Chase on Sunday, October 28. They will compete against a slew of their biggest competition--nearly every East Coast heavy-hitter will be there, as well as plenty more: Yale, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Radcliffe, Syracuse, Virginia, Columbia, Wisconsin, Penn, Cornell, Boston College, Rutgers. Virginia was last year's winner in 15:50 over three miles and the Huskies finished 12th after a less-than-stellar performance. The Huskies are bringing two eights: one varsity with the same line-up from the Charles as well as a junior varsity boat stacked with four talented freshman as well as freshman coxswain Rachel Buff at the helm.
This has traditionally not been the Huskies' greatest race, so the main goal for the weekend is to build from their performance from the Charles, not experience their usual sag.
We'll keep you posted!
This has traditionally not been the Huskies' greatest race, so the main goal for the weekend is to build from their performance from the Charles, not experience their usual sag.
We'll keep you posted!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sunday's Results
I apologize for the delay in results--with the HOCR results for the Championship events, we decided to delay the posting due to the penalties that would surely be given out. Northeastern's results in the Champ 8+ went from 7 to 9 to 13 to 12, finally. Officially, the Varsity 8+ (Colleen Saville, Pia Zubrowski, Alida Durrant, Ashley Griffeth, Svenja Sanders, Ashley Bruno, Jillise Ketcham, Anna Padilla, Meredith Sparano) finished 12th out of 39 boats, the 12th fastest college. They had an incredibly aggressive first two miles, which was the goal, but it cost them a bit of poise and technique in the third mile, where they weren't quite as sharp. Coach Joe Wilhelm was pleased with the result, "I was really proud of the Varsity 8+ because they went out there and didn't hold back to pace themselves like they might want to. They were aggressive from the get-go and really went after it. Am I happy about finishing 12th? Not particularly, but I am happy with the race."
The Championship 4+ (Emily Ortez, Emily Fisher, Francie Shafer, Rachel Garabenian, Heather Zeh) finished 19th out of 21 boats. This is an extremely competitive events with some relatively young athletes who clearly have a ways to go to be competitive with their top boat. After the fall, Coach Wilhelm will most likely draw up 3-5 freshman to help deepen the squad, and this race demonstrated that the second tier of athletes needs some more work and some more bodies.
The Championship 4+ (Emily Ortez, Emily Fisher, Francie Shafer, Rachel Garabenian, Heather Zeh) finished 19th out of 21 boats. This is an extremely competitive events with some relatively young athletes who clearly have a ways to go to be competitive with their top boat. After the fall, Coach Wilhelm will most likely draw up 3-5 freshman to help deepen the squad, and this race demonstrated that the second tier of athletes needs some more work and some more bodies.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Saturday Results
The first two sets of results are in: the Club 8+ (Rachel Buff, Laura Carroll, Ronnie Townsend, Jen Forbes, Katie Ward, Maria Ciminelli, Delaney Wintermeyer, Liz Biddle, Kailyn Yard) finished 13th out of 51 crews in 17:58, 4.03% of the winning time. The University of Tennessee won the event in 17:16. Northeastern finished ahead of many programs' varsity or junior varsity boats (Boston College, Holy Cross, MIT, Trinity). Coxswain Rachel Buff steered a phenomenal course, demanding (and receiving) an outstanding performance from a purely freshman boat, one of the few freshman boats in the race. They also closed the gap on Yale from the last race, finishing just 25 seconds behind them compared to the minute and a half margin two weeks ago.
The Club 4+ (Jenny Kulakowski, Annaliese Johnsen, Becky Gerstein, Sarah Brand, Lisa Karcich) finished 27 out of 31 in 21:32. This boat was a very inexperienced crew and did a great job keeping their technique together throughout a very long race. While numerically their result seems unimpressive, they had a great race and accomplished the goals they set out to achieve.
More updates tomorrow!
The Club 4+ (Jenny Kulakowski, Annaliese Johnsen, Becky Gerstein, Sarah Brand, Lisa Karcich) finished 27 out of 31 in 21:32. This boat was a very inexperienced crew and did a great job keeping their technique together throughout a very long race. While numerically their result seems unimpressive, they had a great race and accomplished the goals they set out to achieve.
More updates tomorrow!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
HOCR Results
For live results, please see http://www.hocr.org//results/results.asp. We will be updating this website as well directly after racing.
HOCR Weekend!
It's Thursday before the Head of the Charles and the Northeastern Women have four boats racing. The Varsity will race in the Championship 4+ and Championship 8+ race on Sunday at 3:17 pm and 4:17 pm, respectively. The freshman will race in the Club 4+ and Club 8+ on Saturday 12:23 pm and 1:12 pm.
What does that mean? The Championships events are open to anyone without restriction, so you'll find Princeton racing against the U.S. National Team 8+ as well as the Romanians and USC. It's a very competitive event with some fantastic racing.
The Club event is slightly less competitive because there are restrictions. If you have placed or won events at certain nationally recognized regattas, you aren't allowed to row in this event, you must row up in the Championship event. Therefore, it's a great place for our freshman crews as they'll be right in the mix (we hope) with some good competition.
The varsity will be gunning to finish higher than last year's 7th place (they were the 5th fastest college). The freshman have a goal as well: be unable to get out of the boat at the end. Both goals require hard racing, guts out. Go Huskies!
HOCR Line-ups:
Championship 8+
Colleen Saville (c)
Pia Zubrowski
Alida Durrant
Ashley Griffeth
Svenja Sanders
Ashley Bruno
Jillise Ketcham
Anna Padilla
Meredith Sparano
Championship 4+
Emily Ortez (c)
Emily Fisher
Francie Shafer
Rachel Garabenian
Heather Zeh
Club 8+
Rachel Buff (c)
Laura Carroll
Ronnie Townsend
Jen Forbes
Katie Ward
Maria Ciminelli
Delaney Wintermeyer
Liz Biddle
Kailyn Yard
Club 4+
Jenny Kulakowski (c)
Annaliese Johnsen
Becky Gerstein
Sarah Brand
Lisa Karcich
What does that mean? The Championships events are open to anyone without restriction, so you'll find Princeton racing against the U.S. National Team 8+ as well as the Romanians and USC. It's a very competitive event with some fantastic racing.
The Club event is slightly less competitive because there are restrictions. If you have placed or won events at certain nationally recognized regattas, you aren't allowed to row in this event, you must row up in the Championship event. Therefore, it's a great place for our freshman crews as they'll be right in the mix (we hope) with some good competition.
The varsity will be gunning to finish higher than last year's 7th place (they were the 5th fastest college). The freshman have a goal as well: be unable to get out of the boat at the end. Both goals require hard racing, guts out. Go Huskies!
HOCR Line-ups:
Championship 8+
Colleen Saville (c)
Pia Zubrowski
Alida Durrant
Ashley Griffeth
Svenja Sanders
Ashley Bruno
Jillise Ketcham
Anna Padilla
Meredith Sparano
Championship 4+
Emily Ortez (c)
Emily Fisher
Francie Shafer
Rachel Garabenian
Heather Zeh
Club 8+
Rachel Buff (c)
Laura Carroll
Ronnie Townsend
Jen Forbes
Katie Ward
Maria Ciminelli
Delaney Wintermeyer
Liz Biddle
Kailyn Yard
Club 4+
Jenny Kulakowski (c)
Annaliese Johnsen
Becky Gerstein
Sarah Brand
Lisa Karcich
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
First Fall Head Race Results
The Huskies are just back from a trip to the Housatonic River in Shelton, Connecticut, also known as Yale University's home course. The regatta was head-race style, each boat competing in their respective events against the clock, racing each other at 15-second interval, to the complete confusion of any spectators.
The results were good at first glance: Northeastern's Varsity 8+ and 1st Novice 8+ finished second behind Yale, while the Varsity A and B 4+s finished 1st and 2nd, respectively. A closer look at the margins (perhaps) tells a different story. NU's V8+ finished 43 seconds behind Yale while the Novices finished 1:23 behind Yale. That being said, a seasoned observer would note that Yale looked a great deal more prepared for head-racing season, charging down the course on both events at a 32-33 stroke rating, far higher than their competition. How they do it?--a fact that still eludes other coaches. Given that information, Yale were the NCAA National Champions last year while Northeastern just missed a NCAA bid, so, in all fairness, they should be smoking.
From a coach's perspective, I was incredibly pleased with the results. We didn't spend time working or doing long pieces at rate, or even talking about how hard to go. We simply have been focusing on teaching, getting 17 athletes to start to gel together, technically and dynamically as a team. We raced at a measly 26 strokes per minute without much aggression (a fact we need to work on), but given where we are and how we prepared, I'm pleased. Besides, we've got nearly 8 months till Eastern Sprints. Lots will change.
The results were good at first glance: Northeastern's Varsity 8+ and 1st Novice 8+ finished second behind Yale, while the Varsity A and B 4+s finished 1st and 2nd, respectively. A closer look at the margins (perhaps) tells a different story. NU's V8+ finished 43 seconds behind Yale while the Novices finished 1:23 behind Yale. That being said, a seasoned observer would note that Yale looked a great deal more prepared for head-racing season, charging down the course on both events at a 32-33 stroke rating, far higher than their competition. How they do it?--a fact that still eludes other coaches. Given that information, Yale were the NCAA National Champions last year while Northeastern just missed a NCAA bid, so, in all fairness, they should be smoking.
From a coach's perspective, I was incredibly pleased with the results. We didn't spend time working or doing long pieces at rate, or even talking about how hard to go. We simply have been focusing on teaching, getting 17 athletes to start to gel together, technically and dynamically as a team. We raced at a measly 26 strokes per minute without much aggression (a fact we need to work on), but given where we are and how we prepared, I'm pleased. Besides, we've got nearly 8 months till Eastern Sprints. Lots will change.
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