NCAA Post #6 Saturday May 30

Phew! What a season...3rd place as a team and a bronze medal in the varsity eight. It's a fifth straight team trophy for Trinity and the third straight medal in the varsity eight (2007 silver, 2008 gold, 2009 bronze). I'll have more time to break down the results and process the strengths, weaknesses, and prospects for this current team and what we'll need to improve upon.

A wonderful dinner at Maggiano's with our whole parent group...goodbyes and thanks that don't quite match what you're feeling inside.

New captains for next year - Ellie Wierzbowski and Stephanie Apstein. 

NCAA Post #5 Saturday May 30

The morning of the finals...emails rolling in from well-wishers (both alumni and friends alike), rowers making their final mental preparations, coxswains rehearsing their plans, coaches anxiously trying to find something to do, and really isn't the excitement and anticipation what it is all about? Yes, it's definitely a big part of what we prepare to do but what I truly enjoy about the NCAAs are actually the weeks of preparation leading up to it. Eating at Ogilby, having time to run thorough practices, the students are generally relaxed and having fun with the work, and the promise of the event is near. Little things like the NCAA gear (in the picture above you can see the NCAA gift this year - iPod Shuffles!), travel together for more than a night, practicing in uniform, and being surrounded by incredible athletes creates a powerful atmosphere. We're very lucky that our team has committed to finding a way to the NCAA Championships for the past seven seasons. To all of the incoming recruits, prospective recruits, alumni, friends, and families we hope we'll make you proud by laying it all on the line in a few short hours.

Fast boats...

NCAA Post #4 Friday May 29

The heat results are in the books and can be found here. Our second varsity rowed a good piece to finish third in their heat and qualify for the grand qualifier. Last year's 2V was nipped out at the line and rowed in the petite qualifier so this was a nice push from this year's crew. The varsity racing in the third heat were facing a really serious test from Ithaca and Williams' second varsity and rowed a good first 1000 to qualify directly for the Grand Final.

How things play out from here are anybody's guess...Many thanks to all of the parents who traveled to support the squad. To our incoming recruits and rowers training at home - I can't wait for all of you to earn the chance to experience this type of racing.

Weather update

Weather.com is predicting a very slight cross wind from the east at 3 mph with showers. Please do come prepared!

NCAA Post #3 Thursday May 28

Full day at the Camden course today with a practice this morning, boat weigh-ins, compounding the hull, and then the coaches and administrator meeting at the hotel (followed by our Division III coaches meetings). 

Definite highlight of the day was the championship banquet held at the Crowne Plaza with a keynote address by Leslie Gudel, a Philadelphia-area sportscaster. Pretty amazing that her rowing experience 20 years ago still rings true to so many of the athletes from today. Pretty amazing too that the Crowne Plaza was able to process, I mean feed that number of athletes in only 75 minutes. Efficiency rules!

NCAA gifts this year - iPod Shuffles! Big round of applause to whomever made that decision. The jury is out on whether they are superior to the Nike sunglasses from last year though.

Racing begins tomorrow at 8:15 AM for our II eight racing in the 2nd heat and at 8:30 AM for our I eight racing in the 3rd heat. Winner goes to the grand final directly, second and third place to the grand qualifiers, and the remaining crews to the petite qualifier.

Let's get it on!

NCAA Post #2 Wednesday May 27

I realize how lame it was to post a picture of traffic for my first post from the NCAAs. So i'll give you this new picture that pretty much speaks for itself.

NCAA Post #1 Wednesday May 27

NCAA training in Hartford is finished and the athletes depart campus at 8:30 AM this morning...a quick rig, investigation of what the NCAA layout has to offer, and then a row to shake out the wrinkles from the bus ride through New York.

Uneventful trailer drive yesterday with only about a 30 minute delay getting across the Cross Bronx.

Have to track down a little more boat weight and complete some other little errands before the athletes arrive.

Also, great NBA game last night between the Cavaliers and Magic - can't really see the Cavaliers coming back when every time the game gets close the plan becomes "Pass to Lebron and watch...or set a weak screen...or maybe I'll rebound".

The Penguins are on to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd year in a row! What an incredible accomplishment but certainly they want to rectify the situation from last year.

7 in a Row

We're in! Heading to the NCAA Championships for the 7th year in a row. Details to follow!

Not the way we wanted it...

Well as many of you may know the regatta was cancelled yesterday at 4:00 PM after the conditions continued to deteriorate...This is actually the 3rd time in 6 years that the regatta has been cancelled or severely shortened. I feel especially badly for all of the men's crews whose final regattas never happened because of mother nature. 

For our team, we're now anxiously going to await the NCAA Division III selection announcement that will happen via live webcast on Tuesday at 3 PM - you can find that link here.

In the mean time, we'll unload the trailer this afternoon and then start implementing our plan to help find more speed. I'll break down my impressions of the 1V, 2V, and 3V performances from the ECAC later on.

Windy Cooper

We've been battling 20 mph tailwind conditions all day and racing has currently been suIspended until 4 PM. Our varsity 8 rowed this morning at 7 AM in and rowed to an absolute dead heat with the University of New Hampshire for 2nd/3rd about 2 seconds back of Williams. The semifinal race was rowed relatively cleanly. Our women's 3V raced well in the conditions and earned a spot in the final - the women's 2V were upset by Smith in their qualifying heat and were relegated to the petite final.

The most recent update has racing suspended until 4 PM and all petite finals, 3rd levels, and 4th levels are cancelled. I'll try keeping updates flowing but the number of scheduling changes is making it pretty challenging.

On to the Semifinals

We're heading to the 1st semifinal tomorrow morning for an early 7 AM race. We raced a solid piece in the heat to qualify for the semifinal setting up a matchup between Williams, St.Lawrence, UNH, Simmons, and Wellesley for three spots in the Grand Final. Tomorrow our 2V and 3V will get a chance to go for their best performances to date...now we're off to a team banquet with parents and friends right at the hotel.

Cooper River Park - 2:34 AM - Races "heating" up

The wind is starting to blow down the course at the start and eventually turning into a crosswind at the finish line that is creating a little bit of chop. Coxswains have weighed in at this point and the athletes should arrive shortly for our pre-row and race warmup. 

There is talk of changing the women's varsity semifinal time to 7:00 AM tomorrow on the basis of forecasted wind. It should get up to 20 mph by 10:30 AM or so and that could make delays very likely.

Can't wait to get it started!

Cooper River Park - 8:27 AM Saturday dawns

Athletes arrived last night around 4:30 and were on the water at 5:00 PM - I thought it was pretty excellent efficiency and we were able to get our work done on the course and give the athletes a good chance to adjust. Immediately following we showered, changed and headed to a wonderful dinner at Tracey Suter's home in Haddonfield...What an amazing neighborhood and great food!

Coach Jaugstetter from Tulane University is bringing his athletes over in about 10 minutes to borrow our M2 'Bob Benjamin ' 71 - they'll be racing our heat this afternoon. The shell won the NCAA Division III varsity title in 2005 so it definitely can be rowed at top speed. Still have to get the parent tent supplies set up and we'll do that as soon as we get the grill down.

Our athletes arrive at 8:45 AM and there is a coxswain's meeting at 9:00 AM.

Weather for the area can be found here. 

Trailering down to the ECAC

I'm beginning our coverage of the ECACs with a post from the trailer - Coach MacDermott and I are driving down and are just about to get on to I-95S on our way to Camden, NJ - the athletes will follow this afternoon and paddle on the course this evening.

I'll keep updating as we move forward.

NERC Aftermath - Trinity Sprints Back!

The New England Championships are in the books and it was a pretty amazing day all the way around. Trinity entered eight eights and one four and were grand finalists in every event. 

Our athletes were able to improve upon or hold  our seeding in every event which is usually a mark of a successful regatta especially as we transition from two and three boat racing to six lane racing.  Our 3V battled to a 4th place finish and held their seed, while the 2V improved from 6th to 4th with a final that, while okay, may not be a true reflection of their ability. 

The 1V came into the regatta ranked 3rd and rowed an excellent heat in the fastest time of the day. In the final, they weren't quite able to put all of the pieces together but staged a terrific sprint that resulted in a thrilling 3rd place finish. After a reasonable start, the eight was in contact with the leaders but gave up a fair amount in the middle 1000 leaving a lot of work to do in the final quarter. Finding a little more in the last 500 than they have had all season the crew charged back to within 0.4 seconds and closed the gap on two crews who have been clearly ahead since the fall season. The bronze medal was a good start to our championship racing season.

We race at the ECAC Championships this upcoming weekend in Camden NJ - most of the same crews from New Englands with the New York schools added in...should be excellent racing! Thanks for following.

1:26 - NERC

All heats are finished and EVERY Trinity crew has made the final - the men's 2F, 1F, 2V, and 1V made the final with the 3V going directly to the grand final. The women's 1V, 2V, and 3V also made the final. The 1V rowed a good piece with plenty of room for improvement and now we continue the waiting game until the afternoon finals.

Oh yes, and a Life Saver Medical helicopter just took off from the UMass Memorial Hospital.

12:04 - NERC

We're waiting for the 1V to come down in their heat - and many races are in the books right now. The 3V established an early lead against Wellesley in their heat and qualified for the afternoon grand final. The 2V women had a fantastic heat and turned the tables on Holy Cross who were leading at the 1000m mark. Eventually the Bantams moved ahead by nearly 3 seconds at the finish and are now poised for a good grand final and will battle for a medal.

The men's 1F and men's 2V won by a very healthy amount of open water - and the 2F finished 2nd in the 1F event.

We're still just searching for improvement as time goes on...

10:29 - NERC

Our 3V is about ready to launch and are completing their final preparations. Conditions look fast so far as the novice eights have gone down in pretty quick times.

The men's 2V4 was in a barn burner of a race and came in 2nd with less than 1.5 seconds separating the top three crews. They qualify for the afternoon grand final.

More to come.

8:51 - NERC

Sun is finally out and a cross tailwind is increasing across the course - the fours races are currently going and the parking lot is filling up with crews rigging their eights.

8:02 Saturday Morning - New England Championships

As the NCAA committee has decreed that Twitter is not an acceptable means of communication for any collegiate program I'm going to be trying to keep people updated "twitter" style on the blog today.

Attended the coxswain meeting - Gary Caldwell said something fantastic to the assembled coxswains and coaches about the volunteerism of the referees and regatta organizers who are making a difference.

The men's 2V 4+ is warming by the trailer and the Jones' family have taken over the tent - pancakes and other breakfast goodies are already being produced.

Bus expected to arrive in about thirty minutes.