The College of Charleston Crew Team journeyed to Philadelphia for this year’s Dad Vail.  For those of you who are not aware, the Dad Vail Regatta is the climax of the season and championship regatta for smaller varsity programs and clubs like Charleston.  Charleston was not able to have the type of success as last year but it was a positive trip regardless.

The College was represented by five boats.  The Men’s Varsity squad put out a Lightweight 4+ and a Heavyweight 4+.  The Women’s Varsity put out a Heavyweight 4+ and a Pair.  The Novice squad was represented by a Women’s Four.  The team stayed in the Crowne Plaza Hotel by the King of Prussia mall on the generosity of the Hill family who also provided some excellent refreshments for the oarsmen.  The Men’s Varsity 4’s both raced for the first of many times in a Resolute Racing Shell. Warren Williams was obviously in attendance and snatched some wonderful pictures of the events.  Another highlight of the regatta was the Philadelphia Challenge Cup which saw some of the best scullers in the world face off on the Schuylkill for a cash prize.

The Men’s Varsity 4+ (Wells, Hays, Farkas, Berger, and Davis) raced first.  The Heavies took a quick start and were second at the halfway mark.  Inadequate training came circle as they fell to third and then were walked by the other two crews in the final few strokes.

The Women’s Varsity 4+ (Weber, Haney, Kilgore, Schumacher, and Gooding) advanced from their heat to the semifinal with a third place finish over UConn.  In the semifinal the crew had a great run but came up a few seconds out of third place and didn’t advance.  Fortunately, all members of the boat will be returning next year for another crack at it.

The Women’s Varsity 2- (Brandl & Patterson) weren’t able to establish a good rhythm and placed fifth in their heat.   Patterson will be leaving Charleston to pursue her doctorate in Chemistry at the University of Florida. She is missed already.

The Women’s Novice 4+ (Markert, Criddle, Jensch, Kratchman, and Tucker) also weren’t able to make it the semifinals with a fourth place finish in their heat.  However, being this year’s novice women, you can bet they had a good time.  They’re like last year’s novice men, sans bathing.

The Men’s Varsity Lightweight 4+ (Dickey, Hill, Zoellner, Perrin, and McDonald) faced some surprisingly fast competition and placed third in their heat and fifth in their semifinal.  Despite a disappointing finish these guys have no reason to hang their heads low considering what they’ve done for themselves and what they’ve done for this team.  Bravo boys.

The College Rowing Club didn’t perform as well as they wanted or expected to. They fought hard but came short.  It happens.  Charleston Crew will take this Dad Vail as motivation and a lesson and will come back next year better prepared and with more grit.  Continued support by alumni and friends will aide us in helping us reach higher ground.  Elements of the team will be racing at ACRAs and hopefully rowing else wise for the summer.  If not, they’ll be training in dark rooms and on back rivers across the country.  Why? Because we’re Charleston Crew.

Get Some.

-F. Joseph Berger IV

“Break a Hand”

The College of Charleston Rowing Club ventured to Oak Ridge, Tennessee last weekend and were welcomed by yet another regatta plagued by wind and rain.  Logs and winds caused the first day of racing to be delayed and abridged as several boats sat on the water for hours and all C and D finals were cancelled.  For the second year in a row the Crew enjoyed the hospitality of the Vodila family at their nearby farm.  Charleston Crew brought more boats than last year and achieved some successes and some tough lessons.

The most notable event for the team happened before the regatta began.  Sam Dickey, senior and stroke of the light four, broke his right hand Thursday night.  He got a cast, some pain medication and came to Oak Ridge not knowing whether he could row.  The Men’s Lightweight Varsity 4+ (Dickey, Hill, Zoellner, Perrin, and Davis) were hoping to follow up on their previous victory at the regatta but were then unsure if they would be able to compete.  In the end, Dickey decided to stroke the four, cast and all.  In the heat, he and 3-seat Matt Hill rowed the entire two thousand meters on the square and somehow managed a second place and an advancement to the final despite excruciating pain and several crabs.  The next morning,  Dickey cut off the majority of his cast with the idea he may be able to partially feather with his broken hand.  The four, generally quick off the start, sat in fifth for the first half of the race as Dickey pushed against instinct and kept up the rating.  Coming in to the last stretch they valiantly pulled through two boats and secured a bronze medal.  Epic.

Sam's Broken Hand

The Men’s Varsity 4+ (Wells, Hays, Farkas, Berger, and Schreiber) took fourth in one of the tougher heats and failed to advance with a time of 7:02 behind Purdue, St. Joes, and Virginia who finished only seconds before them.  The Men’s Novice 4+ (Candea, Neely, Edgar, Tipling, and Schreiber) took second in their heat behind Emory following a run in with Murray State and a restart that put them in a bad position.  Their fifth place finish in the semifinal placed them in the B final wherein they achieved third place.

The Women’s Varsity 4+ (Weber, Haney, Kilgore, Schumacher, and Gooding) took third place in both their heat and final by slight margins and thereby advanced to the A final.  This was the first time that CofC’s women advanced to the A final in several years.  In the final the four showed some promise as they rode into the last five hundred meters in second place in a tight field.  To the despair of all, they fell to fourth place just a few strokes before the finish.  Luckily, all members of the 4+ will be returning next year for another shot.

The Women’s Novice 4+ (Markert, Criddle, VonAncken, Kratchman, and Tucker) took fourth in their heat.  The Women’s Novice 8+ (Bieger, John, Jensch, Anderson, Frosh, Sutherland, Drews, Schaeffer, and Davis) moved through the heat after waiting for well over an hour by the start to the semifinal wherein they advanced to the B final.  In the B final they were in good position and moving well into the last few hundred where a game-ending crab ended their chances.  The Women’s Novice squad will be represented by a four at Dad Vails and Coach Cammi is excited to see how many of the thirty strong group of novice women move up to Varsity next fall.

The Oarsman will now turn their sights to their final exams and then the big show, the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia.  Charleston hopes to build on last years momentum and show even more strength at the Regatta.

CofC Crew, Spring 2011

-F. Joseph Berger IV

Last Saturday the Charleston Rowing Team finished off a whirlwind three weeks consisting of four regattas with the Clemson Sprints; so aptly named as it is hosted by Clemson in Clemson.  Bad luck seemed to follow the Chucktown Oarsmen as hurricane-level winds struck Lake Hartwell and forced an early commencement to the regatta.  Considering no official results have been posted and the Clemson Crew website is malfunctioning, the following recap of the regatta is done entirely by hearsay and memory.  As such their may be some inconsistencies with the actual events and I urge anyone who sees such discrepancies to make them known to me.

Starting out the day was a seven wide field of the Men’s Varsity 8+.  The Charleston 8+ (Dickey, Hill, Silpe, Hays, Wells, Berger, Zoellner, BP Perrin, and Davis) started off in the middle of the pack in a hotly contested race.  Murray State fell back earlier than expected and played no part, leaving Charleston in third closely behind Clemson and Vanderbilt.  In the final quarter of the race Charleston jacked up the rating and pulled past Clemson’s men and starting moving on Vanderbilt.  Alas, Vanderbilt held out by three or so seats despite a great charge on them.  After a twenty minute respite, Wells, Hays, Berger, and Davis joined Farkas for the supposed heat of the Varsity 4+.  The oarsmen took to the middle of the pack at the beginning, ahead of only one crew out of five.  However, by the thousand meter mark Charleston’s heavies had taken the lead and beyond that point they seemed incapable of not gaining ground despite minimal effort and a low stroke rating.  To the chagrin of the boat, later cancellations caused the heat winners to not race and overall times determined the outcome.  The Clemson 4+ in the other heat rowed a hard piece, finishing at a 40spm and clipped Charleston by a scant 2 seconds.  The Light 4+ was cancelled yet again.

The Varsity Women’s 4+(Weber, Haney, Kilgore, Schumacher, and Gooding) suffered a similiar fate as the Men.  They won their heat easily but came up second when all heat times were colluded.  The 2v Women’s 4+ (Holland, Patterson, Brandl, McCracken, and Tucker) placed fifth in their heat.  The Women’s Novice squad also had a successful outing.  Their first 8+ (Markert, John, Jansch, Anderson, Keener, Schaefer, Beecher, Benton, and Varga) placed third in their flight.  The novice women had enough women to manage a second eight as well, hopefully we will see a large women’s varsity squad next year.   Their coaches, Summer Landrith and Cammi Stanko, competed in the Women’s Masters 2x and beat out a boat from Lake Lanie for gold.

The Men’s Novice 4+ (Candea, Neely, Edger, Tipling, and Gooding) placed third in their heat-flight.  The 8+ was incapable of following up on their Lanier success and failed to medal.  Again, hopefully all the male recruits will hit the weights and rise to the expanding Varsity squad.

Naturally, Warren Williams was at the regatta.  When he wasn’t taking pictures and fending off repeated bear attacks he was competing in the Men’s Masters Single.  To his chagrin, the race was abridged to only a thousand meters; Williams never does a piece under ten leagues and was not used to such a short race.  Mistaking the 250m to go for the 500m to go he never got much of a sprint in and bronzed to Iztok Cop and Mahe Drysdale by a slight margin.  Said Williams of the race, “Vell, de race vas good but it vas probably a bad idea to attach those lead chains to mine boot.”  Warren then grabbed his single and ran back into the woods.

The regular season is now over.  Those rowing at SIRA and Dad Vails will be in all out training mode for these next five weeks and need all the encouragement and support ($) they can get.  Support Charleston Crew! Come to our Pig Roast this Thursday at O’Malley’s at 7pm.

F. Joseph Berger IV

P.S.  The Light 4+ (Dickey, Hill, Zoellner, and Perrin) are traveling to Philadelphia for the Knecht Cup this weekend.  This should be their first major competition.  Stay tuned…

The College of Charleston Crew Team traveled to Gainesville, Georgia last weekend for a double header of regattas hosted by Georgia Tech Crew and Lake Lanier Rowing.  Despite terrible weather conditions and cancellations, CofC Crew enjoyed some successes and had a bit of fun while they were at it.

John Hunter started off with the best of intentions.  The Women’s Varsity 8+(Weber, Patterson, Kilgore, Schumacher, Holland, Haney, Brandl, Sutherland, and Gooding) started off the day by beating Northwestern and Colby B for a spot in the final.  The rainy conditions took a toll on the crew in the final as they brought in the tail end of things with Emory nudging out Georgia Tech and Florida for first.  The Men’s Varsity 4+(Wells, Hays, Farkas, Berger, and Tucker) raced in a flight as the heats became finals due to thunderstorms.  Despite a week without practicing due to half of the boat being deathly ill, the boat shot off like a rocket at the start, shooting ahead of the field for the first quarter of the race.  Georgia Tech and Miami would eventually creep up and pass the ailing 4+ but they held out for third place despite some strong sprints by N.C. State and LSU.  The Women’s Novice 8+ also raced.  All of Charleston’s other races were cancelled an account of the cruddy weather.

Lake Lanier Sprints welcomed the intrepid Charleston Crew back to the lake with gray skies that spared the oarsmen of any further precipitation.  The Novice Men’s 8+ (Candea, Tipling, Patrick, Neely, Harris, Olson, Pugilese, Williams, and Gooding) had a great row and pulled in a bronze medal for the College.  Bow seat (Warren Williams) literally snapped his oar in half in the final meters.  The Men’s 2x(Wells, Berger) was scratched.  The Women’s  2-(Weber, Patterson) raced a Masters Double due to a lack of competition.  The Women’s Varsity 4+(Holland, Haney, Kilgore, Schumacher, and Gooding) rolled up to the start next to some  menacing crews.  Their appearance was all show as the Women’s 4+ steamrolled over them to victory.  Two Women’s 8+’s comprised mostly of novice took to the river in Women’s Open 8+ and had a great race between each other.  Two Varsity Men’s 4+’s, one light and one heavyish, entered in the Open 4+.  The lights (Dickey, Hill, Zoellner, Perrin, and S. Davis) recovered from the heavyishes (Silpe, Hays, Farkas, Berger, and Tucker) initial burst to pull in a decisive win.  The heavyish 4+ took third behind the 4+ from LSU.  Kudo’s to Erin Tucker as she did a wonderful job despite damaged steering and no cox box.  The day finished off with some fun in two Mixed Eights that brought in gold and Silver medals for the Crew.

Charleston Crew will finish off their regular season next week at the Clemson Sprints.

John Hunter Results: https://www.regattacentral.com/index.jsp?tab=results

-F. Joseph Berger IV