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Bates Sweat

Bobcat Cup Results

Here are the results of this year's Bobcat Cup regatta. This is our end-of-the-fall intrasquad championship over the Turner Bridge to Dock course. All crews race down the course and their final times are adjusted based on a handicap system we developed using results from the NERCs and ECACs.

Last year the WV8 won in wild conditions. A major headwind forced us to shorten the course and almost caused a few crews to swamp!

This time around we had a decent headwind, but nothing to cause much concern. Here are the adjusted results:

W2V8: 22:08.7
Wv8: 20:48.2
MV8: 20:06.2
M2V8: 19:45.1


The M2V8 had five of the guys that set the course record the day before along with Peter C. Miller '12 in three seat, Peter K. Miller '12 in two seat, and Nick Salcido '11 in bow.

Men's Frosh/Novice 8 Sets New Course Record; Blue Goose BC Featured On HOCR Recap Show

Thanks to Lindsay Thomson '10 for the outstanding pictures she took last Thursday. The 1300 she took can probably be used for this blog until the end of time.

Lot of news from the past five days or so. In short:

• The men's frosh/novice 8+ set a new record for the Turner Bridge to Dock course.
• On Comcast SportsNet's Head of the Charles recap, which I saw Sunday at 5:00 PM, the Blue Goose BC and Mason Cox '07 pretty much dominated the Alumni Eight coverage. I'm looking into whether the show will be on the air again and/or how to obtain a copy of the show itself.
• A different crew from last year won the Bobcat Cup (article to be posted tomorrow).
• The boathouse was winterized by everyone on Saturday.
  

Men's Frosh/Novice 8 had a decent race piece last Thursday

Lineup from bow: Charlie Carey '13, JC Hersey '12 (holds the M1X record), Andre Gobbo '13, Jordy Winslow '13*, Matt Johns '13 (holds F/N 2- record), Severn Patolo '12*, Peter Haley '13 (holds F/N 2- record), Clay Baldo '13, Gabe Silverman '11 (cox).

*Severn and Jordy switched seats before the start of the race.

During preparations for the CBB Chase we put together a freshmen/novice eight for the first time this fall. They had been rowing in the varsity boats for most of the season which provided them with a lot of miles of rowing, but not necessarily tons of instruction regarding technique. Once we got them in the boat together and focused on improving crew-wide technique every row seemed to be better than the previous one. It was a shame that the CBB was cancelled because these guys were anxious to race against a fellow novice eight.

Fortunately they were able to stay motivated during the final week knowing that they had a shot at winning the Bobcat Cup. Then in the middle of the week it turned out one of the guys had to miss Friday so the F/N 8 ultimately did not get the chance to win the Bobcat Cup. So on Thursday we gave them a shot to set the first F/N 8 record on the Turner Bridge to Dock race course.

The conditions were great: 5,500 meters of glass, twilight mixing with the golden-orange leaves, and warmer-than-average tempatures. Lindsay Thomson took a break from the V8 coxswain seat to take some pictures and they are stunning.

The MV8 took off about a minute early at a low rate so the boys had a rabbit to chase down the course. They caught the V8 with about 1200 meters to go, at which point the V8 took their rate up to 24-26 SPM to match speeds. Jack and Gabe, the two coxswains for the day, did an excellent job of bringing the two crews together down the homestretch and they absolutely battled during the final 750 meters or so. The end result was a time of 19:11 for the F/N 8, ten seconds faster than the fastest time recorded. Gabe drove a perfect course and the MV8 did an excellent job of giving the guys something to chase. In the end the guys in the crew made the decision to just hang with those varsity guys even though their tanks were near empty. It was very exciting and almost primal stuff. Coaches like that.

Well done boys.

Late Fall Rowing

Though our last fall competition was this past Saturday, competition within the team continues through this final week of the fall rowing season. There are two race courses which are predominantly used during the fall: Turner Bridge to the Dock and the 2k Start Line to the Dock. Men and women who wish to challenge for the fastest times on these two race courses in the pairs have their final chances on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday we end the season with the Bobcat Cup Regatta, our version of Class Day.

Pairs rowing has become a fixture in our fall practices so it's only natural for us to have records of the fastest times for varsity men, varsity women, frosh men, and first-year women. This year we've used the pairs more than last due to people having to miss because of H1N1 and geology field trips. The fact that the first-years were in pairs early and often has really raised the quality of Bates' rowing and I look forward to giving you the pair records tomorrow.

Like I said earlier, the Bobcat Cup is meant to be our Class Day Regatta. California might have the oldest and most famous Class Day Regatta. They have a boat each of Frosh, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors race over a 2K course and the winning crew wins a big California rowing belt buckle. Well we don't have eights of each class here at Bates, but the Bobcat Cup crews are meant to be 1V, 2V, 3V, or F/N. They race the Turner Bridge to Dock course head-race style. We handicap the results so that if the first-year women are relatively faster than everyone else in the boathouse, they win the cup even though they may not have the fastest time.

Last year the regatta was shortened due to high winds, but the women's 1V, which finished 2nd at the Charles and the NCAAs won the Bobcat Cup in a narrow margin of victory over the men's 1V, which had some very impressive results of their.

Bates Alums at Head of the Charles

Boston saw a lot of Bates alums on the Charles River this past weekend. We had entries in both the men's and women's Alumni Eights, Club Singles Men, Club Four Men, Club Four Women, and Champ Eight Women.

The men and women of the Blue Goose Boat Club got things started off for us on Saturday. The men finished 27th and the women finished 16th. The women would have finished 7th if it weren't for a 1:00 time penalty for interference. Thanks to Jon Blanchard '08 for getting the lineup information to me:

Blue Goose Men: Time Austin (bow), Eugene Kim, Dylan Eberle, Graham Proud, Karl Dietrich, Nate Hubbell, Sam Hotchkiss, Jon Blanchard, Mason Cox (coxswain and Assistant Director for the Regatta)

Blue Goose Women: Kara Constantine (bow), Kristen Andersen, Emily Howieson, Josie Cutts, Laura Hubbell, Jackie Olson, Jeanethe Falvey, Cait Murphy, Tatum Fraite (coxswain)

Next up was the Club Singles, where Charlie Biddle '09 was making his first appearance as a Bates alum. Charlie, representing Undine Barge Club from Philly, took 9th out of 60 scullers in his inaugural race on the Charles River. He recorded the second fastest time to Riverside Boat Club and passed a number of other singles, but was eventually held up by a slower sculler just before Weeks Bridge. Charlie had a lot of fun, finished strongly, and secured himself a spot in next year's event.

Immediately following Charlie was Brian Klein '09 in the Men's Club Four representing Riverside Boat Club. Brian, who performed so well in this summer's intrasquad competition in fours, finished third on Saturday. I asked Brian how it felt to win a Charles medal and he ranked the race among his top five rowing experiences. The boat was cruising between Weeks and Anderson. Ever the competitor, Brian was a little disappointed with finishing within four seconds of the first and second place crews, both of which started in the middle of the pack and never offered the Riverside crew any immediate competition.


Next came Christian Ford '08 who drove the Riverside Boat Club women's four down the course. Like Brian, Christian started in the first position and pulled away from the crews which started immediately behind him. They weren't pushed all the way from start to finish and ultimately finished 5th, behind four crews whose starting positions ranged from 22 to 52. Christian was quick to note that even though they did not win the event there was still a positive side to the results: the course record, which Lib Diamond '04 set in 2008 with Riverside, was not broken.

On Sunday, Brad Sherman '08 raced for Riverside Boat Club in the men's Champ Eight event. The Champ Eight events attract crews from international training centers, the Division 1 rowing scene, and other top quality crews from around the world. The winning crew was composed of some of the top single scullers in the world. Brad's crew finished 27th.


The final event which featured Bobcat alums was the women's Champ Eight event on Sunday. Nicole Ritchie '09 rowed in a Vesper crew that finished 15th. Lib Diamond '04 represented Riverside Boat Club in this event. These two have already had some friendly competition this year: Nicole's Vesper crew finished ahead of Lib's Riverside crew at Canadian Henley. I'm sure the lineups were not the same, but Sunday's result was similar to that of the Canadian Henley: Riverside placed 16th, just about 16 seconds behind Vesper.

Well done to all of our active alums. It's great to see your enthusiasm for the sport carry beyond the Bates campus and your continued involvement in the rowing community is doing a lot to show the world what Bates, and our relatively young rowing team, have to offer.

Head of the Charles

Both the men's and women's 1Vs performed well down in Boston, where the weather drifted from rain to snow yesterday.

***Very special thanks go to Mr. and Mrs. Scholle (P '12) for putting on a dinner for the crews and housing the men's eight and also to Brian Klein '09 and Cait Murphy '09 for housing the women's eight.***

As always with the Charles, one of the first things a coach hopes for is that all the rowers and equipment arrive at the recovery docks in the same condition in which they left. This year both coxswains, Lindsay Thomson '10 for the men and Carrie Dillaway '13 for the women, steered both of their crews from start to finish without any penalties, stoppages, or damage to their respective shells. Head of the Charles might be the most stressful environment a coxswain can be put into, and both of them deserve loads of credit for their crew's result.

Speaking of which, the men were able to improve upon last year's finish, but the women were not as fortunate (though they would have had to win the race to improve upon the 2008 result). The men finished 15th, (4th among NESCAC crews), seven spots higher than they were seeded. The women finished 12th, 3rd among NESCAC crews. The Trinity men and Williams women look to have a lot of deph and speed as each school had two crews finish in the top half of the standings.

The Charles crews have the day off today, as their bodies will most likely be fighting off wave after wave of whatever strain of H1N1 each school brought with them to Boston.

Our next race is the Great Late Autumn Showdown in the North, the CBB Chase, up in Waterville on Saturday. Look for a post in the next few days summarizing the results of our many Alumni who raced the Charles course this past weekend.

Quinsigamond Snake Regatta

Our crews had a fair showing in Worcester on Saturday. The bus departed campus around 6:00 AM and everyone was asleep by about 6:10; after they'd eaten bagels, fruit, and juice which were distributed by the captains.

When they woke up we were in Worcester, where the conditions were expected to be much worse than they appeared. A strong headwind was expected and prevalent, but the unpredictable waters of Lake Quinsigamond remained tame throughout the morning. The beauty of the Snake is the simple schedule: arrive, rig, launch, race, derig, eat, depart (all within about 3 1/2 hours).

The men's eights got us started. Last year the 1V were victims of a 60 second penalty so they were starting in the middle of the field. From what Lindsey Thomson (cox) '10 says, boat traffic prevented the crew from really falling into a rhythm through the body of the race. They passed University of Rhode Island but were unable to catch Colby in their sprint. A penalty-free race meant the crew improved on last year's results. WPI was impressive in our first view of them since we were at Henley. If we can hang with them once March rolls around, we will be in good shape. The men's second eight consisted of five first-years. They finished third amond the 'B' boats and had a good first race.

The women's 1V finished 2nd to Mount Holyoke by just over four seconds. Like the men, they also have a young crew who are just finding their personality. With another few days of training before the Charles, you can be assured that speed will be gained everyday in which this lineup rows together. The women's 2V, featuring novice coxswain Tory Zapack '13, finished 12th (3rd out of Division III 'B' boats).

A good day of racing for all crews. The first-year rowers experienced their first collegiate regatta and a lot of new faces were present around the Parents' tent. We'll train hard this week for the Head of the Charles and will certainly see improvements to the squad.