By Peter A. Martin
The men’s crew begins its 2008 spring racing campaign this weekend looking to rebound after one of their most difficult seasons in recent memory.
“We struggled with cohesion last year,” said head coach John Pojednic. “We had a bunch of different personalities, and a bunch of different ideas of what a race should be and what the stroke should be.”
In rowing, more so than almost any other sport, a team must function as a unit. One arm, leg or head that is out of line with the other eight oarsmen can mean extra seconds on the race course.
The lack of team unity cost the crew last year, especially at the end of its season. After going just 2-3 in head-to-head racing, the team took 10th at Eastern Sprints for just the third time in team history, matching the teams worst ever finish.
But, they were able to rebound from that low point to end last season with an 11th place finish at the IRA Regatta, a much more competitive championship.
The team returned to the water this fall, competing in the Head of The Charles. The Varsity 8 finished fifth among collegiate crews, coming within 13 seconds of the winners, the University of Wisconsin.
This season, the crew looks to use the momentum from that improvement, along with some new additions, to regain their status as a top-five college program.
“The difference [between this year and last year] is the commitment from the sophomores,” said team captain Bill Benjamin. “They showed up in the fall ready to work, and it has gotten us all more focused.”
This season’s Varsity 8 currently features two second-year rowers, Brad Bertoldo and Stephan McCarthy. But with seats in that boat always up from grabs, it could feature more members of the class of 2011 before the season is done.
The Varsity 8 will face a tough test this season beginning this weekend at the San Diego Crew Classic. The Classic, akin to the Maui Invitational or the Great Alaska Shootout in college basketball, is a preseason race featuring some of the best crews in the country before they go into the more traditional head-to-head racing season.
This year’s draw pits the Huskies against western powers UC Berkeley, the University of Washington and Stanford, as well as eastern powers Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Penn.
With the team having spent the summer and fall nursing the wounds of last spring they are anxious to get to San Diego and prove that the 2007 campaign was just a bump in the road.
“It will take a lot of work to get back to where we want to be,” Pojednic said. “This team has the potential to be fast, but there is a lack of race experience and confidence.”
That lack of experience jumps off the roster; of the 18 varsity oarsmen just four are seniors.
But none of that matters to the rowers. After a long winter of training they are ready to compete.
“We are ready to rock and roll,” Benjamin said. “We have been preparing for this since September, some of us since the beginning of last summer. We are looking forward to this race. We are done preparing, now we want to show what we can do.”
The team races in their heat at 8:40 a.m. Pacific time Saturday, with the finals to follow Sunday. Their first action on the Charles happens at 7:48 a.m. Saturday April 12 when the Huskies take on the BU Terriers for the Arlett Cup.
