squaring the blade -...
TRANSCRIPT
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Squaring THE Blade
We have taken a number of steps to build unity in the boathouse, including running combined triathlons and other workouts and hosting cook-outs for all the teams following Saturday practices. We also tore down the wall that separated the men’s and women’s coaching offices and had the whole space painted, carpeted and refurnished. Our most significant team-building step was to take a winter training trip with all four squads to Cocoa Beach, Florida, for ten days in January. The trip was a big success, with good weather allowing us to row hundreds of miles on the Banana River and Sykes Creek, both part of the Intracoastal Waterway. While morale is vital, the cornerstone of our building effort is recruiting high school(Continued on page 3)
Table of Contents What MIT Crew Has Meant to Me 1 Head of the Charles 2 Coaches’ Corner 3-5 Fall Race Results 6
Issue ?, Volume ?
From the Director Dear MIT Crew Alumni/ae, I have been meaning to write toyou about how things are going at Pierce Boathouse, and thepublication of this Squaring the Blade gives me the chance to do so. In general, our great projectof building the MIT crew into acompetitive force is going well.On all our varsity and noviceteams numbers are holdingsteady and morale is high. Thecoaches have embraced thenecessity of building for thefuture, while ensuring that ourcurrent athletes have the bestpossible competitive experience.The athletes are united by theircommitment to succeed soonerrather than later. No one expects this year to be easy,competitively, but we all aredetermined to take meaningfulsteps forward now.
SQUARING the BLADE
Table of Contents From the Director 1 Crew in Action 2 Coaches’ Corner 4-6 Fall Race Results 7 Spring Race Schedule 8
Volume 23 Number 4
Winter 2006
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mit crew in action -- fall‘06
Sophomore Inessa Liskovich launching for practice
Men’s lights race in Head of the Charles
A coxswain sports an MIT jacket
Women’s openweights at the Head of the Charles
Varsity heavies training on the Charles River
MIT Crew in Action Fall ‘06
Women’s lights and heavies at morning practice
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with the MIT coaching staff. The same rules prevent us from calling high school students before July following their junior year, but students of all ages can always contact us. The coaches’ contact information can be found on our web pages, which are all linked to the DAPER section of www.mit.edu. Secondly, you can donate toward the James B. McMillin Leadership Endowment, which was created this year, based on a substantial gift from Bill Reynolds (’49), to fund our recruiting efforts. Needless to say, recruiting is expensive, and the funding of the McMillin Endowment will be a huge step toward giving us parity with our competitors. I believe that more information about this and the other endowment funds has been sent to you separately by your hard-working Crew Alumni Association. Thank you all for your ongoing support of MIT crew, and feel free to contact me with any comments or questions. Go Tech!
beautiful new brochure. Thisspring we will begin traveling tojunior rowing programs across thecountry to spread the word aboutMIT crew. We have also createda computer program that willenable us to track recruits and analyze historical recruiting data.What we don’t know, of course,is what will happen to theseprospects’ applications in the admissions office. We recom-mend only candidates who meetMIT’s academic standards, butwhether enough of them will getin to make a difference remains to be seen. You, as alums, can help ourrecruiting effort in a couple ofways. First, you can keep youreyes open for potential MITrowers. Any tall athletic highschool student with a strongacademic record is of interest to us, particularly if he or she is interested in engineering, math, science or business. Prospects do not have to be rowers; we areinterested in any tall high schoolathlete who wants to try rowingin college. NCAA rules preventyou from actually recruiting these kids for us; your role is limited toencouraging them to get in touch
rowers. Since I rowed in college(I graduated in ’82, and rowed with the wooden oars, macon blades and bear-pelt uniformsthat denoted Real Men), theprocess of building a college crewhas changed dramatically. Now,virtually all the top crews consistprimarily of recruited athleteswho rowed in high school. Aplace still exists for the talented walk-on, and we recruitaggressively on campus, but wecannot hope for winning recordsin the EARC or EAWRC without asteady stream of recruited highschool rowers. The crux of ourbuilding effort is therefore toconvince more good high schoolathletes to apply to MIT, and tohave enough of them admitted toform the core of our varsityboats. If we can’t do this, all ourother improvements will not getus where we want to be. In pursuit of these high schoolathletes, we are instituting a full-scale Division I style recruitingeffort. Our coaches are trackingand corresponding with hundredsof prospects, arranging visits tocampus and supplying promo- tional materials, including a
From the director, cont’d.
Women’s lights training in Florida
Varsity heavies training on the Banana River
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Season Preview For spring 2007, first-year coach Tony Kilbridge inherits a youngteam composed largely ofsophomores who, in 2006, made upone of MIT’s better freshmancrews. Juniors Sam McVeety andDima Mirkin and senior John Bergin return from last year’s varsity boatto add experience to the squad.Coach Kilbridge’s fall training plan focused on technical improvement,power-endurance workouts and pairs rowing. The team fared well in the 2006 Head of the Charles,finishing sixth in the Collegiate 8’srace, and entered winter trainingwith a high level of enthusiasm andcommitment.
Coaches’ Corner
SQUARING THE BLADE
A NEWSLETTER FOR THE FRIENDS OF MIT CREW
VOLUME 23 NUMBER 3
WINTER 2006
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT: WWW.FOMITC.ORG
___________________
WOMEN’S ROWING
VARSITY OPEN COACH
ALISON DERRICK [email protected]
VARSITY LT. COACH
IRENE JENKINS [email protected]
NOVICE OPEN COACH
AARON BENSON [email protected]
NOVICE LT. COACH CLAIRE KOSTRZEWSKI
MEN’S ROWING
VARSITY HVY. COACH TONY KILBRIDGE [email protected]
VARSITY LT. COACH
TED BENFORD [email protected]
NOVICE HVY. COACH EVAN THEWS-WASSELL
NOVICE LT. COACH SETH DAVIS
“I am realistic about the challenges we face, and I’m excited to see how this young crew races.” -Tony Kilbridge
the Engineers face their usual tough slate of two and three-way races with Eastern Sprints schools. They will open their campaign by hosting a race against Columbia, then host a three-way contest with Dartmouth and Wisconsin. The next day in Boston, MIT will face Wisconsin and Boston Uni-versity. The third weekend in April brings a three-way race in Prince-ton against the Tigers and Harvard. The Donahue Cup, featuring WPI and Williams, rounds out the Engi-neers’ regular season. Their leaguechampionship, the Eastern Sprints, will take place in Worcester, Mass., on May 13. The team will finish its season at the IRA National Championships in early June.
Men’s Heavyweight Coach Tony Kilbridge
Heavyweight Men
All of their skill and fitness will beneeded for the spring season, as
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Crew Alum Reaches the Stars
Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper, B.A. ’84, M.S. ’85 is a U.S.
Astronaut.
Openweight Women Charles. But, more importantly, the collective understanding and execution of the rowing stroke has improved dramatically. Asstated by Coach Derrick, “To be competitive in the Sprints League, which is by far the most competitive collegiate rowing league in the United States, MIT will have to be not only strong and fit, but row with technical skills thatmatch or surpass the best rowers in the country. Dedicating time to row and race in smaller boats is one
Season Preview The MIT women’s openweightsquad is laying a foundation to build the program’s future byfocusing upon increasing itssquad size and improvingindividual rowing skills. Aftercompleting a novice year filledwith some exciting victories,including a first-place finish at the Knecht Cup, all of lastyear’s freshmen returned to row for the varsity squad thisfall, giving the Engineers avarsity roster twice the size ofthe previous year. Comprised of two seniors, threejuniors, one freshman and 10sophomores, the 16 varsity athletes are joined by a novicesquad of 20 walk-on student-athletes. Although still rela-tively small, these numbersindicate that the openweightsquad is headed in the rightdirection. Also on the rise are the rowingskills and technical abilities ofthe individual crew members.This fall the rowers and coxswains spent time practicingand competing in singles,doubles and pairs. Theirefforts paid off with first-place victories at the Textile River Regatta and the Toe of the
Women’s Openweight Coach Alison Derrick
way to assure that we conti-nue improving our technique and boat handling skills.” The size and skill level of the varsity squad is undoubtedly critical to improving the Engineers’ race results for this spring. However, for the long-term growth of the program, a strong focus on the development of the walk-on rower cannot be over-emphasized. This year’s novices are well aware of the success of their predecessors and with the coaching and guidance ofNovice Coach Aaron Benson, they are looking forward toimproving upon last year’s results.
“MIT Crew has provided many benefits to me… Teamwork, responsibility, and dedication are now firmly distilled in me and have proved to be valuable in every endeavor I undertake.”
-Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper
Coaches Corner
“The collective understanding and the execution of the rowing stroke has improved dramatically.”
-Alison Derrick
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Lightweight Women
Lightweight Men ________________________________________________________
Finishing eighth at this year’s Head of the Charles, solidly infront of IRA silver medalistGeorgetown, the womenquickly realized that they are now indisputably part of thecompetitive lightweight circuit.Completing the fall season witha tremendous performance atthe Foot of the Charles,beating Radcliffe in both theVarsity 4 and Varsity 8 events,the women are even more committed to their goal ofsecuring a medal at the 2007IRA Championships.
Season Preview
The 2006-07 MIT men's lightweight crew is lookingstronger than it has in manyyears. Highlighting the turn inmomentum is the freshmanclass. For the first time in years, the lightweight team willboat an eight of recruitedfreshmen and three eights ofwalk-on athletes. Adding to thisexcitement is the commitmentof current varsity athletes whocame back to campus stronger and more seasoned - no varsity rowers were lost to graduationand all returned from a summerof solid training.
The spring 2007 campaign willproduce improved results and
at the Head of the Charles. Spring racing will be a challenge – we wouldn’t want it any other way. The team has a long-term vision and is approaching our plan withmaturity, commitment and a very positive attitude. We look forward to reporting on future successes.
The women are quite familiar with the work that lies before them. Junior Katherine Madden notes that “Winter training is critical for building the endurance and power necessaryfor speed in the spring. Because lightweight women’s rowing is becoming increasingly comp-etitive, there are no guarantees and it is imperative that we work harder than all of the other top lightweight crews out there.”The most exciting part about the next chapter in MIT lightweight women’s rowing is that the entire squad and staff are unified in itscommitment to success. The team motto of “no shortcut to a gold medal” is ingrained in each of the women’s minds as they approach their winter “erg” season. They look forward to representing MIT with poise as they face IRA grand finalist crews Princeton and UCF in their first race this spring.
Season Preview As the Engineers close out the fall racing season, they arefeeling extremely positive abouttheir upcoming spring races.Though the team is still in adevelopment phase, it hasalready secured some noteworthyvictories. Starting with its first-place finish in last spring’s IRApetite finals, the women enteredthe fall with the confidenceneeded to join the upper echelonof EAWRC lightweight rowing.
“There are no guarantees, …it is imperative that we work harder than all of the other top lightweight crews out there.”
-Katherine Madden, ‘08
Women’s Lightweight Coach Irene Jenkins
we take pride in turning thefortunes of the lightweight men’s program around. With our primary objectives clearlyin sight, we are building speed and competitiveness at alllevels of the program, from the freshmen to the four-year varsity athletes.
While past performance is noindicator of future results, initial success certainly helpsbuild confidence and desire. This fall, the varsity performedbetter than the past five yearsin major races. Our freshmen have created a strong sense of momentum after their win inthe men’s freshman eight at the New Hampshire Champion-ships and a solid performance
Men’s Lightweight Coach Ted Benford
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Men’s Heavyweight
• Head of the Charles: 6th out of 58 teams
• Princeton Chase: 29th out of 37 teams
• Foot of the Charles Regatta: 17th out of 38 teams
FALL RACE RESULTS
Women’s Openweight
• Textile River Regatta: 4th out of 16 teams
• Head of the Charles: 19th out of 57 teams
• Princeton Chase: 43rd out of 54 teams
• Dartmouth Invite: 6th out of 15 teams
Men’s Lightweight
• Head of the Charles: 23rd out of 26 teams
• Princeton Chase: 20th out of 30 teams
• Foot of the Charles Regatta: 17th out of 39 teams
• New Hampshire Championships: Freshmen-- 1st Place out of 17
Women’s Lightweight
• Head of the Charles: 8th out of 14 teams
• Dartmouth Invite: 7th out of 15 teams
• Foot of the Charles: 3rd out of 8 teams
Women’s Openweight on the Charles River, MA
Varsity lights and heavies race on Sykes Creek, FL
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Openweight Women
March 31 University of Pennsylvania & Philadelphia, PA Georgetown University April 14,15 Knecht Cup Camden, NJ
April 28 Beanpot Regatta Cambridge, MA
Lightweight Men
April 7 Joy Cup (Yale) New Haven, CT
April 14 Biglin Bowl (Harvard, Dartmouth) Hanover, NH
April 21 Geiger Cup (Cornell, Columbia) Ithaca, NY
May 6 (new race, tentative) Holy Cross Worcester, MA
May 13 EARC Sprints Worcester, MA
June 2 IRA Regatta Cherry Hill, NJ
Lightweight Women
April 7 Princeton, UCF Princeton, NJ April 15 UMASS Cambridge, MA April 21 Radcliffe Cambridge, MA May 13 EAWRC spring Camden, NJ June 1-3 IRA Championships Camden, NJ
Heavyweight Men
April 7 Columbia Cambridge, MA
April 14 Donahue Cup (Williams, WPI) Worcester, MA April 21 Princeton and Harvard Princeton, NJ May 5 Dartmouth and Wisconsin Cambridge, MA May 6 BU and Wisconsin Cambridge, MA May 13 Eastern Sprints Worcester, MA May 31 – June 2 IRA championships Cooper River, NJ
race schedule
Spring 2007
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