1.
Crew, ultimate frisbee clubs mix work and play on Spring Break
By David Chambers Special to the Kansan
Luke Evans, Wichita junior, and Jeremy Friedman, Lawrence senior, will be traveling to warm, sunny places this Spring Break, but they will have more on their minds than a little R&R.
Evans will wake before the sun comes up in Natchitoches, La., to train in a crew shell all day long. Friedman will travel to Austin, Texas, where he will compete against people from across the country in the University of Texas' annual Ultimate Frisbee Tournament.
The Spring Break trip has become an annual event for the KU crew team. Seventy members of the team will travel to Louisiana where they will spend a week preparing for the upcoming season.
Evans, a second-year member of the KU Crew team, and Friedman, a fourth-year member of the KU Ultimate Frisbee team, are just two of dozens of KU students who will compete and train in club sports during Spring Break.
Crew coach Rob Catloth said they went to Natchitoches because they needed a warm place to row.
"There's always a chance for bad weather in Lawrence," Catloth said.
He said it also brought the team together in one place with little to do but practice.
It is important to get a good week of practice during March because the team competes every weekend during April, Catloth said.
Now that Evans is an experienced rower, he said he has a better idea of what to expect and what he wants to accomplish this break.
Last year, Evans said he left for the trip not really knowing what was going on and came back with a definite idea of what rowing was all about.
"I also came back with 55 of my best friends," he said.
"They will row five to six hours a day," Catloth said. "When they get there, they eat, sleep, row, eat, sleep, row. They'll row 35 miles a day. They'll learn as much about rowing in one week there than they'll learn in three weeks [in Lawrence]."
Evans' goal of improving as a rower will be aided by an intense week of two-a-day practices planned for the week.
"I want to improve as a rower," Evans said. "I also want to meet the novice rowers and help them along like the varsity helped us along last year.And I want to have a good time."
Evans said the trip to Natchitoches had other advantages.
"The rowing experience gives us the confidence we need to win. Rowing is so much
"The main reason we go is to prepare for season play. We are working on our goal to make nationals."
Jeremy Friedman Member of the KU Ultimate Frisbee team
based on confidence," said Evans.
Fortunately for the rowers, their Spring Break won't be entirely all work and no play.
"On the last night, the town puts on a crawfish feed for the crews," Evans said. "The people down there are really nice."
While the crew is practicing in Natchitoches, 34 members of the KU Ultimate Frisbee team will be hundreds of miles away in Austin, Texas, competing in the University of Texas' Annual Ultimate Frisbee Tournament.
Friedman, president of the Ultimate Frisbee team, said the team had traveled to Austin for the past six or seven years.
"The main reason we go is to prepare for season play," Friedman said. "We are working on our goal to make nationals. We want to improve on last year's finish."
Last year the team finished the season as one of the top six or seven teams in the country.
After the team finishes competing for the day, many of the team members go to South by Southwest, a music festival that coincides with the tournament.
Although the team would like to place high at the tournament, Friedman said the Texas tournament was not considered a very important one.
"It's more relaxed than when the season starts," Friedman said. "It's a 'have fun' tournament since it's over spring break."
Both the crew team and the ultimate frisbee team finance the trips themselves. The ultimate frisbee team uses money collected from their annual St. Patrick's Day fund-raising event as well as profits from bake sales and selling T-shirts and flying disks.
Individual crew team members pay for their trip. "It's $250 for everything." Evans said, "That's really cheap when you consider food, lodging and everything else."
Wherever you're going Whatever you're driving
It Pays to Keep Your Car in Top Running Condition.
Don's Auto Center
841-4833
920 E.11th Street
Hair Experts Design Team
Now is the time to DISCOVER OUR DIFFERENCE 841-6886
25th & Iowa Holiday Plaza
$5.00 off any service exp.4/16/94
20% off Redken retail purchase exp. 4/16/94 #41
18 SPRING BREAK • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • March 16, 1994