PAGE 50E AUGUST, 1996
KUED • SPORTS
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
KU rowing is growing
BY ROBERT SINCLAIR
JOURNAL WORLD SPORTS WRITER
Rowers are made, not born.
"Most of the people we have are going to be changeovers from other sports," KU rowing coach Rob Catloth said. "That's how we're going to build our team almost any year — finding women who were volleyball players or basketball players or swimmers in high school but maybe aren't at the level to come to KU and be a Div.-IA athlete in their sport."
"They come to KU anyway and are good, hard-working athletes. So we're looking for that top 3 to 10 percent."
Catloth, KU's second-year
coach who led the club team for nine years, is doing a good job of recruiting. His second team will be close to 60 athletes strong, up from last year's total of 44 members.
While the newcomers are a question mark — the coach doesn't even know for sure who will be on the team come October — Kansas is returning its fair share of talent.
Ashley Masoni, Emporia sophomore, was on the Varsity Four team which placed fourth last year at the Collegiate National Rowing Championships in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jennifer Miller, Mexico, Mo. senior, is another person Catloth is expecting to do well this year.
ROWING
The Kansas rowing team consists of a Varsity Eight (which is an eight member team plus a coxswain, who steers the boat), Varsity Four, Lightweight Eight and Lightweight Four.
Two of the Jayhawks returning coxswains are Melissa Liem, Lenexa senior, and Amber Rossman Tulsa, Okla., senior.
"I think they're going to give us a lot of good leadership and confidence," Catloth said of the duo.
Top returning lightweights include Julie Kassik, Evergreen, Colo., senior, and Heather Daniels, Leawood senior.
All told, the Jayhawks only lost eight members from last year's squad, the first varsity rowing team in school history.
"I think we learned a lot." Catloth said of last year's experience. "We have some good
Rob Catloth
ideas about what to do from here on out. I think our first recruiting class had a lot of good talent and hopefully we'll be able to build a successful program starting with them."
Notice Catloth didn't say anything about competing for the first-ever Big 12 Conference title. That's because there isn't one.
"There's quite a few schools in the Big 12 that have club teams, but last year we were the first Big Eight — or even Big 12 — school to have varsity women's rowing." Catloth said. "This year Kansas State is adding varsity women's rowing for the first time. Women's rowing is the biggest growing sport, I think, in the United States."
The reason for that, of course, is the highly publicized Title IX which said NCAA institutions had to provide an equal playing field for women.
Some of the schools which recently added women's varsity rowing include Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio State, Tennessee, Tulsa, and Virginia. KU and K-State remain the only two Big 12 schools with varsity teams.
What does Catloth hope to accomplish without a Big 12 championship to shoot for?
"We're just looking to improve on how we did last year," the coach said. "That's our main goal. I think we're also going to try a become more competitive in our region and try to keep working toward the time that when our freshmen and sophomores are juniors and seniors we can be more competitive nationally."
Rowing debuted at KU last year as a varsity sport, after several years as a club sport.
FILE PHOTO
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