Section A • Page 7
Rowing
Friday, March 30, 2001
Rowers hope talent will guide team to victory
By Jay Mullinix
by Jay Mumkin
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
in athletics, talent and experience have a love-hate relationship.
Coxswain Jen Page steers her teammates in Kansas women's rowing's first varsity boat. The boat, which consists of Page, Heather Murray, Dana Parsons, Tawnya Bach, Shannon Gnblin, Andrea Buch, Stephanie Mahal, Ali Brox and Hethick Wille, will take to the waters in its inaugural race against Texas Saturday. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
A team needs skill to win, but it can't reach the top on raw ability alone. That's where experience comes in. There are plenty of teams that have had an abundance of experience and not amounted to much. There are few challenges in sports greater than succeeding when one of these traits outweighs the other.
Such is the conundrum the Kansas women's rowing team finds itself facing this year with its top varsity boat.
The boat, which consists of seniors Ali Brox, Shannon Gribbin, Heather Muir and Jen Page; juniors Tawnya Bach, Andrea Buch, Stephanie Mahal and Dana Parsons; and freshman Beth Hickey, is loaded with raw potential.
"We have so much in the way of strength and speed and power." Gribbin said. "The potential level for this boat is just unbelievable."
The ever-important experience factor is another matter altogether.
Of the nine rowers, only Muir has previously raced as a member of the top boat. As such, although the season has already started, Muir said that she and her new boatmates are still just getting to know each other.
"We're still developing our chemistry out on the water," she said. "Prior to this week, we'd only rowed together about five practices before we had our first race."
The group's inexperience showed in its inaugural race against Texas on Saturday. Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Jayhawks couldn't maintain it and finished 11 seconds behind the Longhorns' top boat. Hickey said the poor showing against Texas resulted from of a lapse in mental toughness.
"I think it was a problem of our mentality because when they started gaining on us, we treaked a little," she said.
Muir said that getting past that mental hurdle is all that stands in the way of the boat coming together and becoming a dominant force.
"We can do it all physically, it's just that mental side of racing we need to work on." she said. "We just need to get past that, because our boat has so much more potential than any I've ever seen since I've been here."
Tomorrow's regatta offers an opportunity
for the group to showcase that potential and redeem last week's failures.
A good performance against top programs such as Iowa and Massachusetts would also go a long way in putting to rest any questions about their experience.
Gribbin said she has no doubt that the team could win.
"It's a great chance for us to show how good we really are," she said. "When we're out on the water and all together and everything is clicking, there's nobody we can't hang with."
— Edited by Doug Pacey
Junior
Shannon
Gribbin
practices for the Kansas
Invitational
along with her varsity
teammates yesterday
afternoon.
Photo by
Selena
Jabara/
KANSAN
ROWING 101
Here's a list of a few rowing terms and phrases that will help you get a better understanding of the sport itself, and have you talking in rowerspeak before you know it.
Bow — The front end of the boat; also used to refer to the rower in the seat nearest the front end of the shell.
Coxswain (COX-son) — Person who steers the boat from a seat in the stern or from a lying position in the bow.
Head race — Traditional fall regatta in which boats navigate a three-mile course of river around bends and under bridges.
Blade — The end of the car which pulls the boat.
Regatta — Name for rowing events in which multiple crews compete.
Novice - a rower in the first year of collegiate competition.
Repachage — A second chance race for those crews that don't automatically advance to the finals in an event.
Rigger — The part that attaches an oar to the shell.
**Run** — The distance the shell moves during one stroke.
Shell — Boat used for rowing races. Seats nine people for a crew of eight and five for a crew of four.
**Stem** — The back of the boat, toward which rowers face during competition.
**Stroke** — A complete cycle of moving the shell through the water; also refers to the rower who sits closest to the stem, looking directly at the cox and who puts the shutter for the whole air.
Sweeping — Type of rowing in which each rover uses one oar.
Team looks to overcome home jinx at weekend regatta
8+ and 4+ — Eights (8+) and Fours (4+)
are the most common competition
and the two events held at the NCAA
Championships. The plus indicates the
the two events held at the Championships. The plus indicates the presence of the coxswain on board.
Jov Mullinix
By Jay Mullinix
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas women's rowing team has played host to regattas before, traditionally holding duals, which involve just one other team. Never before, however, has the team faced the task of having a regatta the size of this weekend's.
Tomorrow marks the start of the Kansas Invitational, a two-day event that will bring Kansas State, Indiana, Iowa, Tulsa and Massachusetts to Lawrence.
Initially, Catloth had hoped to just invite
Playing host to so many schools and organizing such a big event was never the original intent when coach Rob Catloth set out to plan the Jayhawks' home regatta for this spring.
Massachusetts for a dual. However, when other area teams heard that Massachusetts, a Top Ten program for the last two years, was coming to Lawrence, they asked to be included in the regatta as well.
"There aren't many Midwest crews that have been successful in getting big east coast teams to come out here." Catloth said.
Senior Heather Muir said racing against top-tier rowers such as the Minutewomen and playing host to an event of such grand scale this weekend all the more exciting for the rowers.
"This is so exciting because we're used to racing small races here with us and maybe K-State," she said. "Now we have all these teams coming, and we get the opportunity to race against teams like UMass and Iowa. It's great."
Catloth said, however, that rowing at home can actually hurt a team in some ways more than it helps when a team only does it once in a season.
"When you only have one home race, in many ways, everything on the road is your norm," he said. "Your home race then turns into your odd race and the one you feel uneasy about."
The responsibility of arriving mentally prepared and focused on race day falls on the rowers. Senior Shannon Gribbin said that's tougher at home.
Despite the extra burden racing at home
"Out of town, everything is structured, and you're forced to think rowing because it's all you're around," Gribbin said. "Here, you have to come in on your own ready to race, and I think that will make it a little tougher this weekend."
brings, Catloth said the quality of the competition offered a good opportunity for the team to improve after a last week's regatta, in which the Jayhawks won four of seven races against Texas.
"Hopefully, we can do better all around than last week," he said. "The rest of the season is going to be really tough, and so will this weekend, so we need to have a good showing."
Catloth said he didn't look for the Kansas Invitational to become an annual event, at least not on this year's scale.
"Ihope something this big doesn't become a yearly thing," he said. "There's so much work that goes into preparing for a big race like this that I'll be glad when it's through."
— Edited by Jennifer Valadez
REGATTA
Because of high water, the regatta had to be moved from the original site at the Kansas River to Clinton Lake. The river has been running several alches high this week, which has forced the team to practice at Clinton throughout the week. When conditions hadn't improved by Wednesday afternoon, Catluth and assistant coach Heather Galvin made the decision to move the race to the lake.
"If the current is too fast, it's dangerous to row on, because there could be too much debris that can damage the boat," Galvin said. "Plus when the current gets too fast, you’re not getting an accurate representation of the crew." Parking at Clinton Lake is free this weekend.
Parking at Citizen Lakes is free this weekend.
Fans are encouraged to park at the marina. A shut tie bus will run from the parking area to the dam.
Jen Page senior coxswain
Heather Muir senior eighth seat
Dana Parsons junior seventh seat
Tawnya Bach junior sixth seat
Shannon Gribbin senior fifth seat
Andrea Buch junior fourth seat
Stephanie Mahal junior third seat
Ali Brox senior second seat
Beth Hickey freshman first seat