News Archive from the 2007 - 2008 Season

Case Crew 2007-2008 Season Recap

Below is the academic year 2007-2008 racing schedule for Case Crew with links to the results and photos for each event. For a write up about each event continue to scroll down.

Case M2- Battles Terrible Conditions, Strong Competition in Philly

May 9, 2008: The Case Crew men's pair of Chris Shoemaker and Tom Attenweiler drew the fastest heat of the day and didn't advance to the Saturday semi-finals. The 2008 edition of the Dad Vail Regatta brought strong winds and rain with temperatures in the 50's, but Tom and Chris put in a tremendous effort. In fact, more rain fell on Philadelphia Friday than any time since 1873 -- when they began keeping records. Heat winners, Mercyhurst, and second place boat, University of Toronto - Mississauga, posted the two fastest times out of all six heats combined. These two fast crews left UAA rivals Emory and Case to fight it out for the final qualifying spot.

Watching from the grandstands Coach Marcovy urged his charges on while they fought it out with Emory. No open water existed between the crews for the last 500m, but Emory was just able to pip them at the line by just under a length. The Case pair put up a gutsy performance in the tough conditions. The tough draw was made worse by the conditions. The pair had a great start, were up on Emory and maintained their margin through the first 1000m. The boat bobbled at mid-race in the wet, rough conditions and the crew struggled to regain their standing on the field. Thank you to everyone that came to cheer them on.

Mercyhurst and UTM went on to take second and third place, respectively, in the finals. Both are varsity programs and Mercyhurst is a Division II program that gives scholarships.

Race results can be found HERE.

2008 Dad Vail Photo Gallery

Case Crew Wins University's Outstanding Sports Club Award

Case Crew was named the 2007-2008 Sports Club of the Year as part of the Dr. Dorothy Pijan Student Leadership Awards ceremony. The Student Leadership Awards were created by Dr. Dorothy Pijan in 1982 to recognize and honor Case's outstanding undergraduate student leaders. Dr. Pijan had worked at Case as the director of Thwing Center and Student Activities from 1982-2003. Below is a description of the award:

Outstanding Sports Club
Presented to the sports club that has demonstrated excellence in the areas of leadership, programming, spirit, campus, involvement and achievement.

This award caps off an exciting and successful year for the team. The crew has also been awarded the Sports Club of the Year award by the athletic department (different than the Pijan Award) in 1995 and 2001.
Congratulations and good luck!

Case Crew Hauls Home the Hardware from WV

April 26, 2008: Every rower came home from this year's West Virginia Governor's Cup with hardware. All but two boats earned medals, but due to athletes rowing in multiple events no one went home without something around their neck. The team finished fourth overall out of 10 schools, and the women's varsity four (N. Ma - cox, M. Cullins - 4, S. Houghton - 3, M. Grady - 2, A. Toborek - 1) also took home the actual Governor's Cup as the fastest collegiate four at the regatta. Weather for the day was sunny with a strong head wind for most of the racing. Showing fortitude beyond belief, the Women's Novice 4+ (K. Menosky - cox, M. Morgan - 4, K. Putmann - 3, L. Bonhard - 2, S. Bassen - 1) capsized in rough water on the way to the start of their heat. After being helped back into the boat by the safety launches they rowed back to the dock, emptied the shell and proceeded to take second place in their heat. Later in the day they went on to place second in the final taking home well-deserved silver medals.

The men's team also performed well with Chris Shoemaker and Tom Attenweiler placing second behind a strong Carnegie-Mellon crew in the Collegiate Pair event. Over the next couple weeks Chris and Tom will be honing their technique for their season ending race at the national championship Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. The best men's performance of the day came in the 1000m Men's Club 4+ event (R. Carter - cox, M. Czigler - 4, B. lawler - 3, G. Kraus - 2, Z. Zheng - 1) where the crew rowed out of their shorts to take gold (in the brand new SARA 4-person shell). Coach Marcovy was pleasantly surprised by his men's performance stating that he had never seen them execute so well and how proud he was of the crew.

The women's team garnered medals in all but one event they entered with the JV four taking second in the petit final. The Varsity 8+ bested UAA rivals Carnegie-Mellon to take third behind Virgina Tech and Charleston (a varsity team). The eight then spun around to compete in the 500m Dash and again took third. The varsity 4+ showed speed and composure all day beating every other collegiate team in the regatta. The Governor's Cup signalled the debut of SARA's new Pocock 4+ and the women would like to thank SARA for their support of the team. Miranda Cullins commented that the new boat has made such a difference to their training, and the shell has been the difference between scapping for 5th place to being comfortably in the mix with the other teams.

Full results from this year's race can be found HERE (html). The Charleston Daily Mail also published a nice overview and history of the regatta a few days before the event that you can read here (pdf).

2008 West Virginia Governor's Cup Photo Gallery

Alumni Brave Weather to Race on Cuyahoga

April 12, 2008: This year's alumni regatta was the biggest yet counting 13 alumni present. The weather didn't cooperate though with rain off and on all day. After racing SARA had its annual general meeting (minutes) and folks met up at Great Lakes Brewery for some lively conversation. News of the Alumni Regatta made it into The Observer. Click here to read the article (or here for a PDF version of the article). See you next year! Full results from this year's race can be found HERE (html). 2008 Alumni Regatta Photo Gallery

Case Crew Takes Home 3rd Straight Home Schools Cup

April 5, 2008: Rowing on the Cuyahoga is never easy, but throw in 1500m side-by-side racing with two large bends and you have the annual Cleveland Home Schools regatta. The event, sponsored by the Cleveland Rowing Foundation, is meant as a spring tune up for the Cleveland colleges before the major races kick off. The racing schedule is determined every year by the number of boats each team can muster, and the winners of each dual race are awarded a point. This year Case garnered four wins while John Carroll and Cleveland State only recorded one win each.

Rowing in calm conditions with little current, the Case women dominated the event with wins in each event. Not to be outdone, the men won the novice 4 event. Now in its sixth year, the Home School Regatta has become a fixture of the spring season for Case Crew.

Full results from this year's race can be found HERE (html).

2008 Home Schools Photo Gallery

Strong Winds, Strong Competition at URAs

March 30, 2008: The Case men took 3 boats to the 5th annual URAs. The men's pair, rowing the new SARA shell, beat Carnegie-Mellon B and finished 26 seconds off two time winners WashU. The Men's Varsity and JV fours didn't fair as well finishing last in each race. True to form, the early spring event brought with it cold and blustery weather making racing toward the end of the day was rough for the Case crews. Rowing in borrowed fours and with only a few days on the water this spring the boys did their best.

The regatta was formulated as a dual race between Case and the University of Chicago, but it quickly blossomed into the de facto University Athletic Association crew championships. The regatta is organized and run by alumni and coaches.

This year's overall winners were Rochester for the women and WashU for the men. The Case men finished 6th overall in the conference. Full results from this year's race can be found HERE (html).

2008 URA Regatta Photo Album

Aaron Marcovy helps pull Oxford ahead of Cambridge

March 29, 2008: Coach Marcovy's son, Aaron, sat four seat in Oxford's winning boat in this year's Boat Race. Oxford won by 6 lengths over the 4.25 mile London course. If you have ever watched the event on TV you will have noticed a number of launches following the race. The universities get a very limited number of seats in the launches, and Oxford decided to give Tim one of those seats. Following his son along the Tideway while winning the Boat Race was truly an exceptional experience. Doing his part to advertise the team, he wore his CWRU Crew jacket while in the chase launch. Aaron is attending St. Edmund Hall, Oxford for a Ph.D in Fine Arts. Smart and a great rower. Sorry ladies he's spoken for.

Alumna Rachel Irwin '04 was also on hand in London to watch the race and had this to say:

I finished at Case in 2004 and since them have been living in England, where I've continued to row and cox, firstly in Oxford and now in London. Currently I am at Vesta Rowing Club, which is convieniently located about 30 strokes from the start line of the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Club.

Braving the stereotypical late-March English rain, I spent most of the afternoon out on the Vesta balcony where I watched the race between the reserve crews and later the Race, in which Tim's son was in Four Seat.

Rowing is HUGE in England. It's a proper sport like Football or Baseball in the US. The 4 1/2 mile race course is packed with spectators and people either wearing Oxford or Cambridge colours (I am wearing Oxford, of course!). People are spilling out of the pubs along the river and watching from on top of bridges. It's a fantastic atmosphere!

Incidentally, from the balcony I actually saw Tim and ran down between the two races to say hellow - proving that it really is a small world!

Coach Marcovy's Son Selected to Oxford's Blue Boat

March 5, 2008:  The first ever Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge occured in 1829, and this year's fixture, the 154th running, will feature Aaron Marcovy who is the son of Case Crew's men's coach. Tim's son was named to the Blue Boat (the top boat) after a grueling selection process that ran most of the academic year. Aaron will be sitting in 4 seat behind Mike Wherley who competed for the US at the Sydney and Athens games between World Championship medals.

The annual fixture between Oxford and Cambridge is held on the Tideway (Thames River) in London over the famed Putney to Mortlake course that covers four-and-one-quarter miles (or 4 miles 374 yards to be exact) from a standing start. The top crews from each university are know as the "Blue" boats. The second boat for Oxford is known as Isis and Goldie is the second boat for Cambridge. The second boats race the course before the main event.

Cambridge currently lead the series since 1829 by 79-73. Cambridge won the most recent encounter (2007) but Oxford won the previous two encounters (2005 and 2006). The 154th Boat Race takes place Saturday, March 29th 2008 at 17.15pm (GMT). No details for broadcasts in the US have been announced (last year the race was on ESPN U). Coach Marcovy and his wife, Mary, will be heading across the pond to watch their son beat Cambridge.

Feature article about Aaron

Go Dark Blues!

Aaron is the fourth from the right (with the Mutton Chops).

Personal Records Fall at this Year's Hammer

February 17, 2008:  The annual Hammer Ergatta was held at Case's Veale Center this year, and 6 of the 8 varsity rowers set personal records on the rowing machine. Miranda Cullins also set the team's new best-ever time pulling a 7:01.9. Case Crew also won all but two of the events they entered.

Unfortunately, these stellar personal results did not translate into team success. Case and John Carroll let Cleveland State into the Hammer Cup competition this year. Case came up third in the overall competition behind winners JCU. Case showed up to the Hammer with twice as many rowers as JCU and four times as many as CSU. These large numbers ended up hurting the team once all the scores were averaged for the team trophy. This year's loss puts the overall record even at seven wins apiece between Case and JCU. The archive of past Hammer Cup results can be found HERE (html).

Case walked away with 4 individual gold medals, and here's a list of the best Case Crew finishers in each event:

	Open Women:	1st of 8		Miranda Cullins		7:01.9		» Team Record
	Open Men:	4th of 7		Tom Attenweiler		6:56.7
	Ltwt Women:	2nd of 6		Agata Toborek		8:13.6
	Ltwt Men:	1st of 2		Brian Chorney (alumnus)		6:58.5
	Open Nov Women:	1st of 8		Marissa Morgan		8:00.4
	Ltwt Nov Men:	1st of 5		Michael Czigler		7:06.3
	Open Cox Women (1000m):	1st of 2		Rebecca Carter		4:31.8

The other notable finish from the race was 2007 alumnus Brian Chorney's time of 6:58.5, which was good enough to win the Open Lightweight event.

The race venue rotates between John Carroll and Case every year, and full results from this year's race can be found HERE (html).

2008 Hammer Photo Gallery

SARA Sends Coxswains to Hear Olympian Speak

February 9, 2008: Thank you to all of you that have made donations throughout the years. Your money does make a difference. One small example of how SARA helps the team is to provide assistance to the athletes and coaches directly and on short notice. The coaches contacted the SARA board regarding a unique training opportunity for their coxswains before the spring season kicked off. SARA provided the funds for three of Case Crew's coxswains (Nina Ma '09, Rebecca Carter '10 and Katie Menosky '09) to attend the 5th Annual Temple University Coxswain Clinic hosted by Three Rivers Rowing Association in Pittsburgh. The coxswain clinic featured 2004 Olympic gold medalist coxswain Pete Cipollone. Nina had the following to say about her experience at the clinic:

The coxswain clinic was held on February 9, 2008 at Pittsburgh's North Catholic High School. Most of the attendees were high school students but there were college coxswains and coaches there as well -- in total about 100 people. Pete was a very enthusiastic speaker and besides giving pointers on how to tackle wind, waves and races, he also gave his own hot tips on being a great coxswain: intelligence, persistence, leadership, and confidence. We learned a lot about how to prepare for races with the team, how to visualize the calls and the strokes, and about how to better use practice time with relevant drills. Pete gave great examples of his mistakes and how we should learn from them. He also gave excellent examples of his glory moments, specifically, in the preparation and racing at the 2004 Olympic Gold medalist boat. Pete was a humble guy and made coxing an Olympic race seem simple by breaking it down into the most basic maneuvers. It motivated me want to try out the high 20 at a 47 and settle into a strong 42...just kidding.

Individual and Team Honors at Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints

February 2, 2008: Members of Case Crew headed to North Catholic High School for the Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints. Miranda Cullins pulled a 7:04.1 to blow away her competition in the Open Women's Event -- 18 seconds ahead of 2nd place! Also, novice rower Katie Puttmann nearly broke 8 minutes to take second in the Open Novice Category. A feature of the Pittsburgh Indoors is the mixed male/female 6-person relays. Click here for video of Case winning the relay race. Case Crew walked away winners over ten other teams including three from UAA rivals Carnegie-Mellon. Alumnus and Case Crew founder, Tom Hudak '92, pulled a good enough score to win the Masters event. His score of 6:50.9 bested three other participants and would have placed him in 6th place in the Open division. Congratulations to all participants.

Race results can be found HERE (html).
2008 Pittsburgh Indoor Sprints Photo Gallery

Why should you row a boat race?

A Silver Day in Columbus

October 27, 2007: Case Crew completed its fall season this weekend with a strong showing at the Jack Speakmon Regatta in Columbus, Ohio. Not only did two women’s boats medal, but the men’s 8+ came off the water at the end of the day with the athletes describing the race as the best they’ve ever rowed. Given that some of the men in that shell rowed in high school and college, that’s high praise indeed – and sends the men to winter training with a clear sense of their potential to excel in the spring.

Saturday’s racing also marked the 2007-2008 novices’ debut, and the men’s novice 4+ performed so strongly they came within seven seconds of a bronze medal. The novice women also rowed well, particularly after shaking off the butterflies of their first race of the day.

The women’s medal winners – both silver – were: Miranda Cullins and Shannon Armstrong in the 2x, rowing the positive α pair-double donated by SARA this summer. The shell has claimed medals in every race it’s been in this fall, a tribute to both our athletes and alumni providing the equipment that allows them to showcase their skills. Nina Ma (cox), Miranda Cullins, Sophia Houghton, Shannon Armstrong and Agata Toborek, the same line-up that participated in the Head of the Charles earlier this month. The group felt they had a more controlled, consistent row this time, but also missed the turns and bridges of Boston/Cambridge. Speakmon has one tiny, extremely gradual bend, which prompted a couple of the ladies to complain how boring it was to just go straight the whole time. Just wait until they’ve had two months in the erg room – they’ll be pining for those straight courses on the water.

Shannon & Miranda

Thanks to Coach Chris Sheridan for the great race report.

Race results can be found HERE (html).
2007 Speakmon Regatta Photo Gallery

Two Case Fours Race at the Head of the Charles

October 20, 2007: The team raced two boats at this year's Head of the Charles Regatta: Women's Club Four (bow #7) and Men's Collegiate Four (bow #26). This is the first time ever that Case Crew has had two entries into this prestigious event. Coach Tim Marcovy also raced in the Senior-Master Eights 50+ (bow #42) event with WRRA. All three races were Saturday morning October 20 of the two-day event. Details of alumni rowing in the event are below.

The event organizers changed the qualification rules at this year's race, which made racing extremely tight. In previous years, crews that finished within 5% of the winning time of each event were then guaranteed an entry for that event the following year - often a small percentage of crews racing in the regatta. This year the rule was changed to the top 50% in each event would qualify for next year's regatta making racing in the middle of the pack tight.

The Women's Club Four line up just missed the final qualifying slot for next year's regatta by finishing 17th out of 32 crews. A time penalty for Riverside Boat Club was re-assessed after the regatta moving them ahead of Case and out of the automatic qualification position. The Men's Collegiate Four face extremely strong competition and finished within 10% of the winning crew from the University of Michigan. The men's strong race resulted in a 22nd place finish out of 31 teams. The men have typically entered the club event in past years. Finishing so close to the winner signifies a strong result and bodes well for the spring.

The Master's 8 from WRRA, with Coach Marcovy providing the power, also claimed the final qualifying spot for next year's race by fininshing 23rd out of 45 teams - 16% of the eventual winners from Team Attager.

Chris Denzel's parents were able to attend the race and his mother, Elsie, provided some of her thoughts from the day's racing:

It was very exciting seeing all of the trailers of shells on the highway heading toward Boston on Friday. It was a near perfect day for being on the river – not too hot, not too cold. We saw and cheered the guys as they rowed to the start from our vantage point right on the bank up river just a short way from the finish line. From there we could see them come around the last bend before the finish.

I think they put in a very good showing. It was very impressive to think that a school that sent virtually its entire team was on the river competing with boats from Australia, England and Ireland, and with schools who could afford to send 5 eights for a single race! We were very proud of the Case team.

A number of alumni competed in the regatta as well. The results were:
Amy Kozlowski '96 stroked the Alexandria Community Rowing team to a 23rd of 51 finish in the Club Eight event;
Brian Chorney '07 sat three seat for Community Rowing Inc. of Boston to a 26th of 43 finish in the Club Four event;
Craig Agricola '97 entered the Masters Single for Quinsigamond Rowing Association and finished 13th of 18 behind a couple ex-national team members.

Click here for more complete results (pdf) and some photos are in the SARA Photo Gallery. If we've missed any other alumni results please let us know.

Women Take Home Two Medals from the Head of the Ohio

October 6, 2007: Miranda Culling and Shannon Armstrong took gold in the Open 2x and the Women's Club 8+ entry took bronze. The gold medal performance in 2x was Miranda and Shannon's 3rd race of the day. Just proving that when we put fast rowers in a fast shell - the positive α - they win hardware. The women's club eight took 3rd ahead of crews from Villanova, Pitt, Penn State and Ohio U. This crew then hot seated into fours for the Open event finishing 10th and 20th. The weather was sunny and and 84 degrees the entire day, and a Miami University athlete was taken to the hospital to be treated for dehydration. Given the weather and multiple races for most of her rowers, Coach Chris was pleased with their performance.

The men also had a strong showing including a 5th place finish in the Open 4 - only 7.3% off the winners from the University of Pittsburgh. This men's line up will be competing along with the 10th place women's 4+ at the upcoming Head of the Charles. The men's eight finished 4th of four, but this result masks the fact that they performed quite well given the relative inexperience of the line up. As a bonus Coach Tim got a silver in his single to match his charge's strong performance.

Race results can be found HERE (html).
2007 Head of the Ohio Photo Gallery

Alums Take On the Textile River and Come Home with Hardware

September 30, 2007: Both Craig Agricola '97 and Brian Chorney '07 raced at the 2007 Textile River Regatta in Lowell, Massachusetts - though for different clubs. Having graduated 10 years apart neither had met each other. However, Brian wore his CWRU Crew jacket and Craig introduced himself and a new connection was made. Craig entered the Masters 1x for the Quinsigamond Rowing Association and took 3rd place out of 9 - just 6.7% off the winning pace.

Brian entered the lightweight 4+ (in 3 seat below) with his new club in Boston, Community Rowing Inc., and won the event over three other college crews. We all know his speed came from the practice he got at the Head of the Cuyahoga a couple weeks earlier!

Race results can be found at PowerHouse Timing (html). Photos courtesy of Sport Graphics (if it's not obvious).
If other alums have photos or results from regattas they've entered please send them to the web master.

Alumni Remember How to Row on the Cuyahoga

September 15, 2007: The alumni showed that their rowing muscle memory hadn't faded at the 2007 Head of the Cuyahoga. Alumni came from as far away as Boston, Washington DC and North Carolina to race, and they beat Carnegie-Mellon in the Open 8+ to take home the gold. The Case men were unable to field an eight in the event so it was a battle between the all-alumni crew from SARA against CMU's finest. The alumni crew rowed what could best be described as a "ragged" 29 spm down the course chasing CMU the entire way. The conditions were windy, but the alumni managed to "look pretty" while going past the dock. It has been since 2003 since such exceptional skills were on display. The alumni men also entered the Open 4+ event where they took fifth behind a few university crews and ahead of the Case entry. The lineup from stroke was Mike Krofcheck, Brian Chorney, Phil Trechowski, Nate Uber with Erynn Rathburn coxing. Of note were the winners from "Ivanhoe Boat Club" which featured Tim's son, Aaron, in stroke seat and was comprised alumni from St. Igantius. While Aaron is still a world class oarsman, his crew mates only row once a year at the HOTC. In fourth place were Duquesne in their stunning $20,000 Resolute shell, which proves the point that fast shells don't always allow you to beat people who don't row anymore.

SARA Alumni Men's 8+ Back Row: Fraser Hewson, Chris Pfahl, Mike Krofcheck, Tom Hudak, Brian Chorney, Nate Uber Front Row: Doug Rathburn, Erynn Rathburn, Eric Matyac 2007 Head of the Cuyahoga Photo Gallery

One of the other highlights of the day was the dedication of the "positive α". This new addition to the Spartan Navy was raced successfully by the Case men in the Open 2x event and in the Mixed 2x by Miranda Cullins and Doug Rathburn. Miranda, a current rower on the team, and Doug teamed up to beat three others boats from WRRA and TRRA to take home the gold. Click here for pictures from the shell christening. All but one of Case Crew's boats came home with hardware. The women were perfect taking home gold in the Open 8+ and 4+. The women's open 4+ proved exciting since Case and Carnegie-Mellon each had the exact same winning time 28 seconds clear of third place. The men's double of Chris Denzel and Jeremy Saks took third place behind the Marcovy father and son duo. Everyone on shore watching the race swore they saw Tim light up a cigar while Aaron pulled him down the course to a gold medal. Race results can be found HERE (html). Plain Dealer video about the regatta.