News Archive from the 2013 - 2014 SeasonCase Crew 2013-2014 Season RecapBelow is the academic year 2013-2014 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.
DelBarba Wins Dad Vails in Single; WV2- Advances to Saturday!
Results from Friday's HeatsThe first crew Friday morning to compete was the Men's Varsity 4+ of Matthew Holdren (s), Doug Brubaker (3), Steffen Christoffersen (2), Gavin Brown (b) with Peter Choi at cox. The men finished 3rd in their heat and did not advance. However, they were unlucky and drew an extremely fast heat and were the fastest non-qualifiers with the 13th fastest time overall. This meant 5 other boats pulled a slower time and got to row on Saturday. You can see a summary here.
Next up was the women's pair with Abby and Colleen squeezing into the semi by taking third place in their heat behind Georgia Tech and George Mason. The women's team had been focusing on the four all season and dominated most of their races. However, with one athlete in the crew out of eligibility Abby and Colleen decided to give the pair a try. They only had a handful of outings between MACRAs and Vails which shows you how much base speed they had in order to advance. Patrick DelBarba breezed through his men's single heat with the fastest overall time. The number of entries in the heats provided a bit of a sweet spot in which many of the heats only had four entries with three to advance. The relatively fast conditions on Friday saw Patrick post an exceedingly fast 7:15 2000m time! Last up for Case was the Men's Novice 4+. The crew of Liam Hoye (s), Luke Fakult (3), Lucas Vroege (2), Masato Miyagi (b) with Sarah Nia Coleman as coxswain were just off the pace in third place and did not advance. They drew eventual event winners from Colgate and perennial powerhouses Michigan. Chin up boys... get 'em next year!
Saturday RacingThe first events of Saturday morning were the men's single semi-finals. In the two-to-advance flights, Patrick DelBarba pushed through in first place 8 seconds ahead of the second place sculler from Connecticut College. The conditions looked relatively calm for the 7am semi, and with the slowest semi he was able to conserve energy for the final.
The women's pair were next up and they finished at the back of their semi and did not advance further. According to Coach Marcovy who trailed the race Abby and Colleen's base speed kept them with the pack. With more time in the smaller boat and they surely could have been contenders
Case Women's Varsity 4+ Second at MACRA ChampionshipsApril 26, 2014: Case Crew headed to the Mid America Collegiate Rowing Association's (MACRA) championship regatta on Ford Lake near Ypsilanti, Michigan to race the region's top teams. Racing was delayed five hours due to wind, and the racing schedule was modified heavily with B-finals and small boat events ultimately cancelled. The changed and delayed schedule actually forced a few teams to head home without having the chance to race. Racing finally wrapped up after 7pm.
The regatta strongly encourages participation in the eights in order to be invited, which has not been a priority boat for the coaches this spring. The men's team put up a valiant effort, but they at the back of their heat behind national champion Michigan, varsity programs from Mercyhurst and MSOE, and UAA rivals Chicago. Third year student Patrick DelBarba was unable to defend his 2013 MACRA championship in the single due to the event being cancelled. However, he was able to do some shorter pieces against a couple other scullers from St. Thomas and Lawrence Universities in a more sheltered area of the lake. Next up for the team is some fine tuning and race simulation ahead of the National Champioships at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. Click here for complete race results. 2014 MACRA Championship Photo Gallery Mixed Results at Lake Dillon ScrimmageApril 12, 2014: Case Crew headed a couple hours south to Lake Dillon just north of Zanesville, Ohio for a scrimmage against the University of Dayton men and John Carroll University. The double dual was the first true side-by-side racing for the team since early March at Spring Break. Even though some fine weather finally poked its way into Ohio this weekend, the team results on the water were mixed. The women dominated JCU, and the Men's Novice 4+ and Mixed 8+ both crushed their JCU opponents by half a minute. The men dropped races in the Men's Varsity 8+ and 4+ by 8 seconds each to Dayton. A couple Dayton guys made the trip up to race at this winter's Hammer and showed some impressive speed there too. According to Head Coach Aaron Marcovy his charges stuck with the UD crew through the body of the race but were dropped during the sprint. Though never wanting to lose, this baseline speed is promising and he's lined up some competitive side-by-side work this coming week.
The Lake Dillon course is a new venue for Case. The organizing committee for the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Association has worked closely with the park officials overseeing the lake to install a fully buoyed course for their high school championships. Therefore, the teams wanted to check out this new venue not only for a fun scrimmage, but as a test for possible future races. Next up for the team is to work on some side-by-side progressions to help with finishing sprint speed in preparation for MACRAs in two weeks. Click here for complete race results. 2014 Dayton & John Carroll Double Dual Photo Gallery Alumni Take All Races at Alumni Weekend!April 5, 2014: Over twenty alumni descended on Cleveland for our 10th alumni regatta. The morning regatta featured four sprint races between student and alumni crews. The "results" went the way of the alums for all races. In fact, we stunned the undergrads into submission with our starting skills after many years of practice. The weather was in the high 30's with blustery conditions, which resulted in a mercifully shortened course from the red Center Street Bridge to the boathouse -- a distance just under 500m.
Even with the generous starting conditions the alumni boats looked solid. The first race of the morning was the men's 8+ with the alumni taking the race by just a length but the students gaining fast. The women's four featured former national team camp athlete Miranda Cullins in stroke and former Vails finalists Katie Puttmann and Caitlin Bowerman backing her up. This line up looked like old pros and could have walked past many crews currently in contention for Vails. The men's fours featured two alumni boats versus the current men's varsity. The faster of the alumni boats took advantage of a better racing line to pip the students at the line. The second alumni boat was just happy to be there. Last up was a stacked alumni mixed 8+ against a mostly novice student crew. The experienced alums took the last and final race of the day by a length. This year's festivities included an alumni/student dinner for the first time instead of the customary evening mixer. The new format allowed for more social interaction between alumni and students, and the feedback was extremely positive. The students presented each alum with a custom bumper sticker as a memento. Novice Luke Fakult and club president Abby Sevier both described their attachment to the sport and the team -- very moving and motivating to those that had the privilege to hear them. Head coach Aaron Marcovy presented his framework for building team speed this season. It's still early and the championships are a month away, but the average 2k score on the team has dropped 20 seconds from last year. Lastly SARA president Doug Rathburn presented some details on the current funding landscape for club rowing and how SARA is supporting Case Crew. You can view the presentation here.
After the racing SARA held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) to discuss progress from last year, new business, and elect Board members for the 2014-2015 season. Highlights from 2013 includ: total fundraising over $23,000, coaching endowment level over $57,000, and discussion of SARA's new strategic planning process. Throughout the day we even raised an additional $3,000 for the team! You can view the AGM meeting minutes here. This year's event was the best attended ever and most organized. Next year will be even better so we hope to see you then! Click here for complete race "results" including line-ups. 2014 Case Crew Alumni Regatta Photo Gallery Case Crew Dominates Cleveland Colleges for 3rd Straight Year!March 22, 2014: Case Crew dominated their cross-town rivals from Cleveland State and John Carroll at this year's Cleveland Collegiate Regatta (aka Homeschools). The team competed in five of eight events and won each by over 10 seconds! The number of events won garnered the team the Cleveland Cup for the third straight year. Case won each of the heats they entered and went onto win each final. They won the Men's and Women's Varsity Fours, Men's Varsity Eight, Men's Novice Four and the Mixed Varsity Eight. Newly minted assistant coach Rachel Stanley subbed for an absent rower in the both the WV4+ and Mixed 8+.  Team photo at the 2014 Cleveland Collegiate Regatta - Champions! The twelfth running of the race featured some blustery March conditions with temps in the high 30's and 10-12 mph winds. The format of the race includes three abreast 500m heats with the top two boats racing a 1750m final. The winning boat from each final earns their team a point towards the cup. Case finished with five points from all races they entered. Racing in three other events against each other Cleveland State and John Carroll split the results with JCU grabbing two points and CSU one. Overall CWRU has now won the Cup six times with JCU winning five and CSU once. The race course typically runs from the mouth of the Cuyahoga near the lake upstream towards the boathouse. However, with the severe weather this year there was too much debris and ice near the mouth. Therefore, the coaches reversed the course with the start now at Collision Bend. The 500m races were run downstream from Collision bend past the old boathouse. The top two finishers then turned and proceeded back to the Bend and raced the full distance to the new boathouse. From Head Coach Aaron Marcovy: The coaches are exceptionally pleased with this first step of the racing season, as the rowers are beginning to come into their own with regards to race preparation and performance "on-the-day". Coach Marcovy was impressed with the team attitude toward racing and is excited to see what the team will accomplish throughout the rest of the season. After the April 5 Alumni Regatta the team heads to Lake Dillon in south-central Ohio for a small scrimmage against U Dayton and JCU before the "true" championship season starts with MACRAs. Race results for the 2014 Cleveland Collegiate Regatta can be found HERE. 2014 Cleveland Collegiate Regatta Photo Gallery Successful Spring Break in South Carolina for Case CrewMarch 7-15, 2014: Case Crew headed south to Camp Bob Cooper in Summerton, SC for their annual spring break. The full squad rowed in various configurations two to three times per day. At the end of the camp all of the crews there scrimmaged each other in 2 by 5 minute pieces. Case won the majority of the races. Participating in the scrimmage were Bowdoin College, University of Rochester, Carnegie-Mellon, Liberty University, Bryn Mawr and Robert Morris University. Case took part in the Men's Varsity 4+, Men's Novice 4+ and Women's Varsity 4+. Only Bowdoin posed a serious challenge with Case droppping the MV4+ and MN4+. All other races against all other boats were won by Case! 2014 Spring Break Photo Gallery Rachel Stanley Joins CWRU Crew as Assistant Coach
Team Pulls over 400km in 24-hour Erg-a-ThonFebruary 21-22, 2014: Case Crew completed its annual 24-hour Erg-a-thon on campus pulling just over 400km as a team. The team started rowing on Friday afternoon and a flywheel kept spinning until the following day. The event is an annual fundraiser where parents and friends chip and the students also run a bake sale for passers-by. This year's event took in nearly $2000! This year's erg-a-thon was a marked improvement over last year with almost three times as many people attending the event. The event featured a challenge where visitors could challenge a team member to a 500m sprint for the chance at a $10 gift card. As you can see in the photo gallery, many passers-by attempted the 500 meter erg challenge for a local ice cream franchise gift card. The fastest time on the men's was under 1:28 from a 6'7" ex-basketball player, and the women's time was 1:48 from a cross-fit gym attendee.
Coach's Corner: 2014 Mid-Winter UpdateFebruary 17, 2014: A little A.T. (anaerobic threshold) in the morning never hurt anyone, and especially not the rowers of CWRU. The team is training like they are hungry, and it is evident in their erg times. After a successful sprint month on the erg, we are buckling down again to build a substantial base, and are working towards the next goal: Spring Break.
Thanks to all the alumni again, and we are looking forward to a great spring training and getting out on the water. Thanks to coaches Aaron & Tim Marcovy for the update
The competition for the Hammer Cup this year went to Cleveland State even though Case had superior times. The scoring system is biased to both speed and team size. While Case had the speed to dominate, only a handful of women were able to compete leaving the door open to CSU. You can see the breakdown of the Cup results here and see that Case had much higher quality results. Case still leads the series with ten wins versus eight for John Carroll and now two for CSU.
Describing the team's accomplishment's, Head Coach Aaron Marcovy had this to say: In short: amazing. Three weeks ago, CWRU completed its first 2K "baseline assessment," yielding, in many cases, personal records. Typically athletes must train for extended lengths of time before making that leap to seeing their best performance again. The vast majority of CWRU rowers did it again...and rather than try to laud their accomplishments with words, we are proud to let the results speak for themselves. Please check out Aaron's complete write up here. Coxswains were not exempt from the torture. Both Tara Tran and Sarah Nia Coleman took first and second, respectively, in the 1000m event for coxies. Min Seok Choi also took part in the Mens Open Rec 1000m race and took second. The final race of the day was the traditional Mixed Open 6 x 500m Relay. The team improved their previous year's time by nearly 7 seconds, but were bested this year by a strong team from WRRA. The Case and WRRA teams both broke 10 minutes for the 3000m piece and finished ahead of 4 other teams. Race results for the 2014 Hammer Ergatta can be found HERE. 2014 Hammer Ergatta Photo Gallery Case Alumni Dominate C2 January Virtual Team Challenge (VTC)!!!
Case Crew Varsity & Alumni Head to BostonOctober 19-20, 2013: The Case Crew Varsity and a number of alumni headed to Boston for the largest regatta in the world, the Head of the Charles. In it's 49th year, the regatta hosts over 9000 competitors over two and is the sport's true fall rowing festival. The weekend featured great fall weather with extremely fast conditions on Saturday. Seventeen course records were broken with slow river flow (it's an upriver course) and a clipping tailwind for much of the course guided the crews quickly to the finish line.
Case had entries in the Men's Collegiate 4+, Women's Club 4+ and Patrick DelBarba in the Champ Single. The women were given a last minute entry due to a scratch from another crew and had to scramble to make arrangements to compete. Alumni showed up in force with Mallory Miller '13 in the Lightweight Single, Doug Brubaker '13 in the Club Single and a Directors' Mixed Quad made up of Nicholas Miller '12, Caitlin Bowerman '13, Mallory Miller '13 and Patrick DelBarba '15. The quad raced as Long Lake RC since Nicholas and Caitlin are both coaches of this Minnesota club. Competing with thier own clubs were Case Crew founder Tom Hudak '91 with Three Rivers RA in the Club 8+ and Evan Halprin '02 with Station L RC in the Directors' Men's Quad.
The women in the Club 4+ were happy to be even racing due to the late entry. They had good weather and clear water resulting in a highly enjoyable row. The crew of Valerie Michel (s), Abby Sevier (3), Stephanie Merlino (2), Colleen Kennedy (b) & Min Seok Choi (cox) finished in 41st place out of 46 crews. The regatta proved a nice cap to the fall season and will provide motivation over the winter as they hit the ergs for spring.
Junior Patrick DeBarba raced in the Champ Single and placed 11th out of 28 scullers. He matched his last year's 4.8% margin from Norwegian winner Kjetil Borch though improved his placing by seven spots. He beat a number of national teamers in an event where the reigning Olympic champion finished third and the current US National Team sculler finished in 24th. This amazing performance gained him automatic entry into the event next year.
Alumna sculler Mallory Miller '13 finished 15th out of 17 scullers in the elite event that was won by Mary Jones of Vesper. Doug Brubaker '13 just missed automatic qualification by one spot by finishing 22nd out of 41 scullers. He was 10.9% off the winning time of Taylor Perry from Fredericton RC. Doug is currently a grad student at Case and is rowing unaffiliated so that he can save eligibility to row with the team this coming spring. The all-CWRU line up from Long Lake RC had the best result of the regatta finishing in 6th place out of 25 boats. They were 3.8% off the winners from Willamette Rowing Club in the Directors' Mixed Quad event. The Directors' races serve as a fundraiser for the regatta's endowment. Entering the event requires a significant donation and athletes are then allowed to compete twice in the regatta: in their normal event and the Directors' Challenge race. In other racing, Tom Hudak '91, sitting in 3-seat for his Three Rivers 8+ finished 27th of 47 crews. Evan Halprin '02 rowing for Station L out of Portland, Oregon also raced in a Directors' Challenge race. His Men's Quad finished 16th of 39 crews. Race results for the Head of the Grand can be found HERE. 2013 Head of the Charles Photo Gallery Grand Day in Michigan for MN4+October 20, 2013: While the Varsity was contending on the Charles River in Boston, Case Crew's Novice Men were in search of glory on the Grand River at Lansing, Michigan this October in the Head of the Grand Regatta. The team originally planned a larger contingent for the regatta. However, the Varisty Women gained a last minute entry to the Charles, and Fall Break occurred this weekend, which limited numbers.
Speakmon Highlights Team Speed
The novice men's crew of Liam Hoye, Luke Fakult, Luke Vroeye and Masato Miyagi with Sarah Nia Coleman coxing won their event by over 5 seconds to the nearest competitor from Cleveland State. The novice women's 4+ "rubbed" oars with Cleveland State on their way to a 3rd place finish. The crew Grace Bugos, Mahima Devarajan, Brianna Torres, and K. Fechner with Tara Tran coxing had a great introduction to the sport and a brewing cross town rivalry! The varsity women were pitted against three Ohio State varsity crews that took all three top spot by over a minute to 4th place. Then it was U. Cincinnati followed by our women in 5th place. The crew of Valerie Michel, Abby Sevier, Stephanie Merlino and Colleen Kennedy with Peter Choi coxing showed some grit finishing ahead of crews from Xavier and John Carroll.
In the singles Patrick DelBarba finished 2nd and Doug Brubaker finished 5th in the Open Men's event. Doug is still in grad school but saving some eligibility in order to compete at Vails in the spring. Therefore, he's competing as WRRA or unaffiliated this fall. Doug also competed in the masters single and finished 6th overall due to the age handicap, but had the 2nd fastest raw time. Recent graduate and past Case Crew president Mallory Miller raced in the women's lightweight single. She crushed the other two competitors by nearly 2 minutes for gold. Race results for the Speakmon Regatta can be found HERE. 2013 Speakmon Regatta Photo Gallery Small Contingent of Students & Alumni Head to Pittsburgh for HOTOOctober 5, 2013: This year's Head of the Ohio was not an "official" event for Case Crew, but a few students and a handful of alumni made the trek down I-76 to race. The morning yielded some rain, but things cleared up by the afternoon for some nice racing.
Early Season Tune Up On the Cuyahoga
The men's single saw Patrick DelBarba take the event for the third year in a row just ahead of team assistant JP Kirkegaard. CWRU grad student Doug Brubaker took 5th just under a minute behind Patrick. The varsity women fielded an eight that placed 4th ahead of crews from Ohio University and Miami University, but just behind cross town rivals Cleveland State. Shaker Heights accidentally "borrowed" one of the boat's seats and as a result the crew was delayed reaching the start. The organizers let them complete the course alone and allowed their time to place in the event. Not ideal, but a good result to finish 4th.
The women also fielded two boats in the open four event with the "A" line up of varsity rowers finishing in 5th and the "B" entry of novice rowers finished 8th. The event attracted a number of masters crews with an entry from WRRA and two from TRRA besting our varsity ladies. In fact, WRRA took top honors overall ahead of a very quick entry from Mercyhurst University. The varsity men also had a little drama in the open 4 event. The crew borrowed a relatively inexperienced coxswain from another team, and let's say it didn't end well. Through a series of events mid-race they ended up stopping for over 30 seconds and when underway the racing line was "less than optimal." Considering all of that, they finished near the bottom of the 15 boat field but still ahead of Cleveland State and OhioU. SARA also entered the Open 4 and fortunately had fewer issues that the Case men. The alumni finished 4 places higher than Case in 9th place. The line-up of Nate Uber, Chris Denzel, Adam Wilson and Chris Shoemaker all rowed together on the team a few years ago. Alumnus and SARA Board Member Chris Shoemaker had this to say: The entire day was terrific. We took 9th of 16 and were 22 seconds out of a medal spot, not bad for a bunch of guys that have not practiced together for 5 years now. It was terrific being on the water with them again and our shell, the Stefan James, was fantastic. Those Pocock boats are fast.
CWRU hires Aaron Marcovy to Lead the Spartan Navy
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