News Archive from the 2015 - 2016 Season
Former Case Crew Assistant Coach Wins at Henley!
Big boats race on Saturday at Vails!
The women's varsity 8+ of Ashley Yoon (b), Emmeline Pearson (2), Joyce Chu (3), Hannah Olson-Williams (4), Colleen Kennedy (5), Anna Thompson (6), Steph Merlino (7) and Emily Schnittman (s) with Elizabeth Tobin on the ropes rowed consistently all weekend. They drew eventual winners UMass in their Friday heat and took second place to advance against Georgia Tech, John Carroll and varsity program Sacred Heart. This result marked the first-ever time Case has advanced an eight of any type -- women, men or novice -- to the semi-finals at Vails.
The weather on Saturday for the semis and finals was forecast to be blustery in the afternoon so race organizers switched everything around and compressed the schedule to finish before 2pm. Beautiful conditions greeted the WV8 for the breakfast time race, and they put in a tremendous effort to finish fourth behind powerhouses Fordham, Grand Valley State and Purdue. The fourth place finished grabbed them a spot in the 2nd level final and marks the first-ever big boat (4+ or 8+) from Case to advance to the finals in the team's history! The effort from the morning semi beating varsity program La Salle and club Marquette showed in the women's legs for the lunch time petit final. The wind also picked up and the start sequence had them slightly misaligned at the "go". Some fatigue and early course adjustments had our ladies chasing the field from the back. They finished 6th and just a couple seconds off Georgia Tech, the team they comfortably dispatched in the heats.
The men's novice 4+ of Dave Fulton (b), Will Warren (2), Sam Nutt (3) and Ben Lindstrom (s) with Oona Haffey (cox) had an impressive showing pulling the 13th fastest time in the heats in a drag race against the varsity men's program from Wentworth Tech -- perennially strong in fours. Their second place heat finish garnered them a place in the Saturday morning semi-finals. In the semi they drew a Murderer's Row of opponents and finished a strong 3rd just missing out on a finals berth. The semi saw Michigan and Villanova taking the top two spots, but Case beat varsity program Drexel on their home course as well as crews from Grand Valley and the varsity squad from Union College. On a side note, the men's novice 4+ endured the most heated and protracted selection process of the year. The novice squad has six or seven excellent athletes all deserving of post-season racing. The final crew selection was only made days before the event to try and determine the absolute fastest combination. Selection is a mixture of science and art with Head Coach Aaron Marcovy making the statement "I even did a least squares analysis" to help try and determine the way forward.
The men's varsity 8+ of Chris Ryu (b), Sean Mann (2), Ryan Norchi (3), Liam Hoye (4), Kevin Cronin (5), Matt Hausladen (6), Luke Fakult (7) and Phil Smith (s) and Masato Miyagi (cox) came to Philly to lay it on the line. They were given reasonable lane draws and ultimately a good repechage. Coaches Aaron and Rachel Stanley followed all races on their bikes and the boys raced to their potential executing the race plans perfectly. In the heat they drew and finished behind Delaware, Grand Valley and Minnesota. Knowing the potential speed in the heat, the crew "shut it down" at the 1000m mark, but were still able to hang onto the stern of the Minnesota crew. This base speed set them up well for the rep later on Friday afternoon.
The men's novice four of Wyatt St Clair, Sam Nutt, Will Warren and Dave Fulton with Oona Haffey steering took the team's only medal from the regatta finishing third overall behind Michigan and Ohio State. The crew reached the grand final by finishing 3rd in their heat behind Ohio State and Michigan's second boat. To medal in the final the crew knew they'd have to improve on their performance to go ahead and beat Michigan B along with Michigan State and MSOE.
The team also brought JV eights for both men and women. Few of the teams had that much depth (a resounding endorsement of Case) and the JV events were finals only. This was the first time in team history the crew fielded full JV eights throughout the spring season for both men and women. Case was just a bit off the pace in the first go around finishing 4th out of 4 in the women's race and 6th out of 6 in the men's race. Race results for the MACRA Championships can be found HERE. 2016 MACRA Championship Photo Gallery Alumni: They Came, They Raced, They Gave!April 23, 2016: Nearly 45 alumni and parents descended upon Cleveland for the annual alumni regatta and dinner. The day's programming included the Cleveland Collegiate Regatta (aka Homes School), an alumni mixed 8 race and an evening dinner on CWRU's campus. The regatta venue changed to Aurora Lake in the Cleveland suburbs for both the Home Schools and alumni racing. The lake itself can host 2,000m 4-lane races without turns making it a better option for side-by-side racing than the Cuyahoga. The Home Schools event pitted CWRU, Cleveland State and John Carroll in the 14th running of the Cleveland Cup, but the first time on Aurora Lake. During the intermission between varsity and novice races, the alumni had a chance to race. The format changes a bit every year based on who shows up and what type of racing the alumni want to do. Since the varsity men were done with their racing for the day the idea was to split up the men's varsity 8 and mix them into the alumni crews. This gave the alumni a chance to row with the undergrads as opposed to against them this year. The MV8 also provided some "training wheels" to the crews and ended up being pretty fun for the participants.
Tim Marcovy aligned the crews in the middle of the lake for a side-by-side 2.5 minute piece that ended in a draw. Team founder Tom Hudak stroked one of the crews and set off at a 38 to give you a sense of the seriousness of the affair. The event was partially hosted by the lake association, which provided a nice pontoon boat for spectators to follow the races. You can see video of the alumni/student mixed eights here.
In the evening, we celebrated 25 years of Case Crew in style in the new Tinkham Veale Student Center right in the heart of campus. Between alumni, parents and current students we had nearly 90 guests including representatives from the athletic department.
The other major unveiling, coupled with significant financial support from alumni, was the re-naming of the SARA coaching endowment in honor of Tim. Tim has been a stalwart of Case Crew for its full 25 years. Even if he wasn't actively in a coaching launch he was always supporting the team somehow. The main coaching endowment for the team is now the "Timothy A. Marcovy LAW'77 Rowing Coach Endowment".
To wrap up the evening Doug announced another major gift from crew alumnus Paul Buchheit. Mike and Trish Krofcheck also ran a hugely successful raffle of crew merchandise to support the team that raised a ton of money. The overall support of the team this year has blown every previous year's results out of the water. Thank you to everyone that made the day's events special and for everyone's overwhelming generosity to the team. Go Spartans! Race results for the Alumni Regatta can be found HERE. 2016 Alumni Regatta & Dinner Photo Gallery Case Crew Dominates Homes Schools for 5th Year in a Row!April 23, 2016: Aurora Lake in the Cleveland suburbs played host to the 14th running of the Cleveland Collegiate Regatta. Case won the Cleveland Cup sponsored by the Cleveland Rowing Foundation for the fifth year in a row losing only one of the eight events contested -- overall 8 times in the history of the event.
The annual challenge sees cross town rivals from CWRU, Cleveland State and John Carroll race for Cleveland bragging rights. The weather for the regatta was a bit chilly with temps in the 40s, but racing was fair and conditions relatively calm along the course. This was the first year the event was moved from the Cuyahoga River location. Parents showed up in force and provided food and refreshments to the team. The alumni regatta and racing were also held in conjunction with Home Schools with an alumni/student mixed 8+ event held during intermission.
Race results for the Home Schools can be found HERE. 2016 Cleveland Collegiate Regatta Photo Gallery Strong Showing for Case Crew at 2016 Lubbers CupApril 9-10, 2016: Blustery winter conditions met Case Crew at their first-ever appearance at the 21st Annual Don Lubbers Cup in Spring Lake, Michigan. The Lubbers Cup is a two-day round robin set of races hosted by Grand Valley State University. The main players are the large, dominate club programs in Michigan and they invite a few other clubs to fill out the program. Based on Case's impressive performance last year at MACRAs and Vails, the team was extended an invite.
The women's varsity 8+ had a strong showing winning their Saturday morning race against DePaul and Illinois in convincing fashion of a shortened course. In their second flight Saturday afternoon they were paired up with Grand Valley and Purdue who were ranked as the 1st and 3rd best 8's in the country going into racing. The crew didn't quite have the juice to hang onto these crews, but they did hang on! On Sunday morning it was a similar story with the women's V8 racing against varsity programs Drake and Robert Morris. Case led RMU into the 1000m mark, but just could not hang on to the speed with the incredible headwinds to finish third.
The men's varsity 8's came on the wrong side of a couple close races. In the first flight of the weekend they were 3 seconds off Illinois and one second off DePaul. They had a second shot at Illinois in the second race and came up a couple inches short. You can see the finish line photo HERE. The MV8 saved their best race for last finishing only 5 seconds off Notre Dame and well ahead of Michigan State. The JV eights for both men and women were a bit mixed. In each race on the men's and women's sides the JV squads finished off the pace. The depth of the other programs was just a bit too strong, and our second boats didn't handle the rough conditions as well as the top eights. As the coaches finalize the line ups going into the MACRA and Dad Vail championships having some race experience in tough conditions will help those trying to grab a seat in the top eights. Race results for the Lubbers Cup can be found HERE. 2016 Lubbers Cup Photo Gallery Rough Water, Strong Performance at URAsApril 2, 2016: The Spartan Navy took to the waters of Eagle Creek in Indianapolis this past weekend against UAA rivals from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago for the 9th running of the URA Championships. Strong winds churned the waters of the lake, but the Case rowers persevered to win almost every race they entered. The team took home the men's and women's team point cups -- a first for both in team history! The women's team led the way winning every event they entered. The varsity 8 took the top 8 from Chicago in just over 20 seconds. The women's varsity 4 also took Chicago by over a minute, which bodes well for the team since UC was faster than Case last spring. The women's novice 8 also looked strong and confident in the rough water to beat a struggling UC crew by 3 minutes, which also won the team the Barry Cup. More info on the regatta trophies can be found here. The JV and novice fours were also on form taking wins by significant margins of UC and WashU crews.
Look back at past results of URAs and you will never see such a dominating performance. Historically Case has not managed to hang onto the sterns of Chicago and WashU. However, this year's speed bodes well for the rest of the spring. Go Spartans! Race results for the URA Championships can be found HERE. 2016 URA Championship Photo Gallery Spring Break Miles in GeorgiaMarch 6-10, 2016: Case Crew headed south to Gainesville, Georgia and Lake Lanier for spring break training. Coaches Aaron Marcovy and Rachel Stanley shepherded the 44 rowers and coxes that attended the trip. Much of the week focused on technical drills, long steady state pieces, and a few faster AT pieces as they progressed later in the week. The team was able to get in some preseason racing in with the men scrimmaging Marietta on Wednesday and the women went up against High Point University on Friday morning. The men have faced Marietta a couple times this year and have come up short each time. However, during this trip the gap closed slightly showing an improvement in speed. The varsity eight were just off the pace of the Pioneer varsity. Also, our JV 8 similarly were off the pace of their JV squad. The women fared better in their outing against High Point. The Case Varsity pulled 7:19 for 2km vs. 7:48 from High Point. The High Point second boat took our second boat after our ladies struggled after taking wake from a launch. Rower Sean Mann put together this excellent highlight video from the week: Tons of photos from the week are also here in the 2016 Spring Break Photo Gallery Team Pulls nearly 850km in 24-hour Erg-a-ThonFebruary 26-27, 2016: Case Crew completed its annual 24-hour Erg-a-thon on campus pulling just over 848km 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.
Case Crew Wins Hammer Cup for 2nd Straight Year
The men's team also showed speed and depth. The men had ten athletes break seven minutes with junior Liam Hoye leading the way with a 6:21.5 to win the Open Men's category. The Case men took all top 5 slots in the Open category. The novice men's category has Case taking all three top slots with Freshman Ryan Norchi taking the golden hammer in 6:44.0. The lightweight team shows some promise with the novices taking all 6 top spots with Wyatt SaintClair winning in 7:05.4. Take a look at 20 years of Hammer results to see just how fast and deep this squad is. The last event of the day was the Sledgehammer 6x500m mixed relay. The official results show Case in 2nd, 4th and 9th, but the winning squad was all men while every other team was mixed. The top two teams were varsity Case squads and the third team were novices. The fastest Case relay team completed the 3km in 9:41.7 to take home the silver sledgehammer. Jim Ridge of WRRA and Share the River created this wonderful video from the event to highlight the variety and intensity of the racing. Zach Lewis of the Plain Dealer also raced and did a write up about his experience here on Cleveland.com or here in PDF Race results for the Hammer Ergatta can be found HERE. 2016 Hammer Ergatta Photo Gallery It's Time for the January Virtual Team Challenge!
Varsity 8's Place in Top 5 at the Head of the HoochNovember 7-8, 2015: Case Crew men's and women's varsity eights headed to Chattanooga, Tennessee for the last great head race in the fall - The Head of the Hooch. The early November event draws thousands of competitors from across the South and Midwest to the beautiful 5,000m downstream course on the Tennessee River. Case sent their two top eights to race on Saturday with the women taking fourth out of 30 crews and the men places fifth out of 28 crews.
The coaches seat raced the squads during the weeks after the Charles to identify the fastest potential line up. This included allowing the frosh/novice squad to participate in the mix. The final line ups included two rower each from the frosh/novice squad. The women's 8+ line up of Emily Schnittmann (s), Steph Merlino (7), Abby Sevier (6), Colleen Kennedy (5), Hannah Olson-Williams (4), Jen Roberts (3), Anna Thomsen (2), Maya Monroe (b) and Masato Miyagi (cox) were first up in the morning. The crew finished in fourth with only four crews finishing with a sub-18 minute time. Taking the top three spots were community rowing from Boston, Clemson University and the Chicago Rowing Foundation. Trailing the Spartans were a full list of UAA and Division I colleges.
Rain fell most of the day Saturday, but it didn't slow down the crews. The men's line up of Matt Holdren (s), Phil Smith (7), Liam Hoye (6), Kevin Cronin (5), Sean Mann (4), Ryan Norchi (3), Chris Ryu (2), Luke Fakult (b) and Liana Kabins (cox) took 5th overall. The crew were only 18 seconds off the winners from UNC Chapel Hill. Adrenaline was at play with the team reporting sub-1:25 splits off the start. The pace tapered a bit as the boys settled down to beat another long list of UAA and DI schools in Chattanooga for the race. The race marked the end of the Case rowing careers of a number of team stalwarts. With spring racing not allowing grad students, the phenomenal performances at the Hooch capped marvelous careers for Abby Sevier, Steph Merlino and Matt Holdren. Racing in the big boats was complete before lunch on the first day and the team drove back to Cleveland. Chris Ryu '16 hung back in order to race on Sunday in the Champ Single. The temperatures from Saturday dropped from the mid 60's to the mid 50's on Sunday. The wind also picked up to give the course a strong cross tail wind, which made progress to the start a bit dicey. Chris finished in 13th place with a time of 19:53.8 in a field of 17 scullers.
Alumni were also in action at the race with SARA racing a men's master quad on Saturday morning. The line-up of Doug Rathburn (s), Aaron Marcovy (3), Tim Marcovy (2) and Doug Brubaker (b) dusted off the SARA racing shirts (cotton in a rain storm = not a great idea) to finish in 11th out of 14 crews. Most importantly they beat the alumni entry from WashU. Doug also raced in the master single event on Sunday placing 10th out of 16 scullers. Race results for the Head of the Hooch can be found HERE. 2015 Head of the Hooch Photo Gallery Women's Varsity 4+ Finish Strong in Boston; Qualify for Next Year!October 17, 2015: The Case Crew women's varsity four headed to Boston for the 51st Head of the Charles Regatta. The world's largest regatta hosted over 10,000 athletes over two days on the Charles River. The women's four of Steph Merlino, Abby Sevier, Colleen Kennedy and Hannah Olson-Williams with Masato Miyagi coxing finished in 31st place out of 63 finishers. The position re-qualified the boat for next year's regatta. This performance was the first ever re-qualification for a Case team boats in team history!
The crew were not lucky with the bow draw. They drew number 64, or last in the line of Women's Club Fours. In order to qualify they would have to battle through the best clubs and colleges in the country. There are conflicting reports on how many crews our ladies actually passed, but they were many. The men's club 8+ event started right after them after a short pause, and no men's crews were able to catch our crew!
Strong Showing at the Head of the Grand in Lansing, MIOctober 11, 2015: Case Crew traveled to Lansing, Michigan for the third year in a row to test their mettle against the strong programs based in Michigan. The race, hosted by Michigan State, is an informal head race on the Grand River covering 3,300m. The Sunday event hosted only collegiate crews and both the men's and women's team placed 4th overall in points behind the likes of Grand Valley, Michigan State, Notre Dame (men) and Eastern Michigan (women).
As mentioned above the Men's Varsity 8+ improved greatly over last year's row. They took 4th overall behind Grand Valley and two Notre Dame crews. However, of note is the team beat both entries from Michigan State, which we believe this is the first time ever for our program! The men's novice 8+ finished in the middle of the pack against a number of larger program entries. The men's varsity 4+ had a good race finishing 4th in the pack of large schools and far ahead of the smaller schools entered. Grad student Doug Brubaker brought his single along and raced an exhibition against eight pairs to finish 7th! We cannot stress the progress the team is making. In the overall team point category, both squads finished fourth behind the larger schools with Case finishing with double digit points finishing in the mix within all races. Take a look at the results for yourself below... Click here for complete race results. 2015 Head of the Grand Photo Gallery Medals for Varsity Women and Novice Men in RochesterOctober 3, 2015: Case Crew passed on the Head of the Ohio for the first time since 1993 seeking tough Division III competition in Rochester, New York at the Head of the Genesee. The competition on offer, regatta organization and recent weather in Pittsburgh prompted the move to Rochester. The two-day Head of the Genesee plays host to most of the upstate New York teams - both club and varsity sponsored programs -- and the Saturday events are college only. The Case women's four of Steph Merlino (s), Abby Sevier (3), Colleen Kennedy (2), Hannah Olson-Williams (b) and Masato Miyagi (c) walked away with the Margaret Bodenstedt Cup for open fours. The Novice squad also posted solid results finishing with silver in the men's eight and fourth in the women's eight. The men's varsity eight finished in the middle of the pack behind mostly varsity programs and just off the heels of UAA rival Rochester -- closer than a Case men's 8 has ever been to Rochester.
As the east coast was being battered by a tropical storm, wind and rain forced the postponement of the event. The organizers eventually re-grouped and instead of holding the 4,000m event on the Genesee River moved it over to the Erie Canal. The dead straight, two-boat wide Erie Canal served Case well for racing and putting down fast times. Case entered two women's fours into the open event. And as noted before took home the Cup while the JV squad took 10th overall out of 14 crews. Overall there were nine varsity crews in the event with our JV crew beating three. The regatta typically plays host to a handful of Division I schools that were not in attendance this year. Take a look at the names of the previous cup winners in the gallery: Cornell, Syracuse, Brock, McGill, etc. During the awards ceremony the announcer was pleasantly surprised to be handing the cup to regatta newcomer CWRU! The men's novice squad fielded two crews and the coaching staff split experienced rowers with true novices. The crews finished second and seventh out of nine crews claiming the second medal for Case. The boys are eager to see how they hold up against the Michigan teams at the Head of the Grand next weekend.
The women's novice squad finished 30 seconds out of the medals in fourth out of 11 crews. DIII Varsity powerhouses Ithaca and Rochester took the top two spots with club team SUNY Geneseo claim the bronze. Behind the Spartans were four other varsity squads from RIT A & B, William Smith and Rochester B. Click here for complete race results. 2015 Head of the Genesee Photo Gallery Case Crew Alumnus Honored by Case Alumni AssociationCase Crew alumnus Ram Fish '95, MS '95 has been honored with the Meritorious Service Award by the Case Alumni Association (CAA). All of the 2015 alumni award winners will be honored on campus during homecoming weekend October 8-11.
Students Claim Cuyahoga Medals in Every Event; Alumni Not-so-muchSeptember 19, 2015: Case Crew fielded 11 crews across 8 events and took home hardware in all eight events at the 20th running of the Head of the Cuyahoga (HOTC). Every member of the team, varsity and novice, raced collegiate teams from Marietta College, Ohio University, Miami University, and the University of Toledo along with the other Cleveland home schools John Carroll University, and Cleveland State University. The weather threatened thunderstorms all day and wind blew steadily from the south giving a push to crews down the first main straight to Marathon Bend and then to Tower City. Most of the students raced the course twice resulting in a 20km day.
In the men's varsity 4+ a similar result was in the cards with the Case top four of Holdren, Cronin, Liam Hoye and Ryu taking silver in between the varsity and JV crews from Marietta. Case's JV four finished in 7th place ahead of crews from Cleveland State, Orchard Lake, Miami, Ohio and John Carroll.
The men's frosh/novice recruiting class was fill with rowers that had experience in high school. The experience showed in the novice 8's and fours. Case fielded two novice 8's with the more experienced crew winning over John Carroll and the three-weeks-into-the-sport novices finishing behind JCU in third. The lone novice 4+ entry also on their event ahead of crews from Cleveland State, Ohio University and a high school composite crew from Pittsburgh. A number of current CWRU grad students also entered a handful of small boat events with James Wehn taking gold in the Masters C 1x and Doug Brubaker placing 2nd in the Open 1x. In the women's open pair former U. Chicago rower Aurelie Merlo and Christina Liu formerly of Emory placed a respectable fourth in the event. The duo try to squeeze in a few outings between medical and graduate school commitments and are extremely appreciative of the team and SARA equipment. Current and former coaches also got into the act. Assistant Coach Bob Gannon and former head coach Patty Wolford raced the mixed double for WRRA. Assistant Coach Tim Marcovy was also spotted in a couple WRRA shells throughout the day.
Thanks to everyone that came to the race, braved the weather and provided for a wonderful christening ceremony! Click here for complete race results. 2015 Head of the Cuyahoga Photo Gallery |
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Novice women heading to the water.
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