The Return

We’re are now back at Swells, with some serious fire in our hearts, drive in our legs and strong conviction to push it hard, then push it harder. Each of us has committed to taking every stroke with the intent to make it better than the last, and to continue building up to our racing season with intensity.

We’ve ended our Spring Break with great enthusiasm - not because it’s over, but because of what we have accomplished and what we have to look forward to. There were numerous seat races, with equally numerous line-ups, and very impressive and exciting races on Thursday. Equally exciting was each meal we ate at Washington College, of course. Wellesley College, please contact Washington College’s Dining Services as soon as possible; whatever they do, they do it well! We were certainly spoiled by the fresh and delicious food, the great service at the Holiday Inn, and the kindness of Washington College for hosting, and sharing their facilities with us.

Noteworthy news from the past week is as follows: Dodge celebrated her Golden Birthday on March 20 - happy birthday, Dodger!! There were some outstanding 2k’s pulled, with a season PR for Bryn Garrity and a career PR for Nicola Rentschler. Some folks who have been managing injuries were back in action both on land and on the water this week as well! It’s exciting to have our team put itself back together as people heal, and get stronger wisely, efficiently and enthusiastically. The race wasn’t so bad either. The 1V had a great race, finishing 19 seconds ahead of Washington College. The 2V finished ahead of Washington College’s first and second varsity boats and the Novice and third varsity boats had phenomenal first 2,000 meter races with a 7 second margin separating them. Needless to say, it was a GREAT way to start the spring season! For official times, please go to row2k.com.

The talent show was nothing short of amazing, thanks to the first year rowers and the sophomores. The novices nailed their skit…to a T! The sophomores somehow arranged for a guest appearance from the one and only Justin Bieber tribute band, followed by some less well-known hip hop artists (or maybe it was spoken word, but you’ll have to check with Becca Kim-baller and Caroline Dodge – they have the official word on the genre). To wrap up our show of talent, Austin re-told the best story of all time…The Great Cat Heist of 1997 (or ’98). Our last night in Chestertown ended with smiles and audible laughter, and we all went to bed looking forward to our final morning on the Chester River, which was awesome.

To backtrack a bit, let it be known that Becca Freeman-Slade and I had a lovely roommate experience. There was not a DAY that I was asked to shower. You know why? Because contrary to popular belief, I am, indeed, hygienic. BFS can confirm that.

Also, please pray that it gets warmer in Boston…rowing in 28 degree weather sounds less than ideal. Probably Fun Type 2 (there will be a detailed lesson on what that means later this week).

Casey Sedlack ‘11

Greetings From Chestertown!

Hello from Chestertown, Maryland—the home of Blue Crew’s spring training trip (for the third consecutive year)! Today is day 2 of spring training. But let me first catch you up to speed on what happened in the last week of winter training: We finally made it to the water! We worked on technical aspects—lots of drills and rowing by pairs, fours, and sixes (as opposed to all eight). It was a bit darker than usual (thank you, daylight savings), however the excitement of just being on the water and not in the KSC (Keohane Sports Center on Wellesley Campus) made us forget the darkness and cold.

To accompany the lighter physical work in the mornings, in the afternoon, we attacked our second round of fitness testing, including the mile run, a “Wendy” circuit, a 30-minute erg test, and the infamous 2k-erg test. All in all, Blue passed with flying colors—with some of the strongest results in the history of this team (need to check my facts, but I’m pretty sure). 17 out of 34 rowers had a PR (personal record) on their 2000m tests, which is HUGE! Way to go Blue! And those numbers are just going to keep on dropping…

A strong round of testing is the best way to leave for spring break: it’s closure. We can say, “Wow, look at what we accomplished indoors this winter!” But, now it’s time to take all the speed and power with us onto the water, and that’s why spring break is so exciting: it’s our first real trial. Sure we can be fast on the erg, but how about on the water? Well don’t worry, from what we’ve seen so far, Blue hasn’t forgotten how to row.

The eight-hour bus ride down to Maryland flew by, with the help of some great movies, of course. When we arrived late Thursday afternoon, we unloaded the trailer, rigged our boats, and set up camp. A beautiful sunset welcomed us to the Chester River (home to Washington College’s facilities—this is also the team we will scrimmage next Thursday). A note about the Chester River, the only thing it has in common with the Charles is the letter C. I’m not kidding: the Chester is so wide across, definitely wider than the Basin (the widest point of the Charles), there’s also only one bridge, no sharp turns, oh, and NO other boats (a coxswain’s heaven, I would imagine).

After set-up at the river, we headed back to the hotel and ate at a nearby restaurant, Broccolini’s. We feared this meant a dinner of only broccoli, but to our delight we had salad and lots of pizza. We turned in for an early night, since most of us were falling asleep at dinner already. We are probably the quietest after-hours group a hotel has ever seen: we may have dance parties and sing-a-longs, but they’re usually over by 8pm.

Friday was our first full day on the water: we went out in four eights (what a sleek fleet of boats!). The new Resolute went out on its inaugural row, and let me tell you, the seat rolls up and down the slide as smooth as skates on ice. The weather was warm mid 50s and sunny. Our morning row usually runs from 7-11am then we have a 3-hour break for lunch, naps, and homework, followed by an afternoon row from 2-5pm. Just in case, parents are reading, I will put you at ease: lots of homework is getting done! In fact right now, I’m writing this during our lunch break, and the breakfast room of the hotel is filled with about ten of us intently doing work.

Today’s row was a bit rougher than yesterday’s—actually it was some of the roughest waters I’ve ever rowed in, as my coxswain Aidan said today, we were literally rowing in the open ocean, but don’t panic: whitecaps, 20mph winds, and 3-foot waves don’t get us down. In the novice boats, we got in 4, 12 minute pieces, and as Austin told the troops: today was the best day he’s had all year, witnessing some of the most focus, technical precision, and raw power than ever before with this group.

In other exciting news, Wellesley Crew is featured on row2k’s website (www.row2k.com), the go-to website for basically the entire rowing community. The picture is of last spring season’s Varsity 8 at NCAA’s. Check it out!

Well it’s getting a bit noisy in the previously quiet breakfast room which means it’s time to get ready for Battle with the Winds round 2. What will be in store for us? Some pieces, some seat racing? Who knows? Regardless, Blue will be ready to attack, making the most of every stroke, every practice. Till next time!

Shernaz Dossabhoy '12

B-Town to C-Town

B-Town to C-Town

It has been slightly less than one month since the commencement of Winter Training, and much to our surprise and delight, Blue Crew is back in business with our good friend, Charles.

Yesterday morning we left for the river at 4:45 am (the early bird special) for some serious spring-cleaning of the boat shack. Boats were taken off of their dusty racks to be wiped down, assessed for any damage that our furry squirrel friends had caused over winter, and the shack was given a thorough back to front deep clean. Even the floor was swept.

Besides the unbelievable efficiency of the team throughout this spring-cleaning process, and seeing former captain Kate Spelman, the best part of the morning was when the red four was put into slings. “Roll down to waist, and roll!” was called, the boat was rolled, and the slings placed, when out like a loaded spring came a small furry animal (later determined to be a squirrel) right at Tess Ruderman’s and Kathryn Goffin’s faces. I’m sure the resulting screams were the due to uncontrollable fits of joy…

Yesterday morning also marked the first day that our new novices, Jen Marble, Hannah Van der Eb and Sarah Halbert were introduced to our beautiful plot of land in Watertown…welcome to heaven, ladies :)

Today was the first row! With three eights (the Colonel wasn’t able to make it, nor was the Ames, the O’Neal or the D-Money) and a four out on the water, it made this rainy day a little bit brighter :) Just technique today, and an intro for the novices about the rowing basics was enough to get us even more excited about you-know-what…SPEED.

Back to some indoor news… great developments have happened athletically in the last week as well. Coogs finished last in this round of beep tests. For those of you who have ever done a beep test, you know that’s a good thing. And get this…she finished at a 12-5. SCREAMIN’ FAST! Thursday’s 30 minute test produced some incredible numbers, and I believe Lyndsey Abt pulled the team’s first sub 2:00 average split (1:57) for the duration of the piece this year! GREAT JOB LYNDSEY!!!

In other wonderful news: team laundry is still going strong, I showered 4 times this week so I could avoid further public embarrassment, and the Resolute looks (and smells) delicious…we’ve also managed to keep it out of harms way…we love you softball, but bats and balls don’t go well with carbon fiber. Also, coach Regan Bernhard is going to Barbados to meet her mother who is about to become the oldest woman to ROW across the Atlantic!! She will be back on Wednesday before we leave for Maryland. Congrats to Regan and her mother, Suzanne Pinto. We can’t wait to hear from Regan about how she’s doing!

Without shadow of a doubt, we are all ready to get out of B-Town to head down to C-Town, focus on nothing but sleeping, eating and rowing, and have a great time with our teammates :)

Oh, and here are some numbers for ya :

- 1 day till we christen the new Resolute 8+

- 6 days till we leave for spring break

- 14 Days until our first race (against Washington College)

Casey Sedlack '11

BLUE CREW HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!

Hello!

After 3.5 grueling weeks of work - aptly described by Becca Freeman-Slade - Blue Crew has left the building!! We are headed to the river in the morning - we will clean out the boathouse, check our boats over, and get the dock positioned and ready for our first row on friday:)

I think it is safe to say that we are all VERY excited:)

One thing that has NOT left the building....the SHINY NEW 8+ from Resolute, which just arrived today...we will keep her tucked away, warm and dry, until we christen her on Saturday:)

Signing out....and to the river:)

March 4th:)

As the first rower to post on this website, I’ll quickly catch you up on our season so far. We officially started on February 14^th at midnight, after months of training on our own. As the clock struck midnight, we ran as a team into the field house and began our first practice. Since then, we have been working hard every morning in the KSC. We’ve erged, run stairs, spun, erged, run, swingulated, erged, lifted (or “pumpin’ iron’” as Olivia calls it), completed circuits, erged, done video review, core circuits, erged, and yoga (spending quality time in corpse pose).

This morning we wrapped up our third week of winter training with a 2K and full team circuit. Coogs, Jess, Gaby, Rachel R, Camille, Hailey, Kristen, Sarah H, Olivia, Bryn, Jen and Maggie W all PRed on their 2ks (that’s 12 people/1.5 boats!). The fastest times of the morning went to first-year varsity rower Lyndsey and first-year novice rower Rachel. Overall the team average is 7.7 seconds faster then at this point last year!!

A couple more exciting numbers:

· 8 days until we christen our brand new resolute 8+

· 13 days until we leave for our spring training trip

· 21 days until our first race (against Washington college)

Some other exciting things that can’t go without mention:

The ice on the Charles is getting thinner every day. On Monday a dog fell through the ice. Two good things that emerge from this story: first, the dog was saved by Cambridge firefighter and second, this proves the ice is getting super thin (it can’t even hold up a dog) so, we should be back on the water any day now…

Coogs, Bamy, Dodge, and DJVal (I never realized how much this team really likes nicknames) raced at Crash B’s. Coogs PRed-- making that 3 PRs in 3 weeks!

Ally, Becca K, and Kathryn all rejoined us this week from their winter sports squash, basketball and diving respectively. Ally had a strong first half of her senior squash season but was sidelined for the second half due to injury. Becca K had a strong basketball season, making it to the quarterfinals of the NEWMAC tournament. Kathryn , despite spending the majority of the two weeks prior recovering from a concussion, finished twelfth at NEWMACs.

Lyndsey learned when to use her arms on the erg this week—yes, this is the same Lyndsey who pulled the fastest 2K on the entire team this morning. Finally, during video review, after weeks of being told to straighten her arms when erging, she asked Regan “So when are you supposed to use your arms?” Congratulations Lyndsey for winning the “Are you kidding me?” award of the week.

Susan (aka Tex), a junior rower and coxswain, participated in the “Disney Princess Half Marathon” with her family over the weekend in Florida. I think everyone was a bit jealous of her sunny vacation, albeit brief.

Finally, my roommate, a non-rower, would definitely say this is the most exciting thing of the entire year- we got laundry loops. Now the staff at the KSC will wash our practice clothes. This is a big, exciting, step forward for the personal hygiene of the blue crew team. Now if only we can get Casey to shower...

That’s all for now. We have a long weekend away from crew (alright, not that long, just no Saturday practice) and we will be taking full advantage of the free time to catch up on work and spend time with friends.

-Becca Freeman-Slade 14’

Coming your way

Something new is coming your way...sure, I could give you all kinds of information about our first rounds of testing and how they were much stronger than last, that we used this new device called the swingulator - kind of like a dry tank - and that we did amazing technical work last week, that the energy is really high and people are really positive right now...

But...wouldn't it be so much more fun to hear from your team directly? Starting next week, team bloggers from your BLUE CREW team will be posting and providing updates about the team from THEIR perspective.

Should be good, so stay tuned:) In the meantime, keep the fast thoughts coming our way:)

T-Minus 5 hours and 5 minutes

IT IS ALMOST HERE....that time we have ALL been waiting for...

Spring Season, 2011.

We kick it off tonight - well, tomorrow morning...at 12:00 am on 2/14, your favorite team will be starting their season, that's right...at the VERY first minute that we can start together as a team, we will.

Photos will indeed follow...and in the meantime, send the speed vibes our way.

Blue Crew - Spring 2011 - BP!

24 Days and Counting

We are just 24 days from the official start of our spring season. If you asked any member of this team when the spring season starts, they would tell you - "11/1/10!" That is when we hit our winter training, really emphasizing the fact that winter is the REAL start of spring season.

They have been training hard and are so excited to be back together officially as a team!

24 little days...and then it is GO BLUE time, and more updates will be sure to follow:)

TIME FLIES...

...When you are having fun! The season is flying by and we are showing our skills and power each and every day to each other, and to our competitors. The team is gaining more and more speed every day and the lineups are moving really well.

We have had a couple of great weekends and it has been so wonderful meeting so many new family and friends and the support from all of our family and friends has been amazing!

Since my last post, we have raced at the Textile River Regatta in Lowell, MA - where the V8+ came in silver medal position - even better, our 2V8+ dominated the other 2Vs and our 3V8+ dominated the other 3Vs. Our novice 8+ and 2nd novice 8+ had their first races and brought home bronze in the event!

This past weekend, we raced at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta, we were seeing more competitive crews and again, the V8+ brought home silver, our 2V8+ crushed the other 2Vs in the field and our 3V8+ did the same.

We are now preparing two crews for the Head of the Charles Regatta - everyone is pushing each other so that those who are representing the team at HOCR can be as successful as possible...all the while maintaining our mission toward our main team objective.

Hope to see you at HOCR! 4+ is at 4 pm on 10/23 and the 8+ is at 2:20 pm on 10/24.

Ready.

So, the amazing thing about testing is that it showed us just how fit our team is, and it is SUCH a strong place to start from. But the even more amazing thing is the focus on the water and the really great technical place we are starting from. The rowers are really making huge strides with every stroke and the coxswains (always invaluable on the craziness that is the Charles River) are nailing their turns and leading their crews very well.

We (the coaches) just keep thinking..."is this for real?"...(in a good way:)

We are starting to sort out lineups - preliminarily based on testing results and as we move through the next week and a half, we will be making some changes based on technique and seat racing.

We did "pieces" this morning and EVERY boat did a great job...they did THEIR job!

More later!!!

ANNNND, we're off!!!!

We are off and running! The season started this morning, with round one of testing...a 30 minute erg test, followed by a 1' erg test...all in all, it definitely showed us coaches that the summer training plan works...those that followed it really performed so well. All in all a great start to what we are certain will be a great season.

More updates soon...we hit the water tomorrow:)

Two more days!!

Just two more days before the season officially starts! We had a good first meeting and lots of new faces were welcomed and welcomed back!

Tomorrow we volunteer with Wellesley's Day To Make A Difference (our fifth year) and will be cleaning up Revere Beach. Always a great way for us to kick off our year! I will post some photos soon!

The COACHES countdown:)

So, the official countdown (HOURLY, that is) has begun! In 48 hours, the three crazy coaches from Blue Crew will be done with their mile swim, and midway through their 24 mile bike ride, only to be followed by a nice 10k at the Fireman Triathlon!

We race on Sunday 8/29, starting at 7:30, so send us some fast thoughts:)

I will post results later! :)

p.s. 17 days 'til our season starts!

The Countdown!

Well, the countdown begins:

In 3 weeks our first years arrive - there are 9 recruits coming to join us from great high school rowing programs all across the country. They will make a HUGE impact, and will join our already young and eager team...

In 4 weeks classes begin...

In 5 weeks our 2010 - 2011 crew year begins and I cannot wait! We will have a very large varsity roster this year and have had a great deal of interest coming from the incoming first years.

We are going to make this a great year...so hang on to your hats!

OH WHAT A SPRING!!

So, since it has been an entire spring season since the creation of this blog, you get an entire season worth of a "recap" :)

WHAT A SPRING!! After a whirlwind of a regular spring racing season, which found us consistently as the 4th place team in New England, we met our single objective...but before I give the objective away, here is a recap of our regular spring season!

Our first race of the season (at Washington College - our spring training host) was a strong first outing for the team. The varsity 8+ bested the Washington College V8+ by more than 10 seconds and the very young 2V8+ stuck to their race plan and had a solid first outing as well. The novices also raced in the 2V8 event and held their own - the first week on the water for 4 of our new rowers ended in a first race that showed us they were already an important asset to the program.

Our second race was actually a weekend of back to back to back racing! On April 10th, we headed to Tufts to race Wesleyan, Tufts and Bates. This race is a double dual format so each crew had an opportunity to race two other teams on the course. Each boat walked away with a win, as well as some unfinished business and we set our sights on closing in and beating some specific crews for the rest of the spring. The very next day we headed to Worcester to race host WPI, Trinity, Bates, Rochester and Holy Cross. The highlight of the day was the 2V besting DI rival Holy Cross at the line. This was the race that would show New England that our 2V was the crew to beat, but also showed us that we had to make some changes to the V8+ lineup to find more speed. We made those changes going into the next week....let's just say it paid off!

Our third weekend of racing was the NEWMAC Championship, hosted by Clark University - the NEWMAC rowing programs are: Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Clark, WPI, Coast Guard and Wellesley. We certainly raced well! The day started with the Novice 8+, which caught a heartbreaking and boat-stopping crab within the first 250 meters, but they recovered and finished strong - our 2N raced as the 3V and came in 2nd in the field! The 2V won the 2V event and garnered us some major points, and the V8 came in second behind Smith..by .3, yes... POINT 3 seconds. We came in as the runner up in team points again behind Smith. We were recognized by our peer institutions as the team that demonstrated the most sportsmanship and for the 3rd time in 4 years, we won the NEWMAC sportsmanship Award. Kate Spelman '10 and Hannah Dornbusch '10 were named to the NEWMAC All-Conference team and Aidan Chambers '13 was named to the Novice All-conference team.

Our 4th weekend of racing found us back at Tufts at the 3rd Annual Malden Spirit Regatta - with Tufts, Smith and Simmons. Each crew again raced in the double dual format and the crew of the day was the 2V8+. Each of the other boats found success in one race - however that elusive V8+ title was still out there.

Still ranked fourth in New England, we entered the New England Championship Regatta with a little bit of confidence, but knew that we had a LOT of work cut out for us...The 2V8+ again was the crew of the week - dominating in their heat and then coming in a SUPER IMPRESSIVE 3rd place. The V8+ fell 1 spot short of the grand final and did not race to their full potential in the petite final - being eeked out by Mount Holyoke - that stung a bit...but revenge is sweet. The novice 8+ made it to the petite final and raced well and our little 2N again raced up as a 3V8+ crew and held their own on the course.

Our last regular season race was the ECAC National Invitational on 5/9. We knew we had to perform and it was our last shot for the varsity crews. The 2V8+ which had been carrying the team and holding the 4th position in New England, struggled to gain their composure in the heat and only made it as far as the petite final - the V8+ then had the full pressure sitting on their shoulders - we knew that we had to beat Smith, Mount Holyoke and Smith to secure our 4th place team status - having been beaten by each of these crews in the last 3 weeks, we knew it had to be the race of a lifetime....and boy did they stand up to the pressure - in the last 500 they walked through smith, in the last 400 they walked through simmons, in the last 250 they walked through Mount Holyoke and defined Wellesley as the 4th place team in New England....the rest was in the hands of the DIII NCAA Rowing Committee...

5/11 - Selection Tuesday....we all sat on pins and needles all day - and as the first day of finals - it certainly was a tough distraction!! at 3 pm, we gathered in the KSC Classroom to watch the selection video...you can find the team's reaction to earning a TEAM BID TO THE 2010 NCAA ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS on the main athletics webpage...i can guarantee you it is worth the watch:) 5/12 found us seat racing and re-arranging our lineups to make sure we had the fastest combinations in the two boats that would represent Wellesley in Sacramento, CA @ NCAAs. We had 2 very productive weeks of double practices leading up to our departure for California!!!

May 26th we left Logan and arrived to a Wellesley greeting at SMF from the Sacramento Alumnae Club....headed straight to the racecourse and got ourselves ready to race. Being alongside the best DI, DII and DIII teams in the country was a little daunting to our very young team - we had 10 first years travelling and 9 racing for Wellesley (yes, the future does look bright). We stood up to the challenge! Surrounded by the greatest fans - Alum from near and far, and parents from near and far - we were ready to race.

In our first round of racing in the morning heats on 5/28 both boats came in third - qualifying the V8 for the grand qualfiying race and the 2V for the petite qualifying race - this is exactly where we wanted to be...and proved that we indeed deserved to be there as a team. The qualifiers in the afternoon did not pan out as we had hoped....the V8 came in 3rd - the top 2 advance to the grand final and the 2V came in 4th - the top 2 advanced to the petite final. That put the V8 in the petite final and the 2V in the third level final for saturday. Saturday (5/29) we headed to the course with one goal in mind...WIN our finals...well.... :) Guess, what...we did! The 2V8 raced first and battled with St. Lawrence all the way down the course, but held on and beat them by 5 seats across the line. Tight, but we KNEW they would pull it off...our little boat of 9 with 6 first years rocked it! The V8 raced second and battled with St. Lawrence - they were down in the first 500, pulled even in the 2nd 500, pulled ahead at the half, 3rd 500 bow to stern, last 250....OPEN WATER by about 3/4 of a length - it was the race of a lifetime for all of these kiddos! They were simply awesome and we celebrated them, the seniors, their parents and our friends at our finish line picnic.

We had one objective - to make it to the NCAA Championship. We went in as the 7th place team in the country and came out as the 5th place team in the country....simply amazing. We said all year - If you want something you have never had, you have to do something you have never done. People thought we were crazy in February, when we had the kids saying "We're going to NCAAs"....well, we all know what happened....

It has been a simply amazing spring. Get ready for even more speed this coming year...we have 9 recruits coming in, all with great experience.

A great many thanks go to so many people - all of our friends and family, to Austin and Regan our assistant coaches, to Bridget Belgiovine, to Jack Daigle to Martha Dietrick to our seniors (Hannah, Kate, Gabby, Joan, Hilary & Laura) and to our captains (Kate Spelman, Hannah Dornbusch and Gabby Wakeman) your leadership is just what this team needed at just the right time.

Have a great summer and see you in the fall!!!

Welcome to the Wellesley Crew Blog - check back often for updates and information about the "first women on the water"!