5 Days to the water...and boy have they earned it!

Here we are, at the start of week three.  It has been a great 2 weeks of indoor training, and we are looking forward to finishing this part of our season!  The team is looking fit, strong, and the energy is super positive and hungry.  Can't ask for more than that.


The launches are making their way, one by one, to the river this week.  We will load up boats, oars and gear on Thursday, and Saturday is our big trek to the river.  EVERYONE is very eager for that first swing!  


We will spend a few days at home on the river (hoping for moderate temps in the morning) before we make our trip south to C-Town.


So far...things are looking "real, real good"

ETA? COUNTDOWN?? WHATEVER:) IT'S HAPPENING SOON

Spring Season kicks off at 12 am on 2/20...That is right, midnight madness, Blue Crew style!


That means less than 6 whole days before we start...boy this has been a long winter.


Get ready for some team posts, really soon...in the meantime another minute has passed that means we are one minute closer to spring season starting!

Honored.

We are honored to honor one of our Alumnae coaches - Mayrene Earle!

Mayrene is this year's USRowing 2011 Ernestine Bayer Award Winner.  Formerly known as the Women of the Year Award, the Ernestine Bayer Award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to women’s rowing and/or to an outstanding woman in rowing and is selected by the female members of USRowing Board of Directors.

"Known as the “Mother of Women’s Rowing,” Ernestine Bayer was a pioneer in the sport. She pushed to be allowed to row on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia and eventually was taught by her husband Ernie Bayer how to row. She established the first women’s rowing club, the Philadelphia Girl’s Rowing Club.

Bayer rowed and competed into her nineties. She died at the age of 97 in 2006.
She was the first woman named to the National Rowing Foundation's Hall of Fame, the first woman to receive the USRowing Medal and the first woman to win USRowing's John J. Carlin Award for service to the sport. She was also nominated for the Sullivan Award, given annually to the top U.S. amateur athlete.

Mayrene began coaching in1974 at Wellesley College where she coached varsity and novice women's crew in addition to women's basketball. She was also a physical education instructor. Following her time at Wellesley, Earle coached at Northeastern University fro 1979 to 1981 before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1983 to 1998 where was both an assistant professor and head women’s coach.

Between 1998 and 2003, Earle worked in the Provincetown Public School system as a health and physical education teacher. During her time as a collegiate coach, Earle’s teams have reached the grand finals at the NCAA championships, were crowned conference champions four times and won four points trophies at the New 8 Regatta and reached the grand finals at the Collegiate Nationals.

Earle, 60, founded MastersCoaching in 2002 and began holding three and four day sweep rowing clinics for master rowers at venues around the world and has led her rowers to gold medals at masters world and national championships and to the podium at the Head of The Charles Regatta."

- USRowing.

It is an honor for us to honor Mayrene - and we hope to see her on campus again very soon!!

What are you thankful for?

Wellesley can feel like a bubble, and Blue Crew is an even tighter bubble within that. Ask any rower or coxswain – the library and KSC are probably where we spend most of our non-structured time…with each other. That’s a lot of time with the same people, not that we don’t love it! With our relentless training right off the bat from the end of fall season, it’s nice to leave campus, the erg loft, and even our friends and teammates behind for a while just so we can look at things with a fresh perspective when we come back. 

Thanksgiving break started off with a 2K and 30’ mileage test. What better way to make us more grateful for a few days off? Although many of us were coming off a difficult week academically, several people pulled PRs. Impressive. After that exertion it would’ve been easy to take a few days off over break and just carbo-load on the couch. Despite the temptation, we saw quite a few Turkey Trots, 5Ks, and WODs (such as the “Gobble Gobble”) being updated on our team site:)

Susan Laves, Rachel Coogan and I headed down to Philadelphia for our first-ever (but definitely not our last) half and full marathons, respectively. We all finished! I think I speak for all of us when I say that I’m thankful to be on such a supportive and genuinely caring team. Coogs, amazingly, qualified for Boston with a time of 3:19.  “If only we had TRAINED! We’d be superfast!” she kept saying as we hobbled back to the car. Never enough, as coxswain Emma Kaufman likes to say. Becca Kimball, currently studying abroad in Spain, also recently ran her first half-marathon. Hmm…could Blue Crew’s training plan be the next magic formula fad in marathon training?

With finals coming up, the next few weeks will take extra focus and efficiency to get through. The sophomore class has proposed a “little competition” to keep us motivated …  winners will win a cake, baked using their secret family recipe (?!). Nothing like some friendly competition to get us in the holiday spirit!

Valerie Soon '13

You have to force yourself...

Rowers are big on quotes. I don’t know if this applies to all sports, but on all the rowing teams I’ve been on, quotes are a big source of inspiration, motivation and re-dedication. Especially during the tough winter training months, quotes play a pivotal role for the rower. One of my favorites is from Tiff Wood, US Olympic and National Team rower as quoted in The Amateurs (one of the best rowing books of all time):

"You have to force yourself to stay with rowing. If you put the first of your contact lenses in your eye, that is almost a sure guarantee that you won't go back to sleep. If you can get up and past the bed, then you will reach the kitchen. If you can reach the kitchen you can reach the front door. If you reach the front door, you will reach the car, and if you reach the car, you can reach the boathouse. Each step leads to the next one. You keep pushing yourself so that you will not quit."

For most of us on campus, it goes more like: if you make it to the bathroom, then you put your spandex. If you get your clothes on and make it outside your dorm room, then you can definitely make it to the KSC. If you can reach the sports center, then you can make it up to the erg loft, and if you can sit down on that erg and start warming up, then you’ll finish the workout for the day.

Of course, it helps to have friends, so one of our big goals for the winter is to get as many of us working out together as possible. This past week we brought back the Wednesday full-team circuits of Winter ‘09, and we rocked out to some great tunes while getting the work done.

While a lot of winter training workouts are erg-based, things like circuits, running and spinning are fun ways to spice up our training plan. In fact, earlier this morning, many of our teammates ran the Chilly Half Marathon in Newton, Mass. And Miss Rachel Coogan soared past her competitors to finish with the THIRD fastest women’s time! Way to go, Coogs!!! Congratulations to everyone who completed the 13.1 miles; we are so proud of you all!  

Clearly Blue Crew is a force to be reckoned with both on and off the water.

Shernaz Dossabhoy ’12

The Great Re-cap!

Fall season ended with Blue Crew’s championship sweep of the 7 Sister’s Regatta last Saturday, October 29^th.  We are incredibly proud of all of our rowers, as this is the third year in a row that Wellesley has taken the 7 Sisters plate back home with us! 

We can’t believe the season went by so fast!  But we definitely packed a whole lot of good work into it.  As our previous blog posts describe, we had across the board strong finishes at the Snake Regatta (the first of the season) with our 1^st Varsity Boat taking second place.  Next, our 2 entries at Head of the Charles left tons of crews in their wake, and finally we sprinted to the finish line of our season with a 7 Sisters sweep! 

Watching our first varsity boat pass every single other boat, walking through 2 boats in the last minutes of the race was phenomenal!  I was just sitting there in bow seat of my boat, getting ready to dock, you know, taking the occasional stroke so our coxswain could get pointed, and I could not believe my eyes as the blur of blue just kept steadily walking on through the other crews.  If it had been possible to jump up and down in a boat, we would have been one unset boat!  But instead we just kept our screams going as we watched our powerful 1V fly across the finish line!  So. Awesome.  Nice rowing, Ladies!

So, here we are, end of the season.  Time to relax, spend time with friends, maybe go into Boston, maybe not be so sore all the time… oh, wait, what’s that?  A winter training plan that starts just as strong as we ended last week?  Yup, that’s what that is…

Well, our team worked together, cheered each other on, and helped each other out as we started our first, oh-so-fun, week of indoor training.  For now, we’re keeping our eye on the prize and staying focused on our goals.  But, oh man, we wish we were still on that dirty water….

And we know the Charles probably misses us to, so we decided to write it a little note:

Dear Charles River,

We miss you already.  Have fun freezing over soon, and get ready for some of the fastest Wellesley boats ever come spring season.

See you in March 2012.

So much Love,

Blue Crew

Carly Abarbanel '12

HOCR Recap:)

Hey all, sorry for the late update but here's the news on HOCR. 


Last week we split the 2V into a racing four for Saturday and merged the other four rowers with the 3V.  It was a hard week for everyone because the Ames does NOT like to be apart.  In the LKV they too were training hard all week for the collegiate event on Sunday and Blue Crew's other crews were sticking it out knowing that their next race was not for a full week after.  
The results from Saturday were not as good as expected for the 4+ but as always, we are treating it as a learning experience and are ready to take bigger risks with the Ames as an eight this weekend.  Saturday night was the HOCR dinner with friends and family, which the event committee planned so nicely (pasta, salad, cake, CIDER... what more could you ask for?). 
Sunday was a big day for the LKV as they were in a much higher starting position than last year.  After taking 4th again it was agreed that the race was solid but that there was still a lot of work to be done.  Congrats to Ali P, Coogs, and Jess (and your's truly) on our first HOCR as competitors! Get ready to see some fast novices (and other Blue Crew boats) at Seven Sisters.


Aidan Chambers '13

Let the RACING begin!

This past week started off with the rare afternoon practice on the Charles on our day off from classes.  Although several of us fretted through the long weekend, wondering what the "doozie" (as described by Tessa) could be, Tuesday's practice was an exciting opportunity to test our speed on the Head of the Charles course.  Since we usually launch around 5:20am when sunrise is still hours away, it was strange being able to see my oarlock, the dock, the seven other rowers in front of me, etc.  

Saturday was the first official test of our speed at the Snake Regatta on good old Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, the site of many of our springtime races.  With the choppy water and raging wind, it's hard to believe this year's conditions were better than last year's.  There was definitely a moment during our row up to the starting line that we stopped moving forward in the face of the wind.  However, all our practice in these conditions paid off so were able to tackle them on race day.

Each of the five 8+'s put in solid performances, including a 2nd place finish by the 1V and a GREAT first race from the novice squad, resulting in our best ever overall finish at the Snake Regatta.  For those of you interested in the times, results are available at at row2k.  Many thanks to all our family and friends who came to support us at the race and brought a delicious and healthy lunch.

As we head into the next week, there is a palpable energy always associated with the Head of the Charles.  Look out for the Blue racing in the Collegiate 4+ event on Saturday at 3:46 and the Collegiate 8+ on Sunday at 3:46.

Tess Ruderman '13

Well deserved break...

After a long week of midterms, seat racing, swing rows, more midterms,  and a “Playdate on the Charles” (and by playdate we mean two by Head of the Charles) Blue Crew parted ways to enjoy a much deserved fall break.  While some returned home, others ventured into the wilderness for two days of camping, a few studious individuals stayed on campus, and the coolest kids of all (aka the sophomores who didn’t have plans before Thursday) went apple picking.  While apple picking doesn’t have a lot to do with crew, we used it as an opportunity to debut our vertical jumps.   In addition to practicing for this key element of our testing regime, we picked delicious apples for a pie-- and by a pie, we mean three pies.

            The entire team is looking forward to our short and sweet fall racing season.   Our first race this Saturday will be the debut for our novices at the Snake Regatta, the following weekend is Head of the Charles, and finally on the 29^th the season culminates with Seven Sisters Championship.  We’ve been making progress in our ever changing lineups, and are looking forward to facing some other DIII programs in the next three weeks.

Becca Freeman-Slade '14

FY Perspective:)

As a first year, I am continually amazed by the upper-class women. They are a dedicated, compassionate, funny, beautiful and talented bunch!  This team never fails to include every member, and bring out the best in every teammate. They have encouraged me through my first Wendy, 30 minute test, 2 by Head of the Charles row, and Dam to Dam. They assure me that it was just as difficult for them the first time… I am skeptical.

Blue Crew continued to gain speed this week. After an insightful and inspiring team meeting (thank you captains!), the team has refocused and intensified its efforts on and off the water. The week’s work was evident in a solid performance in a scrimmage against Boston College on Saturday.  Go Blue! The novices are also improving rapidly – getting fitter, getting more efficient, learning how to match each other, and learning to navigate the Charles… so much learning!

Friday night was particularly exciting, as we had our uniform fitting! The new Wellesley warms ups are BEAUTIFUL! And we are all enjoying them (particularly me in the launch the morning :). We also had our photos taken, and everyone looked lovely…. some more than others.  Another first year learning experience – who knew uniform fitting day was also picture day? 


Maile Wong '15

Lots of Firsts...

Wellesley Crew had a fantastic week despite the humid weather, rainy mornings, and rowing on the quarter feather. This week we figured out line-ups after some good “pieces with switches.” I have to commend our coxswains, Aidan, Emma, and Susan for doing a fantastic job pulling the boats together and being extra efficient on the water. We did a lot of good work on the water this week and all of the boats were pushing each other and asking for more. Our first race is October 15 at the Snake Regatta in Worcester, and I think we are definitely going to be ready.

What was really fun this week was that the novices came down to the Charles for their first morning practice with the varsity team this past Saturday! They were all really excited and eager to learn about our boathouse (also lovingly known as, the shack) and our morning routine. Word on the street is they had a great practice. It’s hard to believe that two years ago I was a novice and had my first practice on the Charles. Everyone is looking forward to what they are going to bring to this team.

After practice we went to Tower Breakfast where we all “LIVED THE DREAM” [insert arm swaying motion here], took over the dining hall, and ate all of the food. Tess has taken over the dance associated with “Living the Dream” while Bamy is abroad in Kenya. Speaking of Bamy, our teammates abroad are doing well. Bamy has been sending email updates every couple of days about Kenya and wants everyone to know that she can see the Milky Way. She is also enjoying the food in Africa but misses yogurt a lot. From my Facebook stalking it looks as though Becca Kimball has managed to get in an erg workout in Spain. I quote, “just did an ERG workout in Spain…and enjoyed it?” We can’t wait for them to get back!

What else happened this week? Oh yeah, after a six years streak victorious alums from the Alumnae Regatta Challenge, the varsity team won the title by open water.

The 1V finished first, despite Kathryn Goffin’s hesitation about being stroke seat (we all had to switch pairs since our racing shell is starboard stroked). She did a fabulous job even with the shorter slides and heavier boat. The alumnae boat came in second and featured our own two coaches – Regan Bernhard and Tessa Spillane. The 2V put up a strong fight and finished one second behind the alum boat. The novices finished last, but they wore the matching Homecoming t-shirts (which are sweet by the way) so they looked the best.

Our last stop on Saturday after practice and the Alumnae Regatta was the soccer game’s half time show. Our team was recognized for our third place finish at NCAA’s. We all stood awkwardly in line on the soccer field as Bridget told the crowd about our record-breaking season. In addition, Bonnie Dix (Swimming & Diving) and John Babington (Cross Country/Track) were also recognized for their 25 years of coaching at Wellesley! Congratulations to them!

So there’s a recap of the week. We’ve done a lot of work, and we can’t wait to do more.

Row. Win. Live the Dream.

Jessica ‘13

Re-Cap and Kick-Off

Back-to-school season always has a tangible mood of eagerness, freshness, and expectation. For Blue Crew, the return to Wellesley marks the beginning of the 2011-2012 season—a season that will surely be filled with more memories, learning, and tremendous work. Coming off of a highly successful 2011-2012 season (Ok, ok. We finished third in the nation!!!), we have high expectations for the upcoming year. We hope you’ll follow us as we push on towards bigger goals.

After NCAA’s last year, the team dispersed to various corners of the country and world. From studying in Denmark or Berlin, to working in Boston, to interning in Washington D.C., following the summer training plan was a test of our individual drive and commitment to the team as a whole. Overall, we proved that even from afar, Blue Crew is always on our minds. As examples, Coogie put in 46.33 hours of training this summer (despite making a trek to Lake Baikal in Siberia!!), and Jess put in almost 60 hours. That amount of time is equivalent to watching 163 episodes of The Office for Jess!

After almost three months apart over the summer, we were overjoyed to reunite again over dinner at the Lulu. With Blue Crew back on campus, kitchen staff learned that they have to kick it into overdrive when stocking the salad bar and the quinoa! We had two weeks to re-adjust to Wellesley, and during this period we trained on our own or in groups organized by our new and awesome team of captains, Taylor Black, Conisha Cooper, and Shernaz Dossabhoy. We also got to know a fantastic group of recruits, who are coming to Wellesley from as far away as Seattle and Colorado and from as near as Newton, MA.

Throughout the pre-season period, we spoke of the T-word only when necessary. Testing. Knowing that the ergometer screen doesn’t lie, everyone was nervous for the 30-minute erg test, 2k erg test, mile test, beep test, and Wendy CrossFit workout. However, we were mostly confident in our summer training, and saw testing week as a means to an end: returning to the Charles River and entering the fall racing season with strength.

Proof of the work our team has put in since the beginning of testing in 2009 and 2010, improvement in our erg scores was spectacular. The top eight splits of the 30-minute erg test were almost 5.7 seconds per 500 meters faster than in 2009, and 2.63 seconds per 500 meters faster than last year. To illustrate how awesome this is: if we raced the Head of the Charles’ 3-mile course with this margin of improvement, this year’s boat would beat last year’s boat by more than 25 seconds and would beat 2009’s boat by almost a full minute! Also, this year’s average team split is almost as fast as the top 8 splits pulled in 2009. But given the buckets of sweat, months of early wakeups, and tons of love and support showed by Blue Crew over the past two years years, these numbers aren’t surprising.

The beginning of testing also marked the official beginning to our season! We launched onto the Charles on Tuesday morning, and have already spent many hours on the river working on brushing off the summer technique cobwebs. It feels amazing to return to the Charles and to remember the glowing sunrise over Boston. Saturday was an especially fun-filled day. Beginning with a Dam-to-Dam row in the morning (which was interrupted by a bagel break, thanks to Beth!), we finished the morning by meeting and bonding with this year’s novice rowers.

We are all excited for the next few weeks of the (too-short) fall season. We will be racing at the Snake Regatta at Lake Quinsigamond on October 15, the Head of the Charles on October 22 and 23, and the Seven Sisters Regatta at Smith College on October 29. Less than a week into the season, we have already made tremendous progress. With 250 days until the 2012 NCAA championships, we are ready to push harder this year than ever before.

We hope you will keep checking in here to read posts from different members of the team on how the year is progressing. Also, be sure to become a fan of Wellesley Crew on Facebook!

-Maggie West ‘14

BLUE CREW BLOGGERS...coming your way:)

It is AWESOME to be back on the water again. With our testing behind us (and coming back fitter than ever) the focus and energy has been great...well, as great as it can be when you leave campus at 4:45 am.

The team is organizing now, to blog:) get ready for some great stories and wonderful updates - brought to you by Blue Crew.

The '11-'12 Campaign Begins

Hello!

It has been a long and boring summer here on campus, but now things are starting to hum!

We had our first varsity team meeting on Wednesday, the novices are getting ready, and on Monday we kick off the fall season.

The returners and recruits have been hard at work all summer in preparation for the season and are excited to return to the river as well as teach the novices what it means to row for Blue Crew.

More info coming your way soon, but until then...the mission continues:)

Student-Athlete reports coming soon:)

But until then...what an amazing season...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The mission, that we embarked upon in June of 2010, was to be on the podium at the NCAA Championships. We did it...as evidenced by our new photo:)

We will have lots of details coming your way...until then...thank you all for the support and wishes for speed...we got the job done:)

NCAA adventures: Day 1+

As Tessa said, we finished our last practice on the charles and the rest of the morning was excellent! Thanks to all our fans that sent us off from the Davis museum yesterday with snacks, pom poms, and sticks that you blow up and smack together "lengthwise" to make noise. At the airport, the majority of us made it through baggage check without going over 50 pounds but thanks to nice check in jet blue workers, those who went over didn't have have a problem.

Once through security at Logan we played banana grams and used our big per diem check (well 15 dollars cash) to buy snacks. A short plane ride later with free tv to keep us occupied, we were in JFK for a two hour layover. We enjoyed the food court there despite the salad bar being $7.99 per pound and some of us purchasing $15 salads. We got on a bigger plan to head to SACRAMENTO and hours and hours and what might have been days later we arrived in CA. By 12:30ish we had received our keys and as far as I know, promptly passed out on the soft soft beds. Today we are ready for a great day of rigging and being California Girls.

Ready.

We just finished our last practice on the Charles - sad to think that it was the last morning that I get to watch Nicola and Casey row at "home" and the last time I will get to watch Hannah steer a majestic line through any and all of our bridges.

We have tremendous student-athletes on this team...but these three are pretty special, and I will miss them so.... So thanks seniors...can't wait to see you "graduate" at Lake Natoma...more importantly, can't wait to see you RACE your hearts out at Lake Natoma.

So our next post will be from California...in the meantime the team is getting packed for our departure.

Next stop...California. (where we are all looking forward to seeing the sun!!)

And the sun will come out...tomorrow?

After seven straight days of cloudy weather and on and off rain, today was IHOP day. While we have looked forward to fluffy buttermilk pancakes and scrambled eggs all week, today is also special because it is the biggest trailer loading day of the year. Not in the sense that we have to load a whole lot of boats or oars, but in that the trailer itself is just so massive. Bob Klinger (of Klinger Engineering) is responsible for escorting our beautiful, sleek fleet of black boats out to the golden coast (Katy Perry reference) on top of his monstrous trailer along with some of the other east coast schools' equipment (e.g. Bates).

So after our morning row, it was straight to business: derigging and scrubbing down boats, getting all our "stuff" packed up and onto the trailer. As we waved goodbye to our lovely shells, we said hello to brunch; luckily the closest IHOP is a short two minute drive from the boathouse and conveniently located right next to Starbucks. Our waitress had her work cut out for her, taking orders from 21 very hungry rowers (and 3 rather tired coaches), but everyone got what they ordered and ate up.

As soon as the afternoon food-coma set in, it was time to row again. Thankfully, there was at least some sun (as evidenced by some angry squinting faces courtesy of Nicola and Taylor who were sans-hats and sunglasses). The spares had an equally enjoyable launch ride with Tessa and Austin, playing pranks and wreaking havoc (I would love to share, but what happens in the launch, stays in the launch).

We got back to campus at around 3pm, and with the afternoon free, there were organized trips to Whole Foods, Target, and the Natick Mall. I myself was hunting down a dress for the upcoming banquet while also trying to figure out my travel outfit. But let me warn you: shopping is so much more challenging when you enter the mall already sore and tired...

Blue has a packed social calendar ahead of us for the weekend, and while we will be sure to relish the limelight a little bit, we will also be working to maintain the great focus, drive and intensity we've shown all week as we prepare to set sail for Lake Natoma.

We've got big things to accomplish in the next 8 days, and we thank you for your support!

Shernaz Dossabhoy '12

Rolling along:)

With finals now behind us...we are now able to sharpen our focus (and with the rain and 50 degree temperatures...what else are we going to do??!!??)...we are well past seat racing, and things are moving nicely. We are starting double sessions today and the energy for the first practice of the day was really good...very sharp, very clean, and looking powerful...

It is hard to believe that we are one of the only college programs still training on the Charles right now... :)

We will keep you posted with some student-athlete updates, but just wanted to let you all know that we are still on a mission and so ready for anything coming our way:)

ONE STEP CLOSER TO OUR MISSION

In case you didn't hear the screaming from the Keohane Sports Center at Wellesley College on Tuesday (May 10th) at about 3:04 pm...BLUE CREW GOT A TEAM BID to the 2011 NCAA Rowing Championship at Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, CA.

We will be heading west on May 24th, to prepare for the next step on our mission...Racing takes place on 5/27 and 5/28.

We are so excited and can't wait...there is plenty to do in the meantime - travel plans, boats to transport, ROWING to do, etc.

NEXT STOP...California:)