News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Opinions
Sports
Diversions
Holiday Photo Section
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
Sports
Crew fairs well in Des Moines regatta
By Derek Sullivan
Published:
Monday, September 29, 2003
Media Credit: Nicholas Johnson
The Women�s Novice eight, coxswained by Debbie Peterson, placed sixth out of 15 boats at the Head of the Des Moines Regatta.
One of SCSU longest running club teams began competition last weekend.
The SCSU Crew team, which has been around for over 25 years, is looking to make its mark on the river.
Thanks to a large amount of newcomers, the SCSU rowing club now has close to 50 members. Large numbers are important to any rowing team because the more boats a team can enter in a competition, the greater the team's chances are at winning.
Most regattas will have as many as 20 different competitions and there are two types of boats; fours and eights. The fours are simply four rowers plus a coxswain, which is the person that steers the boat, and eights are eight rowers plus the coxswain.
This year, long-time member Nick Bjelajac is the team's president, second-year member Chad Moeller captains the Men's team and third-year member Kelly Hanlon will captain the Women's side.
The captains were chosen at the team meeting last April.
Fellow SCSU student Mike Henry coaches the team and SCSU is assisted by former Madison Badgers star Marissa Hoffman, who volunteers her services to the club.
The participants in the Regatta races are chosen by several factors that include time trials on a simulated rowing machine, attendance at scheduled practices and how well an individual rows with others in the boat. The goal is always to find four or eight rowers who will have good chemistry.
The fall schedule, which began Saturday with the Head of Des Moines regatta, will include five total regattas.
SCSU finished with 21 points in Des Moines out of the eight teams participating in eight races.
In several races, SCSU just missed taking home some metals, which are awarded to the two top teams.
In the mixed open four, SCSU entered two crews, and placed third and fourth out of six teams. The Men's Lightweight four finished third out of seven entries.
Late in the afternoon, the team finally scored a metal by placing second in the Mixed Open eight, one second behind the North Park Club Team.
The Mixed Open is a co-ed competition that combines four men and four women rowers.
"We had the best race I had ever been in," said second-year member Debbie Peterson. "We got second place, losing by a second to a group of experienced rowers."
The upcoming schedule will include trips to St. Paul Saturday for the Head of the Mississippi, which will include many teams from Minnesota and will be a good warm-up for the team's first trip to the Tail of the Fox Regatta in Green Bay, Wis.
"There will be a lot of club teams there but we feel we should do very well," Bjelajac said.
Later in the fall, the crew will head to very competitive tournaments in Rockford, Illinois (Oct. 12) for the Head of the Rock Regatta, and to Iowa City, Iowa (Oct. 26) for the Head of Iowa Regatta.
Those tournaments will include club teams and varsity teams from all across the country. Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Marquette, Kansas and the University of Minnesota are just some of the teams SCSU will face in October.
The team performed well last season and returns many experienced rowers. The pleasant surprise was the strong play of the team's new members who, along with the large numbers of sophomores and juniors, make the future look promising for SCSU.
"We have really seen some young rowers step up this fall," Bjelajac said. "They hit the water for the first time this weekend and showed a lot of skill."
SCSU will perform in their home town next spring at the 3rd annual North Star Sprints. The competition is a scrimmage between SCSU and the joint club of St. John's and St. Benedict's.
"It's a fun scrimmage," Bjelajac said. "We consider St. John's and St. Ben's to be a joint program with us. We will often switch rowers to try and help each other out."
SCSU is also in the process of fundraising to try to build a boathouse at Wilson Park. With the building of a boathouse, the Northern Star Sprint could go from a scrimmage to a full-scale Regatta.
"We hope to soon invite club teams from around Minnesota to our competition," Bjelajac said. "As this program continues to grow, the North Star Sprints will too."
Forum:
No comments have been posted for this story.
Post a comment
What is your New Year's Resolution?
Quit smoking.
Get in shape.
Study and/or work harder.
Become more organized.
One kind deed a day.
I don't need a resolution�I'm perfect!
