Marietta College Athletics

Oct. 24, 2010
Fall Finale

Last weekend, select boats from the MC women’s and men’s crews competed at the Head of the Genesee in Rochester, N.Y. For this race, it has become a tradition over the past few years that the teams stay in cottages generously provided by the parents of a rower on the men’s team. It is also traditional for the men and women’s teams to have a team dinner of homemade food on the evening before the race. This was a great opportunity for further team bonding.

On race day, the women’s team was really motivated to do well, especially since we have been having some really good practices on the water. The novice women’s eight were successful in their race, placing third out of five and took home a bronze metal. Unfortunately, our women’s varsity eight race did not go as anticipated. Despite our preparations, we found it difficult to focus. In the last 1000 meters of the race, we discovered that leaves that were scattered along the racecourse, had gathered on the steering rudder at the bottom of the boat. This threw off the steering, which took our boat significantly off course and caused our boat to slow down. A few hours later, however, we had the chance to redeem ourselves a little bit. To finish off the day’s racing, the varsity boats do a 1500 meter sprint, which effected the final placement of each boat. We ended up having a good sprint, were much more focused, and managed not to get leaves stuck in the steering! Our sprint moved us up one spot from eleventh to tenth out of seventeen.

This past week of practices have continued to be demanding. However, it has been paying off, especially since many of the women were successful in their five-kilometer test pieces, called five-k tests, on the rowing machines. Many of the women were able to break their personal records. This week, we will have a final five-k test on Wednesday and an increase in the amount of workouts, which include “on-your-own” workouts on the rowing machines, which supplement our regularly scheduled water practices. Although it will be a relief once we have gotten through this last week of more intense practices, it will be a bittersweet end to the season, since we will not be rowing on the water again until March, at spring break in Florida. Throughout the winter, until Florida, we will continue to do the “highly suggested workouts” provided by Coach Harris. 

To conclude the Fall season, the women’s team has one final scrimmage race against Ohio University this Saturday. Last year we were very successful in our scrimmage against OU, with victories for both the novice and varsity women. We hope to end the season on such a high note this year, too!

Oct. 12, 2010
Racing Days

The fall season for MC women’s crew is now in full swing and almost over already! We have only two weeks left of official practices. Following water practices is the unofficial winter season, when we will have indoor training on the rowing machines until spring season begins (with a 10K rowing machine test) on February 14th.

For the past two weeks our team has been training two varsity eights and one freshman eight. (An eight is a boat of eight women plus the coxswain, who steers the boat and gives commands). In the varsity eights, we have been doing seat racing, which involves switching rowers between the boats, in order to test how the persons being seat raced can move the boat most quickly and efficiently. We also have been doing a lot of technical work and long distance rowing in order to prepare for the two main races for the season.

This past weekend the entire Marietta Crew competed at the Head of the Ohio. The women’s varsity eight placed third out of 17 competitors in the women’s open eight event. The women’s junior varsity eight came in eighth in the same race. The women’s freshman/novice eight placed second in their event. It was a pretty successful regatta for the women’s team, especially after only three weeks of training on the water!

The team is currently preparing for the Head of the Genesee this weekend. The women’s varsity eight and the women’s freshman/novice eight will be competing in this regatta. The Head of the Genesee is a very traditional regatta for MC crew and will be a good regatta for the women’s team, especially since there will be many more Division III crews, like us, to compete against. This week we have been doing more seat racing in preparation for this race, which will conclude the racing season for the women’s team.

Wish us luck!

Sept. 26, 2010
The Season Begins

Hi! My name is Bridget Dean and I am writing a blog for the Marietta Women’s Rowing Team. I am a junior English major who is also minoring in Music, and I also row varsity in the women’s crew. 

This fall season, our team will be training to compete, along with the men’s team, at the Head of the Ohio on October 9, the Head of the Genesee on October 15-16 and the Head of the Muskingum on October 16.

Before we get bussed out to the races, we do a lot of training and preparation. The women’s team has a relatively short season, with only five weeks to train. However, this season is especially exciting for the team because we have about twenty new recruits this year! To help get everyone acquainted, we held the annual tye-dye get-together for the all the new freshmen and upperclassmen on the weekend after the first week of school. Everyone brought t-shirts to tye-dye, though our hands may have turned out just as colorful as the clothes! It was still pretty fun. We also did the annual volunteering, as a team, for the Steernwheel festival on September 11. We painted kids faces (and our own faces) and helped out with some of the kids games.

This past week, however, was when some of the real team bonding started. Our first practice on Monday consisted of completing the dreaded 5k test on the rowing machine. This test measures how fast one can row a 5 kilometer piece, which is about the typical length of a race in the fall season for rowing. This test was a base line for the future 5k tests that we will have throughout this season. For the rest of the week, we finally got to row on the water. We rowed in two eights and pairs throughout the week and worked on drills for our technique. The order of women in each boat was mixed, called mixed lineups, so that our coach, Coach Harris, could evaluate and coach everyone’s rowing techniques. On Friday we decided to celebrate our first week of practice by having a “Funky Friday.” On this day, we wore colorful spandex shorts and quirky shirts just to mix things up a little bit. Overall the first week of practices for the women’s team was successful. It was pretty fun at the same time, despite starting with Monday’s 5k test. This week we will be able to row with a new eight that our team was recently given funds to purchase! The eight was manufactured by the Resolute company, which is a well respected and high-quality brand. It will be fun getting to try it out this week!