Crew teams kick off season

By Mike Kaufmann

The spring season for men's and women's crew begins this Saturday, and with the celebration of 30 years of women's crew at Santa Clara along with a new head coach for the men, this year looks to be promising for both squads.

Both teams will be competing in the Cal State Sacramento Dual Regatta and are looking to start the season off right with wins.

Although crew is a relatively popular sport at the collegiate level, it is somewhat misunderstood, especially at Santa Clara. The words "coxswain" and "regatta" frequently go unused in the average student's daily life.

The teams row in eights (which are more common) and fours. In other words, eight rowers in one boat (referred to as shells in crew) race against eight rowers from another boat.

Typically, the varsity's top eight will all be in the top shell, while the next four will comprise the four-man shell. If a team is fortunate to have a plethora of high-quality rowers, then they can form more than one eight-man shell and essentially enter two shells for one race.

Both crew teams compete in the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association, which is a rowing conference for schools west of Colorado. The women are also in the West Coast Conference, but there is only one WCC Regatta, which is held merely to count points towards the Commissioner's Cup.

Highlights of the upcoming season include the WCC Challenge in late March, the prestigious San Diego Crew Classic and, for the first time in over five years, a home regatta at Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos.

The women's team returns several strong varsity rowers, including juniors Katie Fahrer and Tracy Flecky, and sophomores Natasha Lindstrom and Ashley Tomberlin. However, in total, there will be 14 rowers vying for only eight varsity spots.

Last season, the women's team compiled three top-three finishes, including a third-place finish at the Davis Invitational and an additional third-place finish at the Blue Herron Regatta. Unfortunately, the team did not receive an invitation to the NCAA Championships. Nonetheless, this year's team has been working hard all winter long, as they have made the getting to the championships their goal for the season.

"Everyone is starting to get on the same page and row as one," women's head coach Carlo Facchino said. "In crew, being on the same page is often more important than having the stronger team of rowers. It's similar to the concept of a team that works together being more successful than the team that is composed of superstars who don't get along. Nonetheless, the Bronco program should shine."

Reaching the NCAA Regatta is a lofty goal, but one that is attainable. The Broncos will compete for one of 12 team bids with an outside shot at landing one of the four at-large bids.

"It's tough to compete against the top teams because we are one of the few schools that do not award any scholarship money for women's crew," Facchino said.

Last season, the Broncos finished tied for fourth in the conference.

"We're the only WCC school that doesn't have two full-time coaches, but I still think we should finish somewhere at the top of the pack. I really like our team."

The men's team also begins its season on Saturday in Sacramento. Last year, the men's Varsity Four and the men's Varsity Eight won their respective races. The Varsity Eight victory marked the fifth-straight season that the Broncos have downed the Hornets in the Varsity Eight race, which has created a fierce rivalry between the schools.

The men's team has welcomed first-year head coach Weislaw Kujda for the 2006 spring season. Kujda, a sixth-place finisher at the 1980 Olympics, takes the helm as the first coach that has come from outside the program.

"Coach Kujda brings a lot more technique than the coach that was here last year," said varsity coxswain Brigid Kelleher. "As a team, we feel like we will be a lot more competitive, even though a lot of our team is made up of walk-on athletes."

Rowers cite the most difficult part of the sport as being the intense offseason workouts. Because the closest training spot is in Los Gatos at the Lexington Reservoir, the team must leave Santa Clara slightly before six each morning that they have practice, and return just before nine.

"The winter is a grueling time of the year. It's cold, rainy and usually pretty bad a lot of the mornings out on the water," Facchino said. "But we've shown a lot of character in the past month by working hard and staying disciplined in the tough conditions."

When you top off those grueling, early-morning workouts with the infamous row machine, it becomes clear that being a member of the crew team is no easy task.

Competition will be held all day Saturday at Sacramento's Lake Natoma.

Contact Mike Kaufmann at (408) 551-1918 or mlkaufmann@scu.edu.