Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Reading Amateur Regatta
Bison Women's Crew Advances to Semifinals at Henley Regatta in England
6/23/2004 8:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
June 20, 2004
HENLEY, UK - Just one day after competing at the IRA National Championship Regatta for lightweight women's eights on June 5, the Bucknell women's crew departed for England to compete in the famous Henley Regatta. The travel party included the lightweight eight of Kyra Harris (coxswain), stroke Jill Harrington, Vi Ngo, Teal Zeisler, Amanda Roof, Lauren Ewald, Rachel Trusheim, Lauren Olsen and Joan Wendler, as well as a lightweight pair of Danielle Monteverde and Laura Roberts.
Although the Bison took their lightweight eight, all of their racing would be against openweight crews. With openweight crews combining more power with more speed, the Bucknell lightweight crew had its work cut out for it. The Orange and Blue arrived in England on June 8. On Friday, June 11, the squad rowed its boats to Reading and raced on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the eight lost to Boston University, a top-20 crew in the United States, by one length (60 feet, or about 3 seconds), while the pair lost to the same school by 10 seconds. On Sunday, the Bison finished competing at the Reading Amateur Regatta with a loss to Dublin University by the same amount.
On June 18-20, Bucknell raced at the Henley Women's Regatta. The varsity pair raced in the lightweight pair event and lost in the first round to Furnival College. "Danielle and Laura deserve a lot of credit," said Bucknell head coach Stephen Kish. "The pair is the most difficult boat to row, especially for two novices."
In the eight, the other American crews in BU's division were Boston University, Colby College and Harvard (Radcliffe) lightweights, a team which finished third at the IRA national championship on June 5th. On Saturday, the Orange and Blue faced the Colby junior varsity in the first round and won easily by more than a boat length. "The first race was a good warm up," commented Kish. "The eight was able to open up a one length lead and simply maintain it over the course of the race. We didn't want to extend ourselves in order to be prepared for our next race, two hours later."
The second race, interestingly enough, was against the Colby College openweight varsity eight. "The Colby program has had a lot of success under Stu (Coach Stokes) and we definitely felt as if we needed our best race in order to come out on top," said Kish. "The women were really charged up and very much wanted to qualify for the Sunday morning semifinal." Bucknell bolted off the starting line and took an early lead. "The early lead gave the women a lot of confidence and they were able to win comfortably without completely emptying their tanks," remarked Kish. In the other half of the draw, Boston University and Radcliffe lost. As a result, Bucknell was the only American crew (of four) to advance to Sunday morning's semifinal.
"Our Sunday morning race against Mortlake College (from London) was a great way to end the season. We knew it would be very difficult to win, especially with our lightweights rowing into a strong headwind against a much heavier and more powerful openweight crew." Bucknell surprised everyone by sticking with Mortlake from the start and giving them a scare for the first half of the race. "I couldn't believe how strong we came off the starting line," said a pleased Kish. "I had expected Mortlake to power ahead at the start but instead we were within a few feet for the first third of the race. It was awesome." Five hundred meters in, Bucknell threw everything they had at Mortlake, continuing to stay in contact, but falling slowly over the course of the five minute, 1500 meter race. With 500 meters to go, Mortlake finally broke free and had open water (60 feet) on the Bison crew. They won by half a length of open water. Ending on a positive note, Bucknell's time was five seconds faster than its previous races, even while rowing into the headwind.
"Our women did a great job turning themselves inside out and giving everything they had," commented Kish. "It was a great way to end the season."
