March 22, 2007

Crew ready for season opener
Eric Dowler
dowlere@marietta.edu

The Pioneer Navy men and women traveled to Palm Bay, FL for spring training.  The team joined Columbia University on Canal 54 for a week of two-a-days culminating with the FIT Invitational on Saturday.  A familiar site for the upperclassmen but an introduction to the freshman, the 12 mile long canal would give the Navy an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming season.

The bus rolled into Palm Bay around noon as the team prepared for the “Darth Vader” row.  A term keyed by an old Marietta College coach, the Darth Vader row is the first practice of spring break.  The practice consists of getting off the bus after a 16 hour ride, rigging up the boats, then hitting the water for a 24 mile row.  The row is from damn to damn then back to the docks usually taking around 3-3 ½ hours.

The Darth Vader practice was just a glimpse of what was to come.  The women entered spring break with the goal of preparing for the season with hopes of earning a bid to the NCAA D-III Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The women had a tough week of practice with seat racing and 2 hour practices, but were rewarded with a trip to Coco Beach on Friday afternoon.  On the men’s side, the guys had a goal of trying to put in as many meters as last year but with less practices.  By Thursday afternoon, the men topped 240,000 meters passing last years total with another day remaining and three less practices.

After a long week of practices, the week was capped off with the FIT Invite.  The Invite included Marietta, Columbia, Notre Dame, and host Florida Tech.  The women entered the Varsity 8, Freshman/Novice 8, and Varsity 4.  The Varsity 8 (7:54.4) took home 4th behind winner Columbia A (6:46.0), Columbia B (7:03.1), and Florida Tech (7:15.6).  The Frosh 8 (7:44.5) crossed 3rd behind Columbia (7:07.0) and Florida Tech (7:35.2).  The highlight for the women came when the Varsity 4 (7:48.2) battled it out with Florida Tech (7:45.0) to take a close second followed by Columbia (7:58.1) 

The Navy’s men had a tough day.  They entered a Freshman 4, Junior Varsity 8, and Varsity 8.  The 4 started the day off with a win clocking a winning time of 9:07.9 ahead of Columbia (9:16.5) and Florida Tech (9:42.0).  The JV raced to a second place finish in the morning heat placing them in the petite final where they crossed the line with a time of 6:28.0 edging Florida Tech (6:32.4) and Columbia (6:38.8) to bring home the win.  The tough part of the day came when the Varsity 8 collided head on with Notre Dame during their pre-race warm up.  The collision ejected bowman Zach Stimart and two-seat Jon Carlon.  The only person to suffer injury was Stimart who was taken to the hospital and treated with wounds to his back and pelvic area.  Because of the enormous boat damage and the injury to Stimart, Marietta was unable to race in the much anticipated dual against Columbia University. 

Overall, the Pioneer Navy took advantage of the beautiful weather with an intense week of practice followed by some good racing.  Unfortunately, for the men, the week ended on a terrible note with losing a brand new boat and Stimart being out for 1-2 weeks.  The women will continue their trip to earning a bid to the NCAA Championships and the men will try to rebound without their bowman against Purdue this weekend as the Navy heads out west to take on Purdue at the annual MC/Purdue Challenge Cup.

For more information, contact men’s assistant Coach JP Sekulich at jps001@marietta.edu or women’s assistant Coach Emily Crandall at emily.crandall@marietta.edu.