Stangel Avances at Henley

(excerpt from www.row2k.com)

Racing started in the Silver Goblets and Nickalls Challenge Cup today as well, where Justin Stangel and Tom Peszek of the US had an early challenge against the Aguirregomezcorta brothers from Spain, but pulled ahead with two lengths at Remenham, lowering rating and settling to finish the race ahead. US team may have won the race, but the for those of you keeping track at home, the Aguirregomezcorta brothers would win on Scrabble points 62-29 . . . and the only reason why the US duo gets 29 is because Tom Peszek has that "Z" in his name.

Stangel has made his mark with the US team partially in the grueling pair-with event, rowing bow in the US coxed pair in 2010. A Wisconsin native who rowed at Syracuse, Stangel has won at Henley before: in the Visitor's Challenge Plate while getting his masters at Oxford. His pair partner Peszek was stroke of the US Eight last year at Karipiro and rowed at Michigan. We'll get more about these US guys from Coach Tim McLaren for next report, stay tuned.

Pre-Elite Camp in Syracuse: Small Boats, Big Ambition, Bananagrams

He is driving a coaching launch, trailing three double sculls up the Seneca River. A mile or so away his assistant is with four pairs heading out onto Onondaga Lake. It is late morning – the last morning of spring.

The sun is shining, it’s about 80 degrees with a light breeze, the water is flat and it’s been this way pretty much every day for the past week or so.

Justin Moore places his tongue firmly in his cheek and asks this question: “Why would anybody want to have a camp here?”

He’s got one – the 2011 United States Women’s National Team Pre-Elite Camp. The women are deemed not quite ready for the Under23 Camp going on in Princeton, but with enough talent and potential to be eventually make it there or to another national team

They represent Yale, Harvard (Radcliffe), Stanford, Virginia, Cornell, Columbia, Notre Dame, Washington State, George Washington, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Syracuse.

Moore, who built a Division III dynasty in women’s rowing at Williams College has just finished his first year of trying to bring Syracuse University’s Women’s team back to NCAA caliber. Having an event such as this here adds to credibility for the program and helps put a spotlight on the area as a rowing and training venue.

“The pre-elite camp’s goal is to take some of the best collegiate athletes we have in the country and help them to understand how to train as national team athletes,” Moore says. “It’s a month living the life of a national team athlete.”

Hard Work

The women who’ve come are ambitious.


"I hope that one day I am in the national camp and making my way to the Olympics,” says Molly Bruggeman of Notre Dame. “It’s always been a dream of mine.”


They’ve already banged heads on this morning launching at eight o’clock and racing in pairs and doubles along the buoy line out on the lake.

“Every single fight is a knockdown, drag-out fight and it’s fun every step of the way,” says Brandy Herald of the University of Virginia.

They’ll go out for a technical rowing session at about 11:15 and then go up on campus in the afternoon for erging, or running. Three sessions a day, six days a week. A month of training and instruction.

“I’d say there’s a fair amount of work going on,” understates Cornell’s Leigh Archer.

“It’s been really intensive,” says Syracuse’s Gina Biascochea. She’ll be a junior in the fall, having fought through injuries this year and rowed in the second varsity “(It’s) tough, but worth it,” she sighs.

Camaraderie and Competition

In between the morning rows, while Moore goes over video of the morning’s racing with two rowers in his office, most of the rest loll in the shade in front of the boathouse. Some read. Some just rest.


Syracuse’s Rachael Ogundiran and three others engage in a competitive game of Bananagram – a slightly offbeat version of scrabble. Ogundiran wins.
“Hah!” she exclaims. “My competitive nature has never left me,” she tells a reporter.

After three years in SU’s varsity boat, Ogundiran, the team captain, was slowed by fractured ribs in this, her senior year and wound up in the second varsity. Although she’ll be too old for U23 next year, coaches saw enough potential to bring her here and give her intensive sculling practice in hopes she can make a senior team.

“I want to go as far as I can possibly go,” she says. “I hope to go to a senior rowing center, continue with my training and see how far it will take me.”
If not, with a degree in bioengineering and minors in electrical engineering and math, she’s looking at Medical School.

While Ogundiran is being interviewed -- Jim Herald takes her spot in the game of Bananagram. He’s a lawyer with the Army Corps of Engineers who’s come from Oregon to visit with his daughter, Brandy for a day or two.


“I’m here because I’m hoping to make U23 next year,” Brandy Herald says. “I’m learning a lot and having a blast doing it.”






As the rowers take it easy, Wisconsin coxswain Kendall Schmidt springs through a workout with TRX bands – suspension training the rowers use to loosen up when they come off the water after a hard workout. Sometimes, she goes for a run.



“I try to keep pushing myself so I know when you hit that point where you can’t go any further, and knowing that, when I’m in the boat I can tell them that they can,” she says.




“For the coxswains it’s just great to be able to understand more clearly what (the coaches) are looking for and what we need to be teaching on the water,” says Allison Todd, the other cox in camp. She followed her sister Kate as varsity cox for Syracuse and will be a senior in the fall.

Show and Tell

Before they go out, with the campers gathered around, Moore plants himself on an erg and demonstrates what he calls “Quarter Moores” – pause a quarter of the way short of the catch – to get the full effect of each stroke.

He bangs out several examples of doing it wrong and then doing it right – enough to get just a little out of breath. Later in the day Moore will run three-and-a-half miles at a 6:12 pace in the Chase Corporate Challenge. He claims to be taking it easy as he powers away at the erg.

“Watch my hips and knees,” he tells them. “Lehhhhhhh-verage!” They get it. They troop down the boathouse stairs to launch their boats and try it out for themselves.

Back on the Water

Later – in the launch – Schmidt, the Wisconsin cox takes notes as Moore explains what he is going for in his drills and his instructions to the scullers.

“Let’s make sure you use your hands well.” He speaks a language everybody involved understands. “Lightly on the feet. Roll to cover.” He is encouraging and enthusiastic.

“Yes!” he calls out. “Feel the difference?”

“Too many people over-drill,” he tells Schmidt. “The ultimate thing is can we do this at speed?”


Moore has coached some of these women before. Notre Dame’s Molly Bruggeman is one whom he coached in juniors. “He’s a great coach,” she says. “Syracuse is lucky to have him. I pretty much know how he coaches and it’s been helpful in my improvement.”

And those who’ve had only one coach in college, such as Cornell’s Leigh Archer, say fresh eyes can make a difference. “Someone who hasn’t seen you and can point out things that the other coach might have gotten used to seeing,” she says.

Twice a week the rowers get into an eight and the scullers into a quad.

They’ll compete that way at the USRowing Club National Championships in Indianapolis, July 13-17after stopping at Princeton for the U23 coaches to have a look at their progress.

But the main emphasis is on small boats – single and double sculls and pairs.

Hospitality and Making New Friends

Most of the athletes are staying with local families while they are here at no cost.

“In the local Liverpool and Syracuse community we’ve got a great outpouring of support and the women are really enjoying being in their homes,” Moore says.

People from Cazenovia hosted a “meet and greet” the opening week. Lizzy McDermott, who rows for Yale is from Cazenovia and says being part of this mix of athletes has been quite an experience.

“It’s been great to be surrounded by a bunch of very tall strong women all of whom are amazing rowers,” she says. “They’re so nice and they’re so competitive and it’s just been a great environment.”

“It’s awesome,” says Allison Todd, the Syracuse coxswain. “A lot of new friends are being made.”

And it will translate, she says, to the Syracuse crew.

“Just taking everything in from all the different rowers and what they’re bringing in and what they have to offer and then bringing that back to our respective teams is going to be great. It’s going to make everything a lot more exciting in the fall.”

Progress

Finished for now with the scullers, Moore heads out toward the lake to greet his assistant in this camp, Shawn Bagnall, who is the SU men’s team assistant coach. They swap off on working with the rowers and the scullers each day and they exchange notes.

“It’s going tremendously well,” Moore says. “We see the progress taking place already. We see that the women are learning and adapting to the stresses of the training. They’re also really responding well to the competitive environment.”

The women have already given Bagnall a nickname – Big Red. It must be the hair. They seem to like him too.

“They’re both great guys, “Virginia’s Brandy Herald says. “They’re really easy to get along with, easy to understand and they just make it a really good experience and they keep it really competitive.”

During this session Moore and his boats have encountered exactly one other boat, a big cabin cruiser that slowed considerably as it passed, earning Moore’s thanks through his bullhorn. Along the way he exchanged greetings with a couple on the dock behind their riverside home.

He has a single word to describe the conditions in these first ten days; “unbelievable.”

The sun sparkles on the water as the women dock and then put away the boats and oars.

“They are some of the best conditions. I think, rowing-wise,” says Notre Dame’s Molly Bruggeman. “Here it’s very flat all the time. It’s very nice.”

Yeah, why WOULD anybody want to have a camp here? Justin Moore is hoping the answer will become very plain…and that this is just a beginning.

For video and interviews courtesy of suathletics.com click here.
Also in camp: Courtney Diekema - Harvard (Radcliffe), Anna Kaminski - George Washington University, Erika Lauderdale - Tennessee, Erin Radigan - Stanford, Samantha Warren - Columbia, Dara Dixon - Yale,
Maggie McCrudden - Syracuse, and Corinna Sharick - Washington State.

Liz Hartwig of Princeton was expected to join after competing with her team at Henley.

Coach "Wisdom Keeper" Bill Sanford

Story reprinted from the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Photo pilfered of Kris Sanford-Milburn's Facebook page.

Note all the SARA family in this photo: Coach Dave Reischman, Lynne Pascale, Joey and Jan Peter, Paul and Lorraine Dudzick, Don Plath...who am I missing?

Liverpool, NY -- Bill Sanford grabs a cup of coffee and folds himself (he’s 6-7) into a comfortable chair at Ophelia’s Place, a Liverpool coffee shop operated by a non-profit that Sanford once helped advise.

We’re there to reconnect. Bill’s up for a big honor: he’s been picked for a Wisdom Keeper award by F.O.C.U.S Greater Syracuse Inc. on June 9. Bill’s got wisdom to spare.

He’s retired after a very successful career as SU’s head rowing coach. He’s also been a county legislator, and chairman of the legislature. He served a term in the state Assembly, too. The list of organizations he’s been involved with, and his awards, is impressive. He founded a small dynasty of rowers. He says his greatest accomplishment was founding of the Syracuse Chargers.

Bill started the Chargers, which puts inner city kids into rowing, swimming and track, with two fellow athletes, Jon Buzzard and Al Bonney. The Chargers are still going strong after close to 40 years.

At 72, Bill’s still stands out in a crowd and is reasonably fit, for his age. He gave up rowing two years ago. He says he works out at a local gym with a trainer six days a week, specializing on weights and cardio exercises.

He focuses on a passage by George Bernard Shaw, from “Man and Superman,’’ that sums up his commitment to our community: “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”

Bill’s says his mother, Eva, inspired him with her good works in the neighborhood south of downtown Syracuse where he grew up at West Brighton Avenue and Cannon Street “near the butcher shop.” Among other charities Eva collected from neighbors for the “Red Feather” drives of the Community Chest, forerunner of United Way.

The Sanfords raised five boys in Bill’s grandfather’s eight-room house. Grandpa - Eva’s father - was Gardner Compson, a farmer’s son from Seneca County. Bill says Gardner was one of the laborers who “dug the pipeline” that first brought Skaneateles Lake water to Syracuse, in 1893.

Bill graduated from Central High in 1956, where he played basketball. He also played ball in the Army, where he served two years after graduation, and at SU, in his first year. He tells the story of walking on the campus with his brother, Scott, when someone noticed how tall they were.

“Why don’t you try crew?” the guy asked.

“What’s crew?” Bill replied.

He found out.

Bill and other family members made careers of rowing. He rowed himself and coached championship boats. He was first SU’s freshman crew coach, then head varsity coach, starting in 1967. He retired in 2002, after 39 years.

Bill shows me a chart labeled “The Sanfords: First Family of Hudson Valley Rowing,” with 10 boxes for family members who participated in what Bill calls “the champagne of sports.”

This chart of the Sanford rowing dynasty includes Bill, and his brothers: Scott, Paul, and David, as well as daughters, Kris, Jen and Shawn, and nephews and nieces, Tom, Jody, and Christopher. Brother Ted did not row or coach. Brothers David and Scott have died. Scott also had a career as a rowing coach.

Daughter Shawn was SU’s first female coxswain; Jen is coach of the University of Connecticut crew; Kris was SU’s head women’s crew coach for 20 years. She’s now, at 44, enrolled in the St. Joseph’s Hospital nursing school.

“I’ve had quite a run,” Bill says. “There’s never been anyone luckier than me.”
He coached crew at the same time he was an active Republican politician. When he finally was defeated for his state Assembly seat by Democrat Joan Christensen in 2003, he says he realized he’d been putting in 80 to 90-hour weeks.

He started on the county legislature in 1980. He retired in 2002 as chairman. I’m told by someone who watched Bill during his years in the legislature: “He was more successful as a coach. He couldn’t always get everyone in the boat to pull their oars at the same time” at the county leg.

In 2002, he started Brown and Sanford Consultants with former state legislator Hal Brown. It’s a communications company that works on various community projects, including the dispute over the Camillus landfill site and the Onondaga Lake clean-up. Brown’s left the firm, replaced by Craig Milburn, Bill’s son-in-law. They have an office in Liverpool.

Along with creation of the OCC’s Applied Technology Center, the central county library, Justice Center and convention center, Bill’s counts the cleanup of Onondaga Lake as a major accomplishment of his life as politician.

Honeywell, successor of Solvay Process, is set to begin dredging Onondaga Lake in 2112. That will run four years. Then, Onondaga Lake, Bill predicts, will be a “clean, reliable lake,” sparkling with resorts, marinas and edible fish.

This would be quite a change from his lifetime as a crew coach, when he put in “more than 85,000 miles on that lake,” often pushing his crews though the “brown, polluted water.”

The Sanfords lived in the Syracuse University boathouse on the Seneca River outlet during his years as crew coach. They now live in Liverpool village. He regrets loss of the International Regattas that used to open the summer for Central New Yorkers.

The meets had to move from Onondaga Lake in 1991 due to flooding and now work under a different schedule of alternating sites. Our lake is unlikely to be one of them. “It will never be the same,” Bill says, with a sigh.

Bill and Nancy Sanford have been married 49 years. They met in Kirk Park, when both were neighborhood kids. “She was my high school sweetheart,” Bill says.

He’s still in touch the rowing. Their house overlooks Onondaga Lake. “I can hear the coxswains working our their teams,” Bill says, wistfully.

SU Alum Honored

Many thanks to Joe Kieffer for bringing this to our attention. This article is from Mainline Media News (Philadelphia, PA). Joe notes that Craig's crew has won the “Kieffer Trophy” for the last five years at the Philadelphia City Championship.

Malvern Prep Rowing Coach Craig Hoffman was one of eight inductees honored by the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in a recent ceremony at the Broad Street museum. Hoffman was introduced by Comcast sportscaster Michael Barkann.

In 1997, Hoffman was named head rowing coach at Malvern Prep where his teams were victorious in 26 Scholastic and US Rowing Championships, 32 Philadelphia City Rowing championships and 11 Stotesbury Championships.

In 2009, the Friars achieved the distinction of winning Gold in the Varsity Quad, JV Quad and Freshman Quad at the Stotesbury Regatta.More than 60 of Hoffman's rowers at Malvern have gone on to row in Division 1 programs at a variety of prestigious universities.

The mission of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Adolph and Rose Levis Museum is to provide the community with tangible and lasting evidence of the past, present and future of Jewish sportsmen and sportswomen in our area and to instill community pride in Jewish accomplishments in the field of sports and the role sports has played in preserving Jewish culture.

IRA Ends in Petites for SU Varsity Crews

You know the end of the season is coming all along, but somehow when it arrives, it seems sudden. So it is for the Syracuse men’s crew team, which finished top ten in both the varsity and JV eights at the IRA.

Coach Dave Reischman’s varsity came in as the seven-seed, off a fifth place finish at the Eastern Sprints. The JV was seeded fifth, having taken bronze in the Sprints Grand Final.

In the end, both finished ninth – third in the Petite Finals in Camden. The frosh were third in the third level and the V4 was sixth in the petite.

“Doing well at the IRA for all but the 2 or 3 crews at the top is about getting on a roll and getting the right draw and the right lane at the right time,” Reischman said in an email to SU Crew supporters. “I thought we raced hard all weekend but just couldn't seem to get the break we needed to get over the hump. That is boat racing though and you take the good with the bad.”

Friday Semi-finals – Varsity 5th; JV Just Misses

To get to the Grand Final, the Orange Varsity Eight had to beat a crew it hadn’t beaten this season – California or Princeton or Brown AND get past Cornell. Neither happened and the Orange wound up fifth, just behind the Big Red. Cal, Brown and Princeton moved on to the Grand Final and SU was set up for its fourth race in three days with Cornell in the Petites.

“The guys felt they didn't leave any bullets in the gun and left it all out on the water,” Coach Dave Reischman said in a Friday night email.

For the JV, it was heart-breakingly close and again it was the Big Red doing the heart-breaking, by half a second. With Washington and California in front, Cornell grabbed the third GF spot. The Orange JV was just about a length out of first.

“We executed everything exactly the way we wanted and did a nice job of fighting back,” Reischman said. “We just ran out of race course.”

The Varsity four wound up last in its semi and also moved on to the Petite Finals

Times here courtesy of row2k.com.

Saturday Petites

The Orange and Big Red varsity eights met six times this season. SU won the first two. Cornell took the rest. For the fourth time in three days, the Big Red held off the Orange and this time won the Petite Final at the IRA. Stanford was second with SU just behind. The difference between Cornell and SU – a second-and-a half – a quarter of second between the Cardinal and the Orange. Yale was fourth.

The JV also wound up third, behind Yale, which won it wire-to-wire, and Brown. Syracuse rowed through BU in the sprint to finish in third.

The Varsity four with cox wound up last in the Petite.

Times here courtesy of row2k.com

IRA Photos

I'll let John Nicholson and Coach Reischman do the write up on the racing, but here are some images of the 2011 IRA Regatta for your enjoyment.

Thanks to all the SU Coaches for a great season.

Varsity Eight- 22 Hours to Find More Speed

Syracuse's Varsity eight finds itself in a spot that seemed likely all season long - having to finish in the top three among six very tough crews to make a repeat trip to the IRA Grand Final.

After hanging onto the third spot in this afternoon's 2:15 repechage, the Orange is scheduled for semi-final number one at 12:15 Friday. The SU crew is set for the outside - lane six - and up against its Goes Cups foes, Cornell in lane five and Navy in lane one, plus two seed California, four-seed Princeton and six-seed Brown.

After two earlier losses to SU, the Big Red beat the Orange twice on Thursday - by seven seconds in the morning and by less than a second-and-a half in the afternoon. Brown was well ahead of SU in the morning heat and went right through the semis. Cal is...well...Cal and SU has not caught Princeton yet this season. So - as Coach Dave Reischman noted a week or so ago, SU needs to find more speed. And the clock is ticking.

JV Gets Goes Cup Opponents Again, Plus

The Orange second eight goes up against Cornell and Navy in its heat as well, along with Washington and California and Boston University.

SU was second in the morning heat Thursday and moved straight to the semifinal. It's scheduled at 11:45.

V4+ Leads Off: Frosh Will Wait

The Orange Varsity four is in the first heavyweight semi of the day at ten o'clock, and takes on Wisconsin, Washington, Drexel, Temple and Georgetown. The frosh fell to the third level and will race again Saturday against Wisconsin, Penn, Yale and Gonzaga.

Orange Does What It Has To; Gets to Semis

SU's varsity eight jumped out to a lead in this afternoons' IRA repechage but the Big Red of Cornell rowed through them and battled Yale to the finish, edging the Eli by a second with the charging Orange another half second behind. The Orange held off BU without too much difficulty and the third place spot gets it into the upper level semifinals on Friday.

Cornell 5:36.457
Yale 5:37.453
SU 5:37.912
BU 5:38.881
Dartmouth 5:48.166
UCSD 6:00.261

Stanford, Navy and Georgtown advanced to the upper level semis through repechage #1.

Tough Rep for SU Frosh



The Orange freshmen couldn't find what they needed this afternoon and wound up fifth in the repechage, falling to the third level final. Boston University walked away with the rep, with surprising Columbia and Dartmouth bettling for second. The Lions took it and the Big Green also made the semis with the third place finish.


BU 5:44.476
Columbia 5:46.667
Dartmouth 5:47.638
Wisconsin 5:50.891
SU 5:55.349
Penn 6:01:784

V4+ Fights Off Bobble; Jumps to Semis

Syracuse's Varsity Four with cox had moved into a solid lead for the second qulifying spot this morning, when one or two of the oarsmen caught what the race announcer called "a digger" - not quite a crab, but a potential problem. Instead of faltering, the Orange took up the stroke and BU was not able to capitalize. Brown rowed away from the pack to win the heat, and SU took the second spot to earn the afternoon off and a straight shot to Friday's semifinal. Penn wound up taking third from BU by 9/100ths of a second.

Brown 6:14.553
SU 6:25.404
Penn 6:29.300
BU 6:29.393
Harvard 6:32.822

SU Varsity Faces Familiar Foes in Rep: Frosh Too

Repechage #2 for Varsity Eights this afternoon looks a lot like a compilation of the Syracuse Season. After finishing fifth in the morning heat, the Orange will go against Cornell, Dartmouth, BU, Yale and UCSD. The top three move to the semi-finals.

Syracuse beat Cornell in Ithaca and again at the Eastern Sprints, but trailed the Big Red this morning. The Orange lost to BU at home and then defeated the Terriers in the Sprints. SU beat Dartmouth in Syracuse a couple of weeks ago.

SU is the top seed in the repechages at #7, but the fifth place finish this morning consigns the Orange to lane five. Cornell has lane three and Yale, lane four.

The rep is set for 2:15.

The freshman eight goes in repechage #2 at 3:00, up against Penn, Wisconsin, BU, Columbia and Dartmouth. Top three go to the semis - the rest to the third level. The Orange frosh lost to BU March 22 in a 1,000 meter race in awful conditions in Syracuse and beat Dartmouth eleven days ago also at home after beating the Big Green and Columbia in the petite finals of the Eastern Sprints the week before. Wisconsin finished ahead of the Orange in that petite.

Frosh 4th in Heat - Move to Repechage

With Harvard out front and Navy battling Brown for second, the Orange frosh rowed home in fourth place in the morning heat, saving something for the afternoon repechage. Navy wound up holding off the Bruins by the blink of an eye.

Harvard 5:38.791
Navy 5:41.393
Brown 5:41.439
SU 5:59.224
UCSD 6:03.125
Dartmouth 6:13.333

JV Moves to Semis; Yale Suffers

Syracuse's JV eight finished second to Harvard in this morning's second heat and moves directly to the Friday semi-finals. Harvard won the heat from start to finish and it looked as if Yale would be second and SU third, when Yale's shell lost it's steering and the Bulldogs had to stop. That allowed Dartmouth to grab the third qualifying spot and consigned Yale to the repechage.

Harvard 5:44.671
SU 5:49.588
Dartmouth 5:55.874
UCSD 6:17.995
Yale 7:09.836

V8 Trails in Morning Heat - Heads to Repechage

Top-seed Washington blasted off the line and won the first morning heat at the IRA this morning, with six-seed Brown close behind to also move straight to the semi-finals. Seven-seed Syracuse never was really in it with the leaders, although the Orange did battle with #12 Stanford and #13 Cornell through the halfway point. SU wound up fifth in the heat. The SU time was considerably slower than what it is capable of in a tailwind, which is the condition today and Orange fans hope the plan became hanging onto some strength for the afternoon repechage.

Washington 5:32.251
Brown 5:33.726
Cornell 5:40.738
Stanford 5:42.949
SU 5:47.233
Gonzaga 6:06.276

All the favorites moved into the semis - Cal, Wisconsin, Harvard and Princeton joining Washington and Brown.