The University at Buffalo women's crew team may perhaps be the most successful Division I program offered at this college. This past Saturday the team capped off the last race of the fall campaign at the Frostbite Regatta in Philadelphia, Pa.
The team was looking to gain some more experience with sprint racing in preparation for the spring schedule. The traditional fall regatta features a Head Race where boats cross the starting line at roughly 15-second intervals. The course usually covers three miles of river, around bends and under bridges.
"We've had an excellent season," said Head Coach Meg Barnes. "Probably the highlight is coming in fifth at the Head of the Charles. That will automatically seed us in the collegiate eight which is made up of the varsity eight boat."
The team is broken down into two categories of novice and varsity boats. Within each category there are boats consisting of nine individuals and boats consisting of five individuals. Each boat has four or eight rowers in addition to a coxswain.
The coxswain is the person who steers the shell from a seat located in the stern or a lying position in the bow, or the front of the boat. They are often seen as the emotional leader in the boat and represent the confidence of the boat.
"The coxswain is the leader in each and every boat. The coxswain is the emotion in the boat because she has the microphone on," added Barnes. "When you're sitting in a race course if the coxswain is nervous she creates nervousness throughout the boat."
The second leaders in the boat are the stroke pair, and behind them are the bow six that have to follow and have the confidence in the coxswain and stroke pair to row the right way.
Throughout the fall season each boat has come up big in different races. At the Head of the Ohio race the Varsity eight team came in first in a field of 21 teams. The team easily won with a time of 15:47 and beat such schools as Michigan State, Pittsburgh and Ohio University.
The Varsity eight boat consisted of Victoria Kolomiets, Tara Celestini, Kasey Hansen, Deanna Knighton, Kali Spoto, Mary Conniff, Tracy Clarke, Sara Sheffer, and coxswain Tina LaFountain
Then the following week the Varsity four team placed fourth out of eleven teams at the Stonehurst Regatta on the Genesee River.
Caitlin Logue, Jessica Barrel, Amy Aldridge and Maggie Cote with coxswain LaFountain finished in a time of 20:46.27 and a 6:00.91 in the afternoon race, which was weighted. The Bulls' combined championship time was 38:49:00, which was derived by multiplying the weighted afternoon race time by three and adding it to the morning time.
Six days after that, the Varsity eight team responded with a strong performance at the Head of the Charles race, finishing fifth out of 34 teams with a combined time of 17:51.498.
Buffalo used the same rowers that were in the Varsity eight boat at the Head of the Ohio except Michelle Schwach took over the fifth seat and Katie Johnson served as the Coxswain.
The following week it was the youngsters' turns to display their abilities, as the Novice eight A team took the title at Head of the Fish race and the Novice eight B team finished shortly after in 10th place out of a whopping 44 boats. The novice four team also impressively won their race in 15:47, beating out 42 other entry teams.
The novice eight A team, which won the race in 14:16 and finished 30 seconds faster than second place Ithaca, consisted of stroke seat Chandra Hazey, seventh seat Bonnie McVicker, sixth seat Joanne Olsen, fifth seat Lauren Dunn, fourth seat Cote, third seat Marla Hardin, second seat Karen Corey and bow seat Stephanie Spinella, with coxswain Kaitlin Buchheit.
"The quality of our freshmen and especially the walk on's has been excellent," said Barnes. "It is not an elitist sport in the sense that many people can do crew, but most people won't commit to the level that is needed."
The early morning practices at around 5 a.m. coupled with the strenuous activities of rowing definitely are not suited for everyone, as the team began with 55 rowers and is now down to just over 30 girls.
The Frostbite Regatta was the first race the Bulls took part in that was a sprint. The sprint is an anaerobic race that usually features a straight course with four to six boats lined up at once. Barnes cited that this would be a good warm up for the inexperienced oarsmen for the forthcoming spring season.
