Last weekend, the Saint Louis University Crew did a great job of rocking the boat.
Saturday, SLU Crew participated in their final national regatta of their fall season, “Head of the Hooch,” and took home a bronze medal. The boat taking third place was the Mixed Varsity Four made up of Ruth Wismatt, Jessica Lange, Tom Hare and Phil Gilbertson. Megan Beaty is the coxswain and club president.
“This boat really supports each other,” Beaty said. “They have the best chemistry.”
The boat placed third with a time of 21:15.6. SLU finished only two seconds behind the second place boat, Dominican, and 15 seconds after the first place boat, Duke.
“We weren’t expecting to place,” Beaty said. “We have been practicing since the first day of school every weekday at 5 a.m. and the occasional weekend.”
This was the third largest national race. The regatta was held on the Chattahoochee River in Gainesville, Ga., the same site of the 1996 Olympic Rowing Venue. The course is 3.17 miles long. Some of the teams that participated include Florida, Florida State, North Carolina and Texas, but over 75 clubs and colleges participated.
According to Beaty, the structure of a crew race provides additional challenges to the competition. In rowing, the boats do not all start at the same time. The team rows to the start line and then the clock starts for them. Instead of a race against the other teams it becomes more of a race against the clock.
“This is hard for the team because you are not always sure where the competition is,” said Beaty.
During Saturday’s race the mixed four-boat started fourth and passed the first three starters in the first mile of the race. After that they only had the clock to race against. Halfway through the race the coxswain’s microphone ran out of batteries. Beaty then had to turn and yell at the team to give them encouragement.
SLU’s team had three other boats that participated in the race. The men’s varsity-four finished 18th in their field with 21:17.3, a women’s varsity-four finished 24th with 23:37.2 and a men’s novice-four finished 23rd.
In addition to their solid finish this weekend, the team had several strong finishes this year.
In the Head of Des Moines in Iowa, the mixed novice-four took a gold medal with 19:05, the mixed novice-eight took the silver medal with 19:43 and the women’s novice-four took the silver medal with 22:05.
In the Head of the Rock, a regatta in Rockford, Ill., the mixed open-four took the gold with 18:08, and the mixed open-eight took the gold medal with 16:49.
Some of the teams that the Club has defeated this season include Miami, Xavier University, Vanderbilt, Marquette and Wisconsin.
In St. Louis, SLU Crew and Washington University together hosted a regatta at Creve Coeur Lake.
The mixed open-four took the silver medal with 12:14, mixed novice-four took the bronze medal with 14:07, and the men’s novice-four took the bronze metal with 12:47.
SLU Crew defeated Washington University, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Rhodes.
The Club has just finished their fall season and they are already practicing for the spring. The team welcomes new members. For more info, contact Megan Beaty at [email protected].
