Finals

Finals week is never a fun moment because we, athletes, usually scramble to try to make that 89.85 an A before it's too late. Stress is at its max and rowing is still fully present, but this year it made its mark. The MAAC conference championships were this last Saturday, which made us travel on Friday; this wasn't as fun as it sounds.

Mercer lake hosted us well with cold and windy conditions for the month of April. The V8 went out first and won by a bit of open water to take away what Marist was known as "V8 of the Year" the night before. The 2V8 also won with ease. The Frosh 8 finished 2nd after a strong comeback from a few technical problems half way through the race. We then proceeded to sweep the 4's all with open water.
Having the most points all regatta, we thought we would be conference champions but of course a few technicalities were overlooked and we proceeded to finish second. Yes we are all a little bitter but we know that performance was what mattered and we did just that.
With a long Sunday full of traveling and making it back into my bad at 1:30 a.m., we started a brand new week with a few more exams. The rest of the week will be practiced at JU until we ride up to New Jersey for a few training days as Dad Vails approaches.
This year is looking extremely close and fast. With new results coming out from this weekend such as Drexel beating Temple, Michigan making a late comeback over Grand Valley, and FIT racing big sprint schools, the regatta seems to be loaded with speed.

Starting to sweat!

What are you up to?

After a challenging fall season, mentally and physically, it is time to take a small step back and reflect on my positives and negatives that have led me to where I stand on this day in mid-November.

Thinking ahead last spring, I took it upon myself to load up extra classes for this fall so that I didn't have to struggle in the spring due to traveling. Obviously as a freshman, I wasn't very experienced, but I learned well from it and am now implementing that episode into any academic schedule. Even though it was somewhat smart, I reached a new point of exhaustion. Classes were very demanding at the same time, and I also had a spot to secure in the top 8 list. At one point I told myself, I need to pick one or the other each time because there is no possibility to push myself 100% in both areas. I wasn't complaining, but I was scared because I didn't want to ruin my academic goals nor my rowing ones so I asked my coach for some advice, and his response was simple and short, "If the guys at Harvard can do it, you can do it. I always tell myself that if someone else can accomplish it then there is no reason I can't." From then on, I was determined to separate both areas and treat them like they were the only ones that existed, like a wife and a mistress. All these mental challenges got me ready for the upcoming weeks.

With newly found confidence, I went in the final weeks before racing with a smart attitude hoping that the rest of my teammates could feel what I had going. The water was now the place to put on a show and it happened on a good basis. We, as a team, kept looking for more speed and it was apparent. In the last post, I talked about different points that were worked on before racing the Hooch so I won't go over them again. With much pressure, the entire team arrived to Chattanooga with the words "serious" and "scared" written on their foreheads in my opinion; They had flashing lights on mine. But when did stomach aches and nervous pee breaks ever stop anyone from winning? The goal of this race in particular was to get away and stay away from Georgia Tech since they started right behind us. It was more of being chase like a prey feeling than actual racing feeling, which in the end costs us to be ineffective with our rowing and put us in the 5th place. It is a little frustrating because I cannot get upset at a crew that did everything they could and it just wasn't enough, but that is not what kind of crew we were that day. When we apply ourselves well, we win. So in this case, I believe we did not put on a show. There is always next race right?

A week later, we drove down to Melbourne to face off who we thought would only be our main competitor, FIT. On the 2-mile course, we definitely made a small improvement with the control of the stroke, and handled the shell with more maturity. I guess it still wasn't enough though because Rollins (who is never a  huge threat) decided to follow us with a real determination only finishing 2 seconds behind us. I am definitely not very content with how close that team finished from us, but my main concern was to measure up against FIT who was 12 seconds ahead; a smaller margin then last year. That was the final checkpoint to enter winter training.

We, as a team and individuals, have a list of specific areas we need to work on, especially me. I have many goals this year including getting my name on a national team related paper. It might not happen this year but it is definitely a solid motivation factor. For now, I work for my team to be faster for them so that they can respond the same way. I have a lot of promising thoughts about this crew as a whole and expect more and more as the days fall off the calender.

It is now time to scrub the dirty rowing off some of the long shells and get some clean rowing on the short ones. Like a prominent mentor in my life always tell me, "it's all about the mileage in those boats."

On my way out, here is a little shout out to all the freshmen: good job on your first semester a the school and on the team, keep working harder and I promise it will show; Matt THOMAS, get better kid, I expect much from you so get yourself healed up.

Next post is winter break...cheers!

Finalizing for Hooch

We are now 9 days away from the Head of the Hooch regatta in Chattanooga, TN. This is probably the most prestigious race to win after the Head of the Charles. Most teams that don't go to Boston usually end up going so it is no piece of cake. 

In 2009, the "IRA boat" won the Men's Championship 8+ by a decent amount of time on top of riding a ripping current downstream. In 2010 (my freshman year), I got to stroke the boat to a second consecutive victory only this time by no more than 2-3 seconds. The conditions were definitely nowhere near the previous year but it was extremely cold. One of the reasons I believe we did not perform as well as we should have is because of the previous training, let me explain. Almost every piece, 6k, tech row, etc... was capped out at a 24 stroke rate, which was great for power but did not help with a endurance at a higher rate. A week prior to the race, we started to build rates up to a 32 but that was not enough for it to be comfortable during the Hooch, which is why I believe we averaged around a 29SR. 

After that victory, we went down to Melbourne for one specific reason: see where we stood with FIT. FIT had just broken the course record and won the Men's Collegiate 8+ in Boston so we knew that they were a great standard to base ourselves off. On the 2-miler, we finished 22 seconds behind, but that was expected. 

This year, the Hooch is going to be one of the toughest races in the fall for JU. After watching FIT finish 28th in the Championship event, I compared their time with the Collegiate event and noticed they would have only finished 3rd. Whaaaa?! I may say. But this is nothing compared to what's next. The third place finisher in the Collegiate event was Georgia Tech. Not only am I surprised they did so well but they also finished 6 seconds behind FIT. And right behind them, was the upcoming team Notre Dame with only a 2 second gap between them and Georgia Tech. Of course, both teams will be trying to take the Hooch title away from us this year. 

Now at practice, things have been quite different. The line-ups have changed a few times as the coaches have been trying to find the right set of guys for this race. After great new 6k ergo scores from a lot of people including freshmen and sophomores, time trials, and seat races, the practice line-up has (in my opinion) found its current top boat. Today was the last time trial around the island (8km race) before the Hooch, and the top boat consisted of Andrew SOLOWAY, myself, Mick MAYER, Greg VANOEKEL, Bernardas VINGILIS, Parker LAWLER, Brian COSMILLO, Andre KLEIJN, and Matt OUTLAW. Mick and Andre have really proven their strength on the ergo and the water as well as technical focus. Greg is finally back to practice after a small week off for a lower back problem. And matt has demonstrated that he wanted to stay in his seat after last race. The reason I am happy after today is because everything I asked from them before going out on the water was accomplished. Being sick this morning I asked them to back me up 100% and help me beat our weekly goal (27:30). The race went well and was probably the most technically sound boat I've rowed in since we came back to school, the power was there and when it was time to have balls, everyone laid it down. The final time was 26:18, which made me extremely positive about the guys even if I didn't show it. The current was hard hard to go against and screaming fast in the other direction; on average the boat pulled a 1:38 average split. 

I have good expectations for this entire team. The top boat needs to be faster, the second boat needs to be more confident even though they've gotten faster these last two weeks, and the frosh boat needs to simply kick some ass. 

Head of the Charles

After not getting a bid last year in the collegiate men's 8+, JU sent in a new bid for this year's 47th regatta. As we had hoped for, we finally got the bid, but was later told that we were to move up to the championship men's 8+ since we had raced in the Copley Cup in San Diego. With a lot of strong and experienced guys gone, this year's team is a little young. Hard decision for our coach so he decided not to go to save money and time because of the attendance of the top collegiate and international crews. Of course I was pretty deceived when I heard the news because it was going to be a good step forward for us and I was looking forward to be in Boston again.

Even though we aren't going, our neighbors are. FIT is sending two men's 8+'s, last year's V8 in the Championship event, and their new second V8 in the collegiate event. Their new addition, Jessica MELLINGER will be coxing the V8 who will be leaving last I believe in their event.

Good luck to both boats!

Ups and Downs as the season is about to start

First I am super excited to start up my sophomore year because summer was long and eventless. For the ups, the new coach who will be replacing Ed OXLADE is Montia RICE who used to be UF's head coach. He sounds like he knows what he is doing and by the looks of what he did last year with his boat, I trust his knowledge. Now for the downs, it's never easy to say goodbye, but it's something we all have to do once in a while. Obviously, OXLADE is leaving the program for family problems, Jake RUFFOLO is staying home for personal and monetary problems, Brad MILLER is also staying home for monetary problems, and for me my biggest loss, not only my favorite coxswain but one of my best friends, Jessica MELLINGER is transferring to FIT. It's extremely hard to watch things crumble so close to school starting but I know that we all have a plan written for us and JU's has just commenced. Good luck to everyone leaving, I wish you the best. For all the new people including the incoming class, I wish you luck and strength as this is going to be a loooong year.

Let us kick some ass, shall we?