University of Virginia Library

Oarsmen Sparkle In Regattas

Last Saturday the University of
Virginia Crew participated in two
regattas. The varsity remained on
their home waters and defeated
North Carolina in three races. Since
UNC did not have a freshman
curfew, our freshmen decided at the
last minute to enter the Cherry
Blossom Regatta, held in Washington,
D.C.

The varsity eight had no trouble
in beating North Carolina. Pressed
only by their own desire to "give
100%" they won by 5 lengths. A
race in skulls (singles) followed, the
first such race on the Rivanna. Ed
Northrup, a GSBA student,
accepted an open challenge from a
Carolina oarsman. Donning Virginia's
colors, he managed to edge
out his phantom opponent after a
close first half. After this chance to
catch their breath, four of our
varsity crew took to a four-oared
boat and beat a fresh North
Carolina four by an embarrassing
10 lengths.

Frosh Surprise Everyone

Meanwhile, the freshman eight
paddling to the starting line of their
race in the Second Annual Cherry
Blossom Regatta, held on the
Potomac River. A last minute
entrant, they surprised the starting
judges, who put them in lane 6, far
from the limelight. All eyes were
focused on St. Joseph's (pi) and
Georgetown's freshmen, perennially
fast crews, in lanes 2 and 3. Within
30 strokes the orange and blue and
bolted to the lead, but no one was
watching these upstarts. The
Georgetown coach was heard to
say, "Hey, who are those guys?"
And they were gaining fast. Under
Key Bridge they panicked the other
coxswains by upping to a sprint a
full 800 meters from the finish.
When the flag went down, Virginia
was ahead by "open water," a
formidable distance in such a
regatta.

Capture Wine-Filled Cup

After the race, the freshmen
enjoyed flinging their coxswain. In
the river, as winning crews have
done for hundreds of years. Their
prize, the Glendon Cup, was presented
to them filled with wine.
Since the crew racing season has
just started, winning this race serves
to show Virginia's colors and issue a
challenge to the schools that have
dominated small college crew for so
many years.

While crew is a varsity sport in

nearly all the schools that Virginia
competes against, crew at Virginia
is technically a club. "Club" may
describe its finances and the fact
that it is run on a totally voluntary
basis, but the strenuousness and
frequency of the practices have set
it apart from all other sports.
Returning oarsmen began rowing in
September. Three practices a week
were advanced to five in November,
six in January, and sometimes seven
a week after February first, plus
two practices a day over Spring
Break. When the reservoir was
frozen they trained in Memorial
Gymnasium, weightlifting, running,
and performing exercises specially
designed to increase an oarsman's
strength and stamina. Many students
will recall from the winter
months seeing the crew taking turns
on the climbing rope or matching
each other on the pull-up bar. All
this took place under the careful
direction of their volunteer coach
who goaded them on with his now
famous, "This is nothing!" And
now, after ten weeks of training on
the water this Spring, the crew is
anxious to test their prowess.

This Saturday, the Virginia crew
will host the Drexel Institute of
Technology for their last home race
this season. Drexel won the Gremalde
Cup in New York last
Saturday, thoroughly dumping East
Carolina, Villanova, Iona, St.
John's, and Howard. After losing to
Virginia last year, they are better
conditioned than before and looking
forward to beating us.

The crew is also looking forward
to three big regattas in the coming
weeks. A week from Saturday,
Virginia will face 13 Southern
Schools in the Southern Championships.
Some of the Florida crews
are reportedly bigger and tougher
than ever, and they consider the
Southern Championship their private
property.

May 2 is the D.C. Area championship
regatta, which includes the
Georgetown University heavyweight
crew who have always won.
But Georgetown now knows that
the Virginia crew will not concede
this race. The weekend after that
(May 8,9) is the Dad Vail Regatta
in Philadelphia, the largest 8-man
crew regatta in the world. Last year
30 schools were represented, pitting
nearly 100 different crews. The
varsity finals were won by Georgetown
the last two years.

Strong Varsity Lineup

The varsity eight includes Jamile
Wilson in the bow, Tim Callahan,
John Woodall, Steve Plott (co-captain),
Learned Barry, Eric Vogel,
Norton Schlacter, and Harrison
O'Connor (co-captain) at stroke.
The varsity coxswain is Chuck
Davis. Thy coxswain has a lot more
to do than most people realize. In
addition to steering the shell and
calling cadence, he has to keep the
oarsmen informed of their position
in the race, whether they are
gaining or losing. He has to carry
out the strategy of when to call for
a high stroke and when to settle for
a lower, more powerful stroke.
Above all, since a coxswain's voice
is the only one allowed in the boat,
he must constantly encourage his
crew to keep "punching the
catches" and "firming the finish"
of the stroke, among the scores of
technical points that add up to
victory. All this has to be done by
yelling so that all the oarsmen can
hear their own coxswain over those
in the other boats.

The junior varsity has made
several switches since their victory
over Notre Dame. In the bow is
Britt Richardson, followed by
Martin Flack, Bill John, Russell
Bourne, Dave Kudravetz, Derek
Smith, Fred Laffel, Bill Hancock at
stroke, and Scott Gelband at
coxswain.

The freshmen eight, looking
forward to an unprecedented year,
included Larry Viles, John Austin,
Wray Fitch, Ed Wilson, John Jay,
Ed Wandelt, Sandy Gardner, Rusty
Belcher at stroke and coxed by Jim
Babb.

Eliades: Dedicated Coach

The crew is coached by Panos
Eliades. Panos was on the Greek
national crew team for many years
and has brought professional quality
crew training and coaching to
Charlottesville. In Europe rowing is
very popular although usually in
boats smaller than an eight. Panos
rowed in a pair-with-coxswain. In
seven years of international competition
all over Europe, he was
never defeated. His rigorous practices
since he arrived here in
November have certainly toughened
those of the crew who were able to
last this far.

Everyone is invited to the 3 race
regatta against Drexel this Saturday.
The viewing area is in a grassy
field just right for an Easters
Weekend picnic. Admission is free,
although the crew hopes you will
take part in the fund raising raffle
to be held that afternoon. The
directions are: up 29N to Hydraulic
Rd. (K-Mart); left on Hydraulic
about 3 miles to the Rivanna River.
The first race begins at 1:30.