Rowing Teams Hold Annual Erg Relays
December 12, 2002 | Women's Rowing
The team of John Pick-Jacobs, Chris Podbregar, Peter Nagle, Claire Koch and Katie Smith won the Wisconsin rowing teams' annual All Boathouse Erg Relay at the UW Crew House on Wednesday.
The relay consisted of 32 teams of five members rowing on erg machines inside the UW Crew House. Each team rowed a total of 40 minutes with each team member pulling for eight minutes. The teams rotated among its members in any order and duration it wished, as along as each rower went for eight minutes. Each squad was made up of a rower from the men's varsity, men's novice, women's openweight varsity, women's openweight novice and women's lightweight teams. Due to numbers, not every team fit the formula. The team that rowed the farthest won first place and was awarded 'The Hammer.'
'The Erg Relay is the only athletic event of the year where all the teams - women, lightweights, and men - compete with and against each other, ' said head men's coach Chris Clark. 'Given the enormous size of the combined men's and women's squads (240-plus), this is probably the earliest that most of the student-athletes have an opportunity to meet one another. Without a doubt, the best benefit is the obvious recognition, acknowledgment, and growth of mutual respect that flows from each team to the others due to this sort of challenge. If everyone, regardless of gender, seniority, or standing, is thrust into a team environment together, with a demanding task at hand that requires perseverance and teamwork to prevail, then the result is always a cohesive, respectful, and supportive boathouse.'
The winning squad rowed 12,229 meters over the 40 minutes. They outdistanced the second-place finishing distance of 12,090 meters by the team of Brian Scott, Tyler Resch, Nicky Lennart, Leanne Hughes and Bry Siefert. Finishing in third place was the staff team of novice openweight coach Marina Traub, novice lightweight coach Dusty Darley, boatman Roger Payne, men's assistant coach Greg Myhr, women's assistant coach Mitz Carr and women's assistant coach Jamie Whalen. The six-member team raced 12,055 meters.
'Given the small size of our current facility, this type of exercise is not very practical to do often but it is very entertaining to witness, ' added Clark. 'Fortunately, our new boathouse, to be completed in the Fall of '04, will allow us to stage events with all the teams much more frequently. '
|
pic_filename=team_wltcrw_02_03a"> --> |
|
pic_filename=team_wltcrw_02_04a"> --> |
