TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

This Sunday at 8 am, your team has a home event – the Nan Harvey Cup – which will be held at the Veterans Canal Park on Tonawanda Creek. How important is that event as far as creating exposure for your sport here at UB?
Sometimes I think that people think that we are the one team they hear of every now and then, but don’t really get to see. It is important for us because we now get that opportunity to show everyone here at UB what our team and sport is all about.

What did Nan Harvey mean to not only the crew team, but to women’s athletics at UB on the whole?
After Nan passed away, every women’s team seemed to feel that she was their biggest supporter – and the thing is, that was true. I had the chance to meet with her over the summer because we were going through a change in head coaches, and Nan had a big part in moving Rudy Wieler up to head coach – and he has completely changed our program since he has been here. Then there were all the little things that Nan did in the background that maybe you did not realize she did until she was gone.

At the end of your schedule, two events are listed – the New York State Championships and the Metro Championships. How significant are the two of those events?
Both of the events are important to us. The Metros are probably more significant to us though, because of the NCAA qualifying that is tied in with them. That is one of the focuses of our program right now.

When and how did you first become involved with crew?
I actually joined the team here right before Thanksgiving during my freshman year. A girl that I lived with was on the team and let me know that the team was recruiting athletes. So, I attended a meeting and kind of fell into it. I never rowed in high school – in fact, many of our team members never participated in crew until coming to UB.

Do you feel that crew is the true definition of a team sport, seeing as there are no individual statistics kept?
It is a lot different than most other sports. I played soccer in high school, and it’s certainly a jump to go from that – where you can have someone that you expect to score for you – to crew, which is ultimately a team sport. You don’t have one person winning or losing the race for you, because your entire crew is in it together. But you all have to work hard together, because if one person is off or your timing isn’t together, then you are adding time onto your race.

As both a team captain and member of the varsity eight boat, how much interaction do you have with the novice rowers?
Now that we are out on the water and separated into crews, we actually don’t have a lot of contact with the novices. Sometimes we will compete in mock races against them, which is nice because you get used to racing with a crew next to you. But we still do have a lot of team integration, with events like team dinners and other things along those lines.

This past fall, you rowed in both the varsity eight and varsity four boats. How much of a difference is there between the two types of competition?
The eight races go faster because you obviously have the eight rowers plus the coxswain as opposed to four and the coxswain. The eight usually seems to be more of a competitive race, because those results are from where most people judge the overall status of your team.

The four races are fun, though. You can definitely take a lot of racing experience out of being in a four, because you can feel the timing a little more in that situation.

Of the people on a varsity eight boat, there are different titles for some individual positions – for example, the roles of the coxswain, the stroke pair (stroke and seven seat) and the bow pair (second seat and bow). But do the third through sixth seat positions basically have the same responsibilities?
Each seat really is different – they all have their own job in the boat. We call those four middle seats the powerhouse or the engine. The seven seat sets the pace for you, so in the powerhouse seats you don’t really have to think too much – you have the stroke and just have to pull your brains out.

Coach Rudy Wieler trains your team in small boats at times. What are the benefits of this and how do you transfer that work over to the varsity eight competitions?
Especially in the fall, we often rowed in pairs and fours. The benefit of that is you can feel anything that you do wrong. In that situation, your technique has to be almost impeccable. If your hands are too high or too low with the oar, your set will be off – which means you will be leaning to one side of the boat. Your timing has to be perfectly together, because the small boat reacts more quickly to that type of error – there is much less of a chance to hide those mistakes.

How different is the training regiment for your team now in the spring season as compared to the fall?
The fall gives us a good aerobic base and then we did a lot of cardiovascular work this winter. In the spring, the sprint competitions are anaerobic because you are going all out for some seven-odd minutes. The stroke rate is much higher now, because the races are much shorter. We are rowing about 40 strokes per minute now as opposed to the 32 strokes per minute that we row in the fall.

-The "10 Questions with…" feature is compiled by Geoff Nason.