Men's rowing shoulders with the best on the Schuylkill

By Andrew Neils

The men’s rowing team entered Saturday’s Head of The Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia with plenty of enthusiasm, and the outcome of the race was enough to keep that enthusiasm going. The team’s eight man boat raced the long course with a final time of 13 minutes and 43 seconds, placing 20th out of 21 boats after accruing a time penalty that cost the Bison 16th place.

The winning boat, New York Athletic Club, finished the course in 11:55. Other Patriot League schools who competed include Holy Cross, Lehigh and Colgate, who finished sixth, ninth and 10th respectively.

The race was a turning point for the men’s team, as they moved themselves from the club division into the more prestigious champion division. The championship division puts the team on the starting line with the fastest boats in the region, and is part of the strategy of newly-hired Head Coach Paul Bugenhagen to make the team top-notch.

"Our intentions as a team are to race with the best crews in collegiate rowing. Not rowing in the Championship Eight event betrays that intention," Coach Bugenhagen said. "Today we went toe to toe with the best crews in our class and found out a lot about ourselves as racers, our development to date and what we need to emphasize in the coming weeks to continue to progress."

The eight man heavyweight boat consisted of coxswain Brett Eaton ’06, and from Stroke to Bow the order went: Captain Brent Butler ’06, Robert Blakemore ’08, David Wingate ’08, Jeremiah Delson ’09, Garrett Samuels ’06, Jon Bloom ’06, J. T. Dean ’07 and Ben Finio ’07.

It is not uncommon in the world of rowing for the oars of two boats to clash. This can produce heated arguments and hot tempers, as it inevitably causes the crews to slow down. When it happened to the Bison this weekend, they handled it maturely. The Orange and Blue accrued a 30- second time penalty and a failure to yield violation near the 2000 meter mark when their oars became entangled with St. Joseph’s boat.

To disentangle themselves, the Bison had to come to a complete stop. Without skipping a beat, they maneuvered their boat around St. Joseph’s and immediately picked the stroke rate back up, although the mishap did cause them some time in addition to the penalty.

"I like to think of head racing a lot like a NASCAR event. Everyone is trying to share the same space as they all battle for the fastest and shortest course to the line. With that you get a little rubbing, and rubbing is racing," Bugenhagen said.

The team was proud of the improvement in their rowing technique and boat speed. Had they not been forced to come to a complete stop, their place would have been much more encouraging.

In comparison to results from the meet on Homecoming weekend, the Bison have since made up ground on other Patriot League rivals.

"Our boat is only getting faster as the season progresses. Technically our rowing has improved a lot and our rowers are stronger," Eaton said.

The Bison will conclude the season with the Head of the Occoquan on Sunday in Fairfax, Va., where they will race a varsity eight boat. Their novice eight will also enter a race for the first time this season.

Butler is excited about the upcoming race.

"The head of the Occoquan is coming up on Sunday, and we have a chance of bringing home a medal. This will be the novice’s only race of the fall season, so I really hope this goes well for them," Butler said. "The caliber of the competition at the Occoquan is different than at the Head of the Schuylkill and we should be able to do well."