Attention Cougar Crew Alumni! You can now purchase the class letterman jacket, as seen here, modeled by our very own Ken Struckmeyer.
Click here for the ordering information! If you have any questions, contact the printing company listed on the form.
The 2009-2010 Cougar Crew Clothing Catalog has been put online! The team has decided to put in another order this year, so don't miss this opportunity to stock up on your Cougar Crew gear for the Spring regattas!
Click here to download/print the catalog.
Cougar Crew is proud to announce the Spring Rent-a-Rower dates. The hard-working rowers and coxswains of WSU Men's Crew will be available to help you tackle all of those projects that you need to get done!
The three weekends of Rent-a-Rower are: March 6/7; March 13/14; and April 3/4.
Visit the Rent-a-Rower page for more information and to request your rowers! Act now because reservations are on a first-come first-serve basis!
Cougar Crew announces Free Learn To Row Day and Palouse Summer Rowing 2010 Summer schedule. For more information, click here.
Registration will begin in March!
The 2010 Spring racing schedule has been posted. All dates and locations are certain, however many of the times are still to be announced. Check back as race day nears for complete details!
This year, the Cougars will start off the Spring in sunny San Diego. The Crew Classic has been moved ahead one weekend and falls on the same day as the Daffodil Cup in Tacoma. The Varsity 8+, Junior Varsity 8+, and top Novice 8+ will be representing Men's Crew in San Diego, while the rest of the team will travel westward to American Lake.
The team will get the following weekend off to prepare for the UW Dual, which will be held on the Montlake Cut in Seattle. The regular season finale will once again be the Fawley Cup Dual vs. Gonzaga on our home course at Wawawai Landing.
The championship circuit schedule is the same as in year's past. WIRAs will be held on May 1-2 on Lake Natoma. Two weeks later, the PCRC and Pac-10 Championships will take place at the same venue. The team hopes to send several boats to the ACRA National Championships this year, which has been moved to Oklahoma City.
The Cougar Crew V8+ returned from the Head of the Lake Regatta with the best results in recent memory.
The V8+ turned in a time of 16:49, good enough to take fifth place and beat out Gonzaga University by eight seconds. The JV8+ also showed nicely with a time of 17:27, barely losing to University of British Columbia by a margin of one second.
Noted Cougar Crew Alumni Doug Engle, who participated in the Palouse Community Rowing 8+, said how great an accomplishment this weekend was for WSU. “We had a great novice class come up and another strong one on its way. These guys already gave Gonzaga a run for their money last year, so we were hoping for results like this. Athletically speaking this is great for the [Cougar] Crew.”
Once again, the Cougar Alumni were able to put together an 8 for the Open Masters event. Comprised of 9 young and able Alumni, the boat performed well, finishing second behind a Pocock Rowing Center boat that just finished 4th at the Head of the Charles Regatta.
"Considering the fitness level of the crew, plus the fact almost the entire boat hadn't rowed in at least a year, the row itself was great for a thrown together lineup. We had a blast!" said 7-seat Karl Huhta.
The conditions for the race were calm, and contributed to the great row each oarsman and coxswain said they enjoyed.
Results
Photos
Cougar Crew brought home a win this weekend with a strong performance in the face of adversity.
The weather Saturday Nov. 7 was less than ideal, with gusting winds and continuous rain from the moments the boats hit the water. Despite the daunting outlook, neither the Cougar Crew nor the Western Washington crew hesitated to race. With a shortened course due to the rolling waves on part of the lake, the Cougar Crew sent out four novice 8’s and three varsity fours to duel Western’s two novice 8’s and a varsity 4.
Times were not forthcoming due to technical difficulties with multiple boats, but when the boats returned to dock without injury everyone could tell that every boat had enjoyed what was, if anything, a truly memorable race.
Both team’s coaches said they looked forward to next year and a continuing friendly rivalry between cross-state club teams.
At nearby Lake Samish, the lightweight women's team held a practice scrimmage against the WWU novice women.
"We had a great practice with Western's Novice women. We did several 3 minute pieces back in forth in the small cove near their boathouse in order to stay in calm water. The lightweights had a great time meeting the girls from Western at the small breakfast and we are hoping to set up a race with them in the future," said coach Emily Kohl.
Varsity 8+ upsets Gonzaga at the Head of the Snake
WSU Crew successfully defended their home water Friday as they claimed victory in the premiere Varsity 8+ event. Although weather conditions were not ideal, the Cougars rowed strong and crossed the finish line 13 seconds ahead of the Zags over the 4,000 meter race course.
"This was probably the best Fall race performance our crew has had in recent years," said Commodore Mitch Williams. "We will be looking to build off of this performance in the weeks to come and hope to carry the success into our Spring racing season."
Solid performances were turned in by the JV8+ and 3V8+ as well, with the JV boat finishing 20 seconds behind a deep Gonzaga crew.
The Novice team continued to show their tremendous potential as the A boat finished just 17 seconds behind Gonzaga’s top Novice crew. Only 0.66 seconds separated the WSU C and B boats, with the C boat beating Gonzaga’s C boat by 13 seconds with a time of 16:40. Rounding out the flight was the WSU D and E boats, which finished with times of 18:31 and 19:06 respectively. The future is bright for this Novice class as they continue to develop and gel, looking towards exciting Spring racing.
The Women’s lightweight 8+ competed in the first women’s flight, finishing with a solid time of 19:30. In its inaugural season, the Women’s lightweight team currently has two full eights of rowers.
Cougar Crew hopes to continue this success as the Fall racing season comes to a close next weekend as the team travels to the West side for the Western Washington University Dual and the Head of the Lake Regatta. Three Varsity fours, along with the Novice and Women’s lightweight teams will represent the Cougs against WWU, while the V8+ and JV8+ will race on Sunday in the Head of the Lake.
Results
Photos
Mike Dostal racing the 45th Head of the Charles in Boston, Mass. Thanks to row2k.
In its 45th annual running, this year’s Head of the Charles in Boston, Mass. had arguably the most competitive field in its history. A field not just comprised of current national team rowers, but of gold medalist World Champions and Olympians, the Men’s Championship Single category was billed as one of the -if not the most- premiere events of the weekend. On Oct. 17th, 2009, former novice coach Mike Dostal raced against the world’s best, finishing a very respectable 17th out of 44 entries. At first, 17th place may not sound “that great”, but put this in perspective: 13 of the 16 men that finished ahead of Mike currently row for their respective nation’s national team, and two of the other three are currently at some form of a national training camp. Wow!
Mike Dostal was the novice coach of the Cougar Crew for the 2005-2006 school year. Among the solid performances of his novice that year, the Cougars rowed to an open water victory at the Daffodil Cup Regatta and then had their best race at the Pac-10 Championships. Before WSU, Mike rowed on Great Britain’s lightweight national team competing in many international regattas in the single scull. Being a working gent nowadays and also recently married, Mike is just getting back into training full-time. “I am training everyday although that has only been possible recently,” Mike said, “so I do not feel like I am really fit. I would hope for this winter to be able to get back in shape and race the National Champs next summer in better form.”
Reflecting on his race, Mike explained, “I think there were some really fast scullers and some people who really knew the Charles River well. Unfortunately, I fell in neither category.” Keeping a sense of humor, Mike remains optimistic about racing next year, as he takes small victories in not hitting any bridges and not receiving any time penalties. He feels with a full year of training under his belt, he hopes to finish top-10 next time around. Considering he was only a little over 10 seconds off a 10th place this year, we are rooting for Mike come next October. This was Mike’s second time racing the Charles, the first time coming in 2007 when he had a seat in a Harvard alumnus lightweight 8+.
Currently Mike trains by himself out of the Williams College boathouse in eastern Massachusetts, but sometimes gets together with local rowers for team practices. Out of curiosity, Mike was asked about the club he claims himself under, Berkshire Rowing and Sculling Society, but he said it’s really just a name. While racing this year though, Mike wore Nottingham County rowing kit (a now defunct UK rowing club), but was pleasantly surprised to hear shouts of “Go County!” and “Go Notts!” while racing. “I thought it was pretty funny,” he said, “I might have to resurrect the club stateside.”
Mike said that he’d like to see a WSU Cougar Alumni 8+ at the Charles in the near future. “I really enjoyed my time coaching at WSU and met a lot of great people who had a lot of energy and talent for rowing. The men’s crew officers were first class and I am sure still are. I was at first shocked and then extremely impressed to see how well the club was run by them. Thanks for the experience and keep up the good work.” We look to forward to hearing more about Mike tearing up the east coast rowing scene and hopefully will see him again in the near future.
The rowers of the WSU Men’s Crew Varsity team completed a full length Olympic triathalon on August 29, 2009. The rowers had been training for the event over the summer and had about three months of training under their belts by race-day.
Every rower on the team finished the triathalon as well as Coach Arthur Ericsson. Coxswains also participated in different legs of the triathalon as their training allowed. Team members ended the day exhausted, but exuberant that they had completed the grueling time trial.
The Cougar Crew looks forward to supporting their Lightweight Women’s Crew in their bid to hold a “Dry Tri” this coming spring as a fundraiser.
The hard-working men and women of WSU Men's Crew will be holding two weekends of Rent-a-Rower this Fall.
The dates are September 26/27 and October 17/18.
Remember to submit your requests early because reservations are on a first-come first-serve basis!.
Click here to reserve your rowers now!
Varsity rower Alan Scott just finished competing in the 2009 Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, representing Austin Rowing Club. The Canadian Henley is a large international regatta where crews from all over North America to compete in a week of racing.
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Alan in the 4- |
Scott has spent his summer training in Texas as a member of the Austin Rowing Camp out of the Austin Rowing Club, put on by the coaches from the University of Texas.
Living in Texas was definitely a little bit of a culture shock, "The worst thing has living down here has definitely been the heat. I don't think there has been a single day under 100 degrees here."
Also participating in rowing camps this summer were Varsity rowers Paul Ehlers and Mitch Williams, who attended the Northwest U23 Development Pairs Camp out of the University of Washington.
Redemption never tasted so sweet for the Novice 8+, as they took 2nd in the nation at the American Collegiate Rowing Association National Championships on Sunday. ACRA is in its second year as the national championship for club rowing teams.
After their impressive 4th place finish at the Pac-10 Championships, the Novice 8+ was seeded #2 coming into the weekend. They successfully defended that ranking, finishing just 3 seconds behind Michigan, a team with Varsity-Club status. Finishing the season as the second fastest club team in the country is a true testament to the hard work and determination of these rowers who began the year as true novice walk-ons.
Coming off of a convincing win in the Saturday repechage, the Cougs were focused and ready for the Grand Finals. The deep field of crews included Michigan, New Hampshire, Notre Dame, Bucknell, and Minnesota.
After a close first 1000 meters, they moved on the other crews, separating themselves from New Hampshire and Notre Dame. "We came out and rowed our race and rowed it really well," said James Dorsey. "It was a really good way to end the season. A solid performance and we couldn't have asked for more."
The Varsity Lightweight 4+ finished 5th in their Grand Final, just 0.7 seconds off of Northwestern and 3.7 seconds off of third place Purdue. The 4+ posted its fastest time of the year and finished on a high note for departing senior Garrett Lyman. "I would say it was our best race of the year," said Garrett. "Even though we lost the race, we gave it our all."
Complete Sunday Results
ACRA Photo Gallery
WSU Today article on the Novice 8+ and their 2nd place finish at ACRAs. Link
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