Championship Prelude at Windermere Classic
By Sharael Feist
April 20, 2003
For 22-year-old Beau Hoopman, rowing in 80-degree weather on a waterway with barely a breeze are not the typical conditions he’s used to in March.
As a member of the Wisconsin men’s varsity eight, Hoopman would normally be stuck inside on an erg for hours of practice since Lake Mendota is frozen until late April. However, Hoopman, along with about 325 other rowers, was blessed with the opportunity to get out of the cold and compete in the inaugural Windermere Collegiate Crew Classic regatta, March 29-30, in Redwood Shores, Calif. “It was nice to get away from the 40-degree weather,” said Hoopman. “We’ll have to get back on the ergs when we return though.”
The Windermere Classic, sponsored by Windermere Real Estate, drew a number of top collegiate crews from across the U.S. with over a dozen colleges taking part, including locals Stanford and California, as well as crews from the East like Princeton, Wisconsin, and Virginia. “Although our team is not quite physically ready yet since we have ice until April, we have been practicing on the ergs,” said Wisconsin men’s head coach Chris Clark.
Windermere Real Estate has long been a supporter of collegiate crew racing as the title sponsor for the Windermere Cup in Seattle, the highly attended annual event. Windermere worked with Stanford to put together this preseason regatta, which allowed teams to get an early look at the competition. And the competition was tight, particularly in the varsity men’s contests on the first day of racing. In a rerun of the 2002 IRA final, national champions Cal edged the silver medalists from Wisconsin by 0.4 seconds in 5:33.9. Cal’s varsity women also were also able to carry much of their bronze medal speed from last year’s NCAA championship regatta to the spring season. Cal took both of its dual races with strong Division 1 programs Michigan and. Ohio State on Saturday, and took four seconds on Virginia on the following day’s pairing.
Craig Amerkhanian, Stanford director of rowing and men’s head coach, organized the event and was thrilled with the response. “The East-West format makes this a special event,” Amerkhanian said. “It’s a conglomerate of the finest rowers in America competing on one of the fairest race courses. It’s also a great opportunity for spectators and fans of rowing to come together.”
The event was held in a suburban setting with homes lining the waterways, small planes buzzing overhead, and a few skiffs floating on the water seemingly unfazed by the boats whizzing past. Although you’d think residents would be interested in taking a glimpse at the bustling activity taking place in their backyards, the spectators seemed to be limited to rowers and their friends and family.
This, despite the number of key vantage points from which to watch the race: a bridge overlooking the event was filled with spectators wanting a bird’s-eye view, cement steps biding into the water were packed with, people interested in seeing the crews enter and exit the water, and the finish could be seen from the hotel housing the competitors.
Unlike traditional championship racing with six lanes across, the Royal Henley-style event featured a 2,000-meter course with head-to-head competition in a dual racing format. Normally, these crews would not compete against each other until the end of the season during the championship races and many colleges were unable to get much practice time on the water this early on. “We only got on the water three weeks ago, which is pretty late for us,” said Virginia women’s coach Kevin Sauer, whose varsity women’s eight failed to record a win over the two days of racing. “Crews who’ve been on the water longer have some advantage, but that’s no excuse. This event is a wake-up call. It allows us to find out where we’re at and get the bugs out. Although it’s not so good for the ego sometimes, it does allow us to go home and figure out what we’re going to do and maybe change our focus.”
For crews having to travel a long distance to get to the event, most said that the benefits gained from the experience made the trip worth it. “The athletes enjoy having the opportunity to travel to a different coast and represent their college,” said Princeton men’s coach Curtis Jordan. “It was a unique opportunity this early in the season to get the chance to race this quality of competition. We were able to see how the team performs under pressure. The sport of rowing is benefited by having such a high profile event. We want to support that.”
All in all, the event seemed to be a success with teams leaving satisfied as they walked away with some keen insight about the competition they would face in upcoming months. World Under-23 gold medalist and Stanford men’s varsity rower Jamie Schroeder summed it up: “It was great to see the East Coast schools here and it means a lot to rowing on the West Coast.” Schroeder is one of the lucky ones that will continue to have fair weather to train in, unlike Hoopman, who had to hop on a plane back to his erg.