Director’s Messageby Tony Kilbridge

Winter 2015

A Newsletter for MIT Crew Alumni

Squaringthe Blade

Dear MIT crew alumni and friends,

Right now MIT students from warmer parts of the world must be wondering what they’ve got them-selves into. Winter has hit New England like the hammer of some Nordic god. Over six feet of snow has fallen in the last thirty days, forcing MIT and the boathouse to close several times. Snow is in the forecast for five of the next sev-en days. The temperature hasn’t reached freezing in weeks. God knows how thick the ice is on the Charles. Those of us who grew up here aren’t supposed to complain, since we “love all four seasons,” but enough is enough.

So, what is there to say about win-ter training, except that getting to the boathouse has been the hardest part? Ergs, ergs and more ergs; all outdoor alternatives, like stadia and running, are out of the question. The erg scores have been good, the

athletes’ morale is excellent, and most of our rival teams are stuck in the same weather. So let’s just say that we’re building character.

On a brighter note, at the begin-ning of January we had an excel-lent training trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida. The weather was good and our crews rowed many miles on the complex strands of the intra-coastal

waterway. In this issue we have descriptions of the trip from two of our lightweight athletes, Mycal Tucker and Rachel Osmundsen. Moreover, as the coaches, at least, are acutely aware, spring racing will be here before we know it. Three of our four teams will start racing on the last weekend of March. Since our lightweight wom-en will open at the San Diego Crew

Classic, Tech crew will be in action before April even if the Charles hasn’t melted, heaven forbid. From the cusp of winter, MIT crews will race until the first weekend of July, as our lightweight men will be competing at the Henley Royal Re-gatta. Complete spring race sched-ules for our teams are included in this issue.

This severe weather has really brought home the deteriorating condition of our beloved, but old, undersized and un-insulated boat-house. As many of you know, the replacement or upgrade of Pierce Boathouse has been moved to the front burner, and many people have been working to make it happen. This project will be a major chal-lenge in many ways, but especially financially. Within the next few weeks we should have a feasibility study in hand, which will define the

scope of the challenge by attaching cost estimates to several options. We have already received some major pledges from alums toward this project. We will be sharing more details with you as soon as we have them.

In closing, I would ask that you continue your outstanding support of our team by attending races and by helping us meet the major finan-cial challenges that we face. Thank you, and Go Tech!

Director’s MessageContinued from p. 1

Contents

Florida Training

Director’s Message

Florida Training

Rower Spotlight

1

2-4

5

Staff Spotlight

Spring Preview

Spring Schedule

6-7

8-11

8-11

Florida Trainingby Mycal Tucker, ‘15

“In the midst of winter, I find within me the invisible summer…” So proclaims Tolstoy in The King-dom of God Is within You, and so proclaim the men and women on MIT’s crew teams. This year we once again fled the cold of Boston and descended on the balmy shores of Cocoa Beach, Sykes Creek, and Kiwanis Park for ten brief days.Did we row? Oh yes. On most days, each team launched twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The lightweight men ventured forth on their “Marathon Row,” a perennial favorite involv-ing 21 miles of rowing followed by a 5 mile run back to the hotel.

We also introduced a new training technique of extremely brief but intense workouts on the erg before our actual practice on the water began.But what did we do when we did not row? What didn’t we do?This year, the seniors on the light-weight men’s team each bought walkie-talkies with ranges of up to three miles. Van rides to practice were suddenly filled with the smell of sunscreen, the glare of the noon sun, and yes, the static crackle of a radio declaring that “Tipsy Alba-tross” and “Begrudging Panda”, code names for two of the seniors, were planning on running back after practice.Back at the hotel, the fun contin-ued. One night, we stormed Slow ‘n’ Low, a barbeque place just

down the road from the hotel. The food was delicious, if not condu-cive to a lightweight diet. More importantly, the balloon-toting en-tertainer kept us amused for hours with balloon monkeys, cartoon characters, and dragons. After din-ner, we visited Ice Cream Junction, a karaoke-ice-cream-supermarket, and belted “Piano Man” into the microphone.

Normally, maintaining such a furious pace of rowing and revel-ry would burn people out, but not us. On our day off, we purchased inflatable rafts for a rollicking day on the beach. (Inflating the rafts became a workout of its own with one of the seniors, Tom Altmann, demonstrating incredible lung capacity that put the rest of us to shame.) As some rowers marauded on the open seas, others stayed on land for countless games of “Top Gun”-themed volleyball.All this fun is not to say that we did

not focus on our practices. Whether in sunny Florida or snowy Boston, our team is constantly pushing itself in scheduled and voluntary training. Just wait until spring and summer start melting the Charles, and I am confident that you will see what everyone on our team already knows – no matter how cold the day, how hungry the rower, or how difficult the workout, our team constantly lives in our invisible summer of crew.

Florida TrainingFlorida TrainingContinued from p. 2

Now in its fifth year of operation, the MIT Youth Rowing Camp offers a choice of three one-week day camps for high-school-age rowers, emphasizing sculling skills.

Teaching methods will include on-the-water coaching, video review, and tank demonstrations, with a highcoach-to-athlete ratio to ensure that all campers receive lots of individual attention.

Session One: June 15 - June 19Session Two: June 22 - June 26Session Three: July 6 - July 10

Anyone interested in the program should visithttp://www.mitathletics.com/sports/m-crew/CrewCamp2014

for more information.

Florida TrainingFlorida Trainingby Rachel Osmundsen, ‘17

While it may be (literally) freezing here in Boston, MIT Crew got to spend a sunny ten days in Florida at the beginning of January during the Institute’s Independent Activities Period (IAP). We stayed in Cocoa Beach and rowed out of Kiwanis Island Park. Each year, this trip is a great opportunity to focus solely on rowing without the pressures of classes and MIT. Everyone makes great technical improvements that are impossible to obtain on the erg, and, with two practices a day, fitness is bound to improve. Per-haps equally important, however, is the time spent with our teammates. This is when new members of the team really become integrated; I remember my first Florida trip as when I truly became close to everyone on the team. The bonds

we form on this trip help carry us through intense spring racing.

Rowing in Florida is a magical ex-perience. You are guaranteed to see pelicans diving for fish, and, if you row well enough, dolphins will ap-pear. We always hope for a glimpse of a manatee, but have so far been unsuccessful except when we made the voyage to Blue Spring State Park on our day off. The day off is a great opportunity for the teams to get to know each other, and typi-cal activities include going to the movies, reading on the beach, and going out to dinner. This year, the Coaches Patton and Thews-Wassell helped inter-team bonding along as social chairs. Most notably, they organized a dessert bake off, which included many creative entries, no-tably truffles shaped like a sculler!

The Florida trip is an amazing va-cation, but it is also a lot of work.

All the teams practice twice a day, usually around 7am and 2pm. Without the constraints of class-es and homework, we are able to spend as much time on the water as we need to, allowing for much longer and productive practices. From nit-picky triple pauses to seat racing, we get it all in. With long rows we get to explore every bend of Sykes Creek, and some teams even take a day for a marathon row. Practice is often followed by a run back to the hotel from the site, about 5 miles of straight road. All this hard work really pays off when the river finally thaws and we jump right back into racing in the spring. As a member of MIT Crew, I am so grateful to get the opportunity to go on this trip. And when snow is falling past the window as we erg inside, I can think back on those sunny days and smile.

Rower SpotlightVeronica Toroby Previn Chandraratna

Now a solid member of the varsi-ty eight for the MIT openweight women, Veronica Toro took her first sculling strokes after walking on to the lightweight squad in the Fall of 2011. By the summer of 2013, she was firmly entrenched in the Puerto Rican developmental system. The early moments were rough, she recalls, talking about one of her first practice races: “They said ‘Attention! Go!’ I flipped instantly.”

2014 was a year to remember. Toro gained her first race experience at the Pan Am qualifiers in Mexico City. “I missed the cut,” she said, “but I regarded it as a triumph. I was laughing with joy when I finished, knowing that I was even close to former Olympians.” In August, Veronica made her national team debut, racing the single scull at the Senior World Championships in Amsterdam. With these experi-ences in hand, her best race came at the Central American Champi-onships in November, where she finished fourth, within a length of

medalling.

What’s next for Veronica? “The racing calendar is packed, but I have communicated that I am firm-ly committed to my schoolwork and team at MIT. I’ll be shooting for more international racing in August, and perhaps Olympic trials in the distant future.” The junior pre-med student has relished every moment of the process and learned a valuable lesson: “All of this has affirmed that what you put in, you get out of it.”

Veronica Toro (near) earning her international stripes.

Staff Spotlight

Pierce Boathouse, like most boat-houses in our league, requires a lot of moving parts to allow it to run to its maximum. A physical building, docks, shells, locker rooms, ergs, and oars as well as a coaching staff to instruct and train all the row-ers. However, one member that is often overlooked but is an integral part of the process is the boatman. The job entails a working knowl-edge of rigging, boat repair, boat maintenance, and a huge amount of patience. MIT is lucky enough to have two such men, John Pratt and Dan Baker. Both were kind enough to provide a little bit of

insight into who they are, allowing a glimpse into their background and their appreciation for the sport of rowing.

John Pratt has been with MIT Crew for 20 years and is a native New Englander, having attended BC High and Boston University for his education. He got his start building boats in high school when he took over his parent’s garage to construct a racing sailboat. He was hooked and has built both rowing shells and sailboats that have competed and won medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games. After 48 years, he continues to compete weekly in sailing races (weather permit-ting) after a competitive career that included racing at multiple World Championships as well as victories

in New England, Atlantic Coast, National, and North American Championships. Additionally, John is an umpire for sailing all over the US and EU.

John said that his favorite experi-ences with MIT Crew were (in no particular order): standing on the shores of the Henley Royal Regatta watching the crew row their hearts out to beat a bigger and more ex-perienced British crew; watching, along with some alums, the Open-weight Women row through crews to medal at the Patriot League Championships; watching the Lightweight Men the first time they won the Dad Vail; and watching the Lightweight Women win the Dad Vail. John says it is the ath-letes that make the job the most fun because he gets to see the crews

Boatmen - Behind the Scenesby Jeff Forrester

John Pratt

display their tenacity and determi-nation, which makes him proud to be a part of the crew.Dan Baker joined MIT Crew much more recently, having just cele-brated his two-year anniversary with the team. His experience in the field, though, stretches back 20 years when he began helping a family friend’s company on the Cape refurbish wooden sailboats. This eventually morphed into finer woodworking and construction. He was recommended by Tom Tiffany, a common friend of his and Coach Kilbridge, for the opening here and he was hired shortly after.

Staff SpotlightBoatmenContinued from p. 6

He began rowing as a junior for Dennis-Yarmouth Regional HS but had to stop competing due to a back injury. This, however, just allowed him to switch to marathons and triathlons. This turned out to be a good fit, as he has competed at the Ironman World Champion-ships in Hawaii and the Boston Marathon. These days, though, he tends to compete at a more low-key level, joining the ranks of those of us who remember the good ol’ days as fond memories.

Dan’s favorite experiences also tie directly into the athletes in the boathouse, noting his interaction with the rowers as the best part of the job. Watching the Lightweights

sweep both eights at the Dad Vail last year is what he cites as an example of the teams at their best. Dan notes that, after meeting the coaching staff, the rowing world proved once again how small it ac-tually is. Coaches Thews-Wassell, Forrester, and Patton had all been members of Riverside Boat Club at the same time as Dan’s brother. It seems only fitting that he eventual-ly joined our staff.

The role these gentlemen play isn’t only measured in miles driven, oars painted, or boats repaired but in the fun they have with the athletes and coaches as well as the help they offer in making the experience here one of a kind.

Dan Baker

Spring PreviewLight Menby Will Oliver

The MIT lightweight men took several lessons away from the fall season, the most important of which was the necessity of good preparation. While the fall season yielded some promising results, it wasn’t all that the team hoped for. While narrowing the gap between themselves and the lead crews at the Head of the Charles, the team placed lower than in previous seasons, underscoring the compet-itiveness that embodies the EARC. Subsequently, Florida and winter training have become a continuous effort to ensure that no potential goes unrealized in the spring sea-son.

With a strong senior class setting the tone, the team has seen marked improvement over the course of the last two months. All of that train-ing, however, has just set the squad up for the coming month. Between

now and mid-March we expect to see fitness and speed gains that will push us beyond what our competi-tors can match.

And the team will need it; the season ahead will be very competi-tive. Beginning with a race against Boston College’s heavyweights on March 29, nearly every weekend will require championship caliber racing. With Yale, Harvard, Dart-mouth, Georgetown, Delaware,

Cornell, Columbia, and Penn on the schedule, not to mention the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia in early May, the squad will see nearly all of its Sprints competi-tion before Worcester on May 17, and ultimately that will only be the beginning. With the IRA Cham-pionship and Henley Royal on the horizon, the squad knows that it will need to set the tone of success early and maintain into July. We hope to see you there!

Light Men Spring Schedulevs Boston College

Joy Cup vs Yale & Georgetown

Biglin Bowl vs Harvard & Dartmouth

vs Delaware & Penn

Geiger Cup vs Cornell & Columbia

Dad Vail Regatta

EARC Sprints

IRA Regatta

Henley Royal Regatta

Home

Derby, CT

Home

Philadelphia, PA

Home

Philadelphia, PA

Worcester, MA

West Windsor, NJ

Henley-on-Thames, England

March 29

April 4

April 11

April 18

April 25

May 8-9

May 17

May 29-31

July 1-5

Spring PreviewLight Womenby Claire Martin-Doyle

Our opening spring races are bi-coastal this year with the First Varsity Eight racing in San Diego at the Crew Classic and the rest of the team racing at home against Boston University. Crew Classic features a deep field, with crews from Stanford, Princeton, BU, and Villanova. Our second weekend of racing, the team lines up against DIII openweights, Simmons and Bates for home racing on the Charles. The team then travels to Mercer Lake for The Knecht Cup, April 11-12, which looks to be a preview of the IRA with many of the top lightweight programs scheduled to compete. The follow-ing weekend, back on the Charles, Tech sees visiting crews from Stan-ford and Wisconsin alongside home rivals Harvard-Radcliffe and Bos-ton University for racing on both Saturday and Sunday. On April 25,

Tech contests the seventh annual Muri Cup in combination with the LW Beanpot against Harvard-Rad-cliffe and Boston University. The team will finish out the regular season with a trip to Dad Vail,

where both Tech’s light women and men look to repeat their gold medal performances in the Varsity Light-weight Eights. The team will finish out the season with Championship racing at Mercer Lake for the IRA.

Light Women Spring ScheduleSan Diego Crew Classic (1V)

vs BU (2V/3V/1N)

vs Simmons

Knecht Cup

vs Wisconsin

LW Invite

Muri Cup/Beanpot vs BU & Radcliffe

Dad Vail Regatta

IRA Regatta

San Diego, CA

Home

Home

West Windsor, NJ

Home

Home

Home

Philadelphia, PA

West Windsor, NJ

March 28-29

March 28

April 4

April 11-12

April 18

April 19

April 25

May 8-9

May 30-31

Spring PreviewOpen Womenby Previn Chandraratna

Openweight Women Spring Schedule

vs Boston College, UMass & Dartmouth

George Washington Invitational

vs Holy Cross & Rutgers

Women’s Eastern Sprints

Patriot League Championship

Home

Washington, DC

Worcester, MA

Cherry Hill, NJ

Cherry Hill, NJ

April 4

April 10-11

April 25

May 3

May 15

Metaphorically speaking, it is spring again at MIT. It’s a young team- as the recruiting buzz has taken hold and walk-on develop-ment has picked up. A full two- thirds of the squad’s top twenty seats are occupied by the freshman and sophomore class. The fall months were a great time for these newer athletes to coalesce into a single stroke and rhythm, and over the course of that stretch, we closed considerably on the league’s best.

Last year’s racing season ended with two Patriot League Champi-onship bronze medals, and all three boats in the Grand finals. What led

to this performance was a tough mid-season racing schedule. This year, after completing a produc-tive Florida training trip, we have been putting in the hard miles to be ready once again for the spring- a season that holds new challenges including Dartmouth, led by Linda Muri ’85, and familiar foes like Boston College. Our Worcester regatta against Rutgers and Holy Cross offers an additional oppor-tunity to practice our focus on foreign waters. The George Wash-ington Invitational, where we have won eight of nine races in three years, offers a fabulous opportunity to test our mettle against league opponents such as Georgetown and Navy.

In all, our approach generally takes

the full cycle of the year to develop peak speed at the Patriot League Championship, and we have reason to believe that this group is ready for that kind of trajectory.

Spring PreviewHeavy Menby Evan Thews-Wassell

Heavyweight Men Spring Schedule

vs Boston College & UMass

Alumni Cup vs Columbia, Dartmouth & Holy Cross

Donahue Cup vs Williams & WPI

Compton Cup vs Harvard & Princeton

vs Bates & Delaware

Cochrane Cup vs Wisconsin

EARC Sprints

IRA Regatta

Home

Home

Worcester, MA

Princeton, NJ

Home

Madison, WI

Worcester, MA

West Windsor, NJ

March 28

April 4

April 11

April 18

April 25

May 2

May 17

May 29-31

The MIT Heavyweight Men are excited to start their 2015 spring campaign. Led by a dedicated group of seniors, the team is cur-rently pushing hard through winter training and showing significant improvements. A talented fresh-man class is performing well and

striving to put their mark on the program. We look forward to rac-ing some of the best teams in the country and performing well at the Eastern Sprints and IRA regattas.

The 2015 spring schedule for the heavyweight men will be a compet-itive mix of both in league and out of league teams. Along with our usual cup races against Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth,

and Wisconsin, we will be racing some of the top non-EARC schools in the country. These races will be against Williams, WPI, Bates, UMass, Boston College, and Dela-ware. Race dates and locations can be found elsewhere in this issue, and on the MIT Athletics web page. We hope to see the MIT Crew family at the races. See you in the spring!

Coaching Staff

Head Coach, Heavyweight MenAssistant Coach, Heavyweight, Men

Head Coach, Lightweight MenAssistant Coach, Lightweight Men

Head Coach, Openweight WomenAssistant Coach, Openweight Women

Head Coach, Lightweight WomenAssistant Coach, Lightweight Women

Tony KilbridgeEvan Thews-Wassell

Will OliverJeff Forrester

Holly MetcalfPrevin Chandraratna

Claire Martin-DoyleAmelia Patton

Photos by MIT Coaching Staff Edited by Will Oliver