In a comment to my post, "The End of URI Lightweights?,"a reader stated that URI would be racing at EARWC Sprints as a guest team. The ECAC has clarified this by saying that has yet to be determined. I am told that
Both Holy Cross and URI have applied for membership to the EAWRC and both are contending for the opening that exists this year. The results of the Knecht Cup this weekend will help determine which team gets invited, or if neither will be invited.
The coaching regime change at URI was made permanent on Monday, probably sounding the death knell for URI's lightweights. I have no idea why the old coaching staff left, but under Coaches Julia Chilicki-Beasley and Tina Paniel, the URI lights were seen as a "permanent fixture." Since Coach Shelagh Donohoe came on board it appears that URI has only occasionally raced a light four of opportunity.
It's exciting when a varsity program supports lightweights and I thought URI might become the next UCF. This is very disappointing, but not entirely surprising given all of the factors that I discussed in my last few posts. URI is a DI rowing school competing against the Princetons, OSUs, Cals, and Browns of the world. When we see them coming as close to winning the NCAAs over those schools as they might to winning the IRA (5th in 2004, before last year's emphasis), we can declare the move a success.
URI lightweight coach Tina Paniel has left the school to coach a high school program in Seattle. In their first season as a permanent part of the program, the URI lightweights turned in a respectable performance, beating all non-IRA crews they faced during the season, as well as a pre-IRA MIT crew. At IRAs URI was ninth, beating Lehigh, Ohio State, and Stanford in the petite final.
Last October I noted that head coach Julia Chilicki-Beasley pointed to Paniel's appointment as a sign that the lightweight program has become a permanent fixture. I should note that Chilicki-Beasley has also left URI, replaced by Shelagh Donohoe. Donohoe is an Olympic medalist and former coach at BU and Northeastern. Assistant coach Jessica Lizzi also coached at BU and Northeastern and assistant Bridgid Myers coached at Northeastern. There are lightweight events on the 2006-07 schedule so hopefully URI's lightweights continue to be a "permanent fixture," coached by either Lizzi or Myers. Myers rowed heavyweight at Wisconsin so she knows how a good lightweight crew operates.
Kate McKeown, a 2006 graduate of URI and a member of the URI lightweight eight that raced at IRAs, has been named an assistant coach at Rutgers.
At the ECAC Metros yeaterday, URI showed that it is ready to be taken seriously, winning the lightweight eight by 5 seconds over Marist. Although URI was favored, times tend to compress later in the season and it can be difficult to row from the front. Meanwhile Marist surprised Buffalo, beating them by 15 seconds after having lost to them by a boat length earlier in the season. Marist is clearly picking up speed and should feel good about this result. Buffalo continues to struggle a bit, but still took third place, beating Villanova, St. Joe's, and UMass. St. Joe's at 5th is a bit of a surprise because they had earlier come as close to Georgetown as URI. Two boat races in which the winner isn't pressed can produce unreliable results and that may have been the case with the Georgetown/St. Joe race.
I've been informed that the Radcliffe novice eight that raced MIT and URI last weekend was a boat of only novices, with no recruits. The Radcliffe V8 had some injuries (not the novices) which undoubtedly slowed them down in their race with the heavyweights.
I think the most interesting point here is that Radcliffe has maintained at least one full boat of true novices through the winter and into the spring season. This is no small feat given the intensity at which a crew like Radcliffe trains. I would think that typically they start off in the fall with quite a few walk-ons, but would normally be lucky to keep 3 to 5 by the spring. This is another sign of Radcliffe's growing depth.
Turns out that MIT and Radcliffe both had some injuries, and the boats racing in the Lightweight V8 race were a bit of a mixed bag, combining varsity and novice rowers. This makes more sense in light of the results. Here is a great picture of the finish of that race showing just how close it actually was (Thanks to Aaron Benson).
Radcliffe continues to show their strength as the lightweight V8 raced against two heavyweight V8s from BC and URI. Radcliffe was 10 seconds back from the winner, BC, and 5 seconds behind URI. Radcliffe's frosh raced against the Lightweight V8s from URI and MIT, finishing ahead of URI by 3 seconds and ahead of MIT by 4 seconds. The Radcliffe win here overshadowed what was a barnburner of a race between URI and MIT, as MIT considerably closed the gap with URI, from 17 seconds at Knecht to 1 second yesterday. The Knecht conditions were so odd that results were a bit goofy and in the absence of similar conditions may not be entirely reliable. These results also make me wonder if the Radcliffe frosh boat was the same as the one at Knecht, where they were 12 seconds behind Princeton. Either it's a different boat (or a different row) or Princeton's frosh are fast as the wind. MIT's 2V finished ahead of the UMass 1V, while Radcliffe won the fours race over MIT.
Wisconsin also did the heavyweight thing, finishing 7 seconds behind Michigan's 2V and 17 seconds ahead of Iowa's 2V. Later, the lights finished 16 and 15 seconds back from the Wisco and Michigan heavy 2Vs. In the 2F heavy race Wisconsin's 1F lightweights finished 3 seconds behind Iowa but 10 seconds ahead of Michigan. The varsity and Frosh also put in creditable performances against the heavies in fours.
Buffalo raced a lightweight four against their own heavies and Eastern Michigan, finishing 3 seconds behind the Buffalo heavies and 23 seconds ahead of EMU. A Buffalo novice light four also raced, finishing behind the Buffalo and EMU heavies.
Northwestern beat a Michigan State light four by 22 seconds. I assume this is a Michigan State club team since the MSU varsity operates under the Football Theorem.
Bucknell was in action against Temple, Delaware, and George Mason and although the results don't specify if Bucknell's light eight raced or not, I would imagine it did, probably in the heavyweight 2V. In that race Bucknell beat Delaware by 2 seconds and Temple by 16.
Final SIRA results are yet to come.
An article in the URI student newspaper, The Good 5c Cigar (is that really its name?), says that this "year the team will be able to compete in all the lightweight (130 pounds or less) events. Last year the team was involved in more openweight (130 pounds or more) events than lightweight events." It's good to see URI back in the lightweight ranks this year and Head coach Julia Chilicki Beasely goes on to say, "This year I think we will definitely have a championship team." Is Coach Beasely throwing down the gauntlet?
URI head coach Julia Chilicki-Beasley said recently, "With the appointment of Tina Paniel as our new lightweight coach this season, we intend to make the lightweight program a permanent fixture now that there is ample coaching staff for the program." Good news for the program that had a boat finish 5th at IRAs in 2004.
