VCU Crew Club

2011-04-21T09:56:00.002-04:00

Rocketts Landing Collegiate Regatta takes place this Saturday from 10-2! It's going to be a beautiful day so come and check out VCU Crew! Great news interview the other day everyone!

Spring!

2011-03-24T19:10:00.001-04:00

We are back on the water! Keep in mind the upcoming races, and get ready to win!

Spring Regattas!!

2011-01-26T15:41:00.004-05:00

So who's glad to be back in the gym?! If you'd like something to look forward to (besides a super sexy low split), check out where we'll be heading to this spring!!

Rowdown at University of Richmond

February 19th

Colonial Erg Sprints at William and Mary

February 26th

Spring Training in Cocoa Beach!!

Cocoa Beach, FL

March 12-19th

Occoquan Sprints

Occoquan, VA

Sunday, April 3rd

Kerr Cup Regatta

Philadelphia, PA

Saturday, April 16th

Rockett's Landing Regatta

Richmond, VA

Saturday, April 23rd

Mid-Atlantic Crew Collegiate Crew Championships

Occoquan, VA

Sunday, May 1st

Dad Vail Regatta

Philadelphia, PA

May 13-14th

Winter Rowing - row2k Picture of the Day

2011-01-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

Winter Rowing - row2k Picture of the Day

COUNTDOWN to Winter Conditioning!

2011-01-07T12:55:00.004-05:00

Hey all you snow bunnies and winter warriors!

Remember that time when you did sports on unfrozen water? In a boat? Like crew? Ah yes. Well it's almost time again to get in shape for when its time again. Make sense? So throw down the home cooking and fruit cake leftovers, and find yourself a gym or maybe even an erg!! Or wait until informal practice starts on January 17th. With the Real Deal commencing on the 24th.

If you're new to rowing and want to give it a try, come on out! Feel free to email our president or captains to get superfluous amounts of information on one of the best unfrozen water sports ever.

2010-09-21T21:44:00.002-04:00

THIS SATURDAY!!!!!

Semi Annual CREW FUNDRAISING DINNER 7pm at the Richmond Marriott downtown!!!!

Get out of that spandex and get down to party.

Now what you all wanted....

2010-09-21T21:36:00.004-04:00

uni pics from a summer rower at Henley!!!

Tales of a Summer Rower

2010-09-21T21:25:00.003-04:00

Hey folks! Hope you're all in bed by now to be raring for tomorrow's practice, but for the bad kids here's a super sweet post from Catherine, our beast women's captain. She rowed over the summer with Thompsons Boat Club in DC and had this to say about the awesome experience!

The first day began with 30 rowers from programs all across the country. Clemson, Dartmouth, Deleware, Mason, GW, UNC, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mary Washington and as far away as Texas. We were introduced to our four coaches and we were put out in three eights. Seat racing really began the first day. The object was to find the fastest girls as fast as possible in order to make them even faster. Over the next few weeks we pulled the boats along side each other and switched rowers more times that I could keep track of. We practiced in eights, fours as well as pairs.

While seat racing is the best way to find out the fastest rowers we all know how important boat chemistry is as well. A team tradition has been that all rowers and coaches go out to eat at Chadwicks every Thursday night. We also all got together for a 4^th of July party and walked over to key bridge to watch the fireworks.

After 6 weeks, just over 50 practices, about 100 hours of rowing, the line ups were finalized for Club Nationals in Oakridge Tennessee. There were a slew of 8+s, 4+s and 2-s entered in the regatta. When we first arrived we rigged our boats and then walked them over to the weighing station where we weighed the boats and added weights when necessary. We then made our way over to the US Rowing tent where we had to pick up our “credentials” (a laminated index card on a string). When launching for a race we had to show the officials our credentials in order to be allowed on the course. For the lightweight events we had to weigh in 2 hours before our event, once we made weight (everyone under 130 lbs) they gave us a bright colored wristband. I raced the intermediate 8+, the senior 8+, the intermediate lightweight 4+, the senior lightweight 4+, the intermediate 4+ and the senior lightweight 2-. With 6 races in 4 days we definitely used about every recovery technique available: Ice baths, power bars, power gels, muscle milk (ew), Gatorade and mass amounts of fruit and pasta.

By the end of the week, Thompsons Boat club left Tennessee with a few gold medals, and a number of bronzes as well. Upon our return to the District we began seat racing once again for line-ups for Canadian Henley. My pair partner and I got to go out every day in our pair which was great because we had only really practiced 2 or 3 times before our race at nationals. After two weeks of practice, we loaded an absurd number of boats onto the trailer, which included some of them hanging upside down between other boats, and we were off to St. Catharines.

After a long drive north we finally made it to the border, only to sit in line for an hour and a half. Of course we all know that rowers can’t sit still for very long unless they are sleeping so a dance party quickly ensued. We made lots of friends who were driving across the border back into America who were also waiting in line. We finally arrived on Henley Island, welcomed by the nearly 20 bays of St. Catharines boathouse and the 8 lane perfectly straight, buoyed 2000 meter course. We made our way to the course and searched for our trailer in the sea of boat-trailer madness to meet up with our fellow rowers.

The next day my pair partner and I went to watch the other pairs race. We also had to wait in line to get tickets to go practice on the course in the evening. We did a row over of the course that afternoon in some pretty high winds and white capping water, but it was possible that we were going to be racing in those conditions. On Wednesday we got ready for the senior pair race (we couldn’t race the under 23 because my pair partner will turn 23 this year, so we were racing a lot of really experienced crews). We were treating that race like a warm up race because we wanted to get familiar with the course and the start situation. We warmed up to the starting line and they called us onto the course. We backed our pair into the starting blocks and adjusted our point. They called out the names of the clubs in our heat, attention and finally a green light and a beep signaling go. Each 500 meter marker was marked with a large metal tower and lane numbers strung across the 8 lanes. We didn’t qualify for finals but we were happy with our time.

The morning of our senior lightweight pair race we woke up at 6am and weighed ourselves at the hotel to make sure that we were under the 59kg limit. We went to the course to weigh in on the official scale. At Canadian Henley you only get one chance to weigh in and if you don’t make it you are not allowed to race. Thankfully we both were fine, they stamped us with a black 59kg stamp on out arm and we left to go practice.

There was a small part of the river on the other side of the island sectioned off for small boats to practice during the day. We walked our pair down to the small boats dock and shoved off to practice a few starts. Once we put the pair away we started walking back to the car. I saw the Kashper tent so I went over to see if they had any T-shirts, and I ran into the Danny Boy! She was on her way back from being resurfaced on a trailer to Philadelphia. We went back to the hotel and had breakfast and a nap. That afternoon we made our way back to the course for our race. We once again lined up at the start and waited for the green light. We finished 5^th in the final and knocked a minute and 20 seconds off of our time from nationals. Ashley and I were both really happy with the result and it was a really great race.

We watched the 1^st eight finish 3rd in the 500 meter dash which was the last women’s event for us. That night we all went out to dinner and then to the bars in Port Dalhousie, which was a really fun little town. All of the bars were packed with rowers from other clubs and it was really fun to meet all of them. There were many world-class rowers in attendance, there were also rumors that the US and Canadain national teams made an appearance in the races on Sunday.

We said our farewells and got back in the car to drive the 9 hours back to DC. It was hard to say good-bye to everyone I had gotten close to this summer. It felt a lot like the last day of camp and I am going to miss rowing and spending time with all of them. I was really grateful to be able to row with such a great bunch of athletes and proud to represent VCU Crew among all of the NCAA programs.

Practice!

2010-09-07T15:16:00.002-04:00

We have started novice and varsity practices! We have a ton of new people, so if you are afraid that you don't have enough experience, just come and check us out! Everyday this week we will meet outside of Cary Street Gym at 6:00 AM. See you there!

2010-06-17T13:01:00.003-04:00

Hey guys!!

Hope your summers are going great and your uni tans are almost gone ( unless you're lucky enough to be rowing over the summer)

AND what better way to improve your tans than by RUNNING. Keep it up! If you're in Richmond, here's a great run to do; head out toward Texas Beach aka North Bank Park behind Maymont. It's a fun run that includes stairs(yay!), a steep hill and sand. And once you reach the river, you can cool off with a swim! The swimming is great for your whole body and you can really feel it on the way back.

2010-06-06T22:59:00.001-04:00

Start working out for fall season, We need everyone in shape for those 5Ks... RUN! 3-5 miles at least twice a week!!!

Website Trouble!

2010-05-17T19:27:00.003-04:00

The website is under construction!!!! Sorry for the inconvenience!!! Please visit our facebook page for information about the team, or email us at vcucrewpresident@gmail.com with any questions!

Occoquan Sprints 2010

2010-03-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to all crews for an outstanding performance, today!

Special congratulations to our two highest place-holders, coming in at 2nd place in their finals: the Women's Varsity 4+ and the Men's Coxless Pair! Good job, guys!

Women's Varsity 4+
Cox: Jaimie Gillespie
Str. Catherine Gellatly
3. Anthea Greene
2. Renee Palmatier
Bow. Rebekah Rubin

Men's Varsity 2-
Str. Ross Donovan
Bow. Andrew Olah

Cocoa Beach, FL

2010-03-01T13:16:00.000-05:00

Get Ready VCU Crew! Spring Break is coming!!!

We're heading down to Cocoa Beach for Spring Training next weekend (3/13), so make sure you give your money to Andrew Olah by Friday morning at the start of practice!

This will be epic!!!

Richmond Rowdown 2010

2010-02-27T18:12:00.001-05:00

After such a strong showing last weekend at William & Mary's Colonial Erg Sprints, VCU Crew was determined to defend their title at the University of Richmond's Richmond Rowdown to bring home the Burke Cup for the second year running.

We're proud to say that we succeeded in our efforts and remain the reigning champions and holders of the Burke Cup!!!

Congratulations to the following people for their victories!

Men's Varsity 2k: Jordan Dodson 1st; Grayson Junker 2nd
Women's Varsity 2k: Anthea Greene 2nd
Men's Novice 2k: Erik Dahl 3rd
Coxswain 1k: Jaimie Gillespie 1st
Women's Novice 500m: Rebekah Rubin 3rd
Men's Novice 500m: Chris Coon 2nd
Men's Varsity 500m: Mike Zderko 1st; Ross Donovan 3rd
3k Relay: VCU 1st (Jordan Dodson, Anthea Greene, Grayson Junker, Catherine Gellatly, Mike Zderko, Dani Ferguson)

Colonial Erg Sprints 2010

2010-02-20T21:08:00.000-05:00

VCU Crew headed out to William & Mary to compete in their first Erg Sprints of the Spring 2010 Season, and floored the competition. Our competitors had their work cut out for them! Looking forward to even more wins next weekend at U of R!

Congratulations to the following people for their victories!

Men's Varsity 2k: Jordan Dodson 1st
Womens Varsity 2k: Anthea Greene 1st
Women's Novice LTWT 2k: Angie Barraclough 2nd
Women's 10k Relay: Anthea Greene/Abby Manz 2nd; Catherine Gellatly/Megan Burns 3rd
Men's 10k Relay: Jordan Dodson/Grayson Junker 2nd; Ross Donovan/Erik Dahl 3rd

New Officers Spring 2010!

2010-01-25T09:19:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to our newly elected officers: Jordan Dodson, Andrew Olah, and Eliza Barry!

Your Spring 2010 Officers are as follows:

President- Mike Zderko
Vice President- Grayson Junker
Men's Captain- Jordan Dodson
Women's Captain- Jaimie Gillespie
Treasurer- Andrew Olah
Secretary- Eliza Barry
Event Secretary/Fundraising Chair- Catherine Gellatly

Looking forward to an awesome semester, guys!

Mid-Term Elections

2010-01-24T14:33:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately, we've had some of our members need to leave our ranks over the holidays. However, this leaves a few leadership positions available for Spring 2010! The positions available and time required on the team to serve in those positions are as follows:

Men's Captain - 2 semesters
Treasurer- 2 semesters
Secretary- 1 semester

We will have an election for these positions on Monday morning before the start of practice, so please be on time to the gym! 6 a.m. sharp!

The way the election process works is, you must be nominated into a position by someone other than yourself, and then that motion must be seconded before your name is added to the ballot as a candidate for office. If someone nominates you, you will be asked whether or not you accept the nomination before anything continues.

If you would like to be nominated for a position, start thinking about that now, and let someone know so they can nominate you! It also wouldn't hurt to come prepared with a few words about why you would like to be elected into the position, should you get the nomination.

Any questions, just e-mail! Thanks!

Winter Training to Begin 1/25/10

2010-01-18T17:31:00.002-05:00

We hope everyone had a great break, but it's almost time to get down to business again!

Winter training starts on Monday, January 25th 2010 at the Cary Street Gym. 6 a.m. sharp, don't be late!!!

We hope to see all of our returning members and a few new faces as well!

Winter Break

2009-11-15T17:30:00.001-05:00

The fall season is officially over! We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a good break-- see you in January for winter conditioning!

Head of the South 2009

2009-11-15T17:14:00.002-05:00

I don't think many teams could have seen a more eventful regatta weekend if they tried!

It all starts with a tropical storm the week before the race, battering the southeast coast of the US and flooding all of the major rivers and tributaries from Florida to NJ. River levels were higher than we had ever seen them during the Fall season in Richmond, causing us to nearly lose our dock in the heavy flow.

Naturally, water practice was canceled due to increased safety issues, with the result being it had been a week of being off the water before our last race of the season.

But Friday came, and we decided to persevere and give the regatta our best effort anyway! So we booked our vans, packed our stuff and hit the road!

With a long drive ahead of us the day before the race, we hoped to reach Georgia as early as possible so we could get some rest before our early morning start. Unfortunately for some, that was never to happen.

It was the misfortune of 1/3 of our team to not reach GA until 4a.m. the day of the race, owing to a little fender bender in the late van while leaving Richmond. That resulted in heading back to the rental company and waiting for hours for a replacement before finally hitting the road again.

In addition to this, the rains hit GA hard, and the river in Augusta was hardly better than the one at home. However, race officials deemed it safe to proceed with the race, so we raced-- just a little bit faster!

All crews coped amazing well and put in a great effort for the last race of Fall 2009!

The Varsity women's 8 pushed harder than they ever pushed in the last 1k, and the Men's Novice 8 overtook two boats within a heartbeat of each other!

Congratulations goes to the Men's Varsity 4+ for bringing home the Bronze! Well done, boys!

Head of the Occoquan 2009

2009-10-31T21:06:00.001-04:00

What a packed day of racing! Excellent work done by all crews!

The Men's 8, and both Women's 8s place mid-table in a division of mixed club and varsity programs, ranking in the top 5 of club programs!

Special props to both the Men's 4 and the Men's Novice 8 who placed 4/28 and 7/21, respectively!

WELL DONE EVERYONE!!!

Occoquan Chase

2009-10-11T21:54:00.002-04:00

Today saw the first race for our novice team, and the first race back in Virginia since May for the varsity members.

The Occoquan is a tricky course for coxswains, especially those who are novices, and rowers who don't have experience rowing on bendy rivers. All in all, we'll chalk this one up to a learning experience for our newbies and disregard any unfortunate mishaps with giant inflatable buoys! ;-)

Well done, guys and girls!

Head of the Ohio 2009

2009-10-04T13:52:00.002-04:00

Head of the Ohio 2009 saw less than ideal conditions. The winds were high, escalating throughout the day until racing had to be canceled upon the swamping of boats at the starting line.

Despite this, our boats still put forth a good showing against the other club programs that showed up to the regatta!

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Team Dinner Success!

2009-09-27T13:16:00.001-04:00

The officers would like to thank everyone who came out to the 1st Annual Welcome-to-the-Team Dinner!

It was a huge success! We raised $830 in ticket sales, donations and the raffle. Great job!!

A GIANT thank you to Catherine Gellatly for organizing a wonderful evening!

Welcome to the Team Dinner!

2009-09-19T11:33:00.000-04:00

This year's first annual Welcome to the Team Dinner will be held on

Saturday September 26th 2009 at 6:00pm at Black Finn!

The cost is $27 and parents and family are all invited to attend! You have been e-mailed dinner options, please RSVP to the Event Sec with your numbers and menu choices by Wednesday the 23rd.

Dress is semi-formal.

We look forward to seeing you all there!!

Car Wash

2009-09-12T18:39:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to help at the car wash yesterday!

Everyone had a great time, we washed some cars, saw some sunshine and raised some CASH!!!

Special thanks to Catherine for organizing this event. :-)

Keep up the good work!

First Day of Practice

2009-09-07T16:44:00.001-04:00

Hello hello!

First day of practice for new members is tomorrow, Tuesday September 8th at 5 a.m.

Meet in front of Rhodes and Brandt (corner of Laurel and Franklin) at 5 a.m. to carpool down to the boathouse.

Wear tight-fitting clothes and running shoes, and bring water with you!

See you dark and early!

Jaimie and Bill
Crew Captains

Interest Meetings

2009-09-03T08:54:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone!

The VCU Crew Club will be holding Interest Meetings for new rowers on:

Thursday at 8.30pm in the Commons Richmond Salon III

and

Friday at 8pm in the Commons Forum Room

Please come out and find out more about our club and the sport! We've got an awesome video to debut, you'll get to meet members of the team and get all of your questions answered!

We'll also be giving out details about the first practice-- so come check it out!

SOVO Fair

2009-08-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

Come see us at the SOVO Fair:

Friday August 21st
3-6pm in the Siegel Center

Meet current members and learn more about VCU Crew!

Thank You's, Goodbyes, and Summer Fun

2009-05-10T08:07:00.000-04:00

As a parting note for this year, the club would just like to thank the committee for their outstanding hard work and dedication to making this a great year for everyone!

As well, a shout out to our seniors: It's been a good run, and we'll miss you! Don't be scarce-- we hope to see you down by the boathouse and on the bank cheering us on in our future endeavors!

Lastly, we'd like to thank Yuriy for his generousity and hardwork in coaching this team. Thanks! We appreciate everything you do!

For anyone who will be around Richmond this summer, I'd like to invite you to join the VBC so we can continue rowing in the awesome summer sun! For more information, e-mail the captain's account or check out the VBC Website here.

Have a great summer everyone!!

Dad Vail Regatta 2009

2009-05-09T13:41:00.000-04:00

This year saw the VCU Men's Varsity IV go on to compete at Dad Vails in Philadelphia, PA. Dad Vails is the largest collegiate regatta in the United States.

Our boys pushed hard and they came 20th in the time trials-- missing the qualifying 18th position by only 1 second!

However, the row was solid, and as a show of their effort and determination, they also beat big names such as John's Hopkins, Vassar, Boston College, Amherst, Temple, NC State, Drexel, NY Maritime, Michigan, and George Mason.

Well done, guys! What a way to end the season!

Crew:
Cox- Crystal Tamayo
Str- Paul Burgess
3- Matt Auer
2- Jordan Dodson
Bow- Bill Weirich

Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships 2009

2009-05-04T08:11:00.003-04:00

It was a wet one!

This year's Mid-Atlantics were virtually under water instead of on it. The heavy rain started early in the morning and didn't cease by the time we packed up shop and left Northern VA for the final time in Spring Season '09.

Unfortunately, we didn't bring home any medals this year. Rain and fate conspired against us on that one with some unfortunate mishaps that resulted in missed races and opportunities from some crews. However, on the water all crews gave their best efforts. It was a bitter-sweet ending to the year.

While that sees the final race for the club this season, the Men's Varsity 4+ has one more race up their sleeves for next weekend-- Dad Vails. We wish them the best of luck! Go VCU!

Kerr Cup 2009

2009-04-19T11:48:00.013-04:00

The Kerr Cup in Philadelphia, PA saw beautiful weather and mostly favorable conditions-- something quite unusual for a river, like the Schulkyll, with such a bad rep!

The whole team trekked up to Philly to race in the 2009 Kerr Cup, hosted by Drexel University. For some of our new members, this was their first time competing outside of VA.

While the day's racing didn't produce any wins, all boats put in a good effort-- with the novice women's eight making it to the final!

So we continue to keep training hard as we head up to the last race of the Spring Season-- the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Crew Championships in Fairfax, VA on Sunday May 3rd.

Best of luck to everyone-- keep training hard!

New 2009-2010 Committee

2009-04-15T19:25:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to the new officers for the 2009-2010 year!

President: Mike Zderko
Vice-President: Grayson Junker
Men's Captain: Bill Weirich
Women's Captain: Jaimie Gillespie
Treasurer: Lauren Coogle
Secretary: Noel Flores
Event Secretary: Catherine Gellatly

Good luck!

2009-2010 Elections Tomorrow

2009-04-13T09:24:00.006-04:00

Hello, hello!

All team members please be aware that elections for the 2009-2010 committee will take place tomorrow morning 14 April 2009 at practice. Please come prepared to nominate and vote on the following positions (parentheses indicate required time on the team before running for election):

President (2 years)
Vice-President (2 years)
Men's Captain (1 year)
Women's Captain (1 year)
Treasurer (1 year)
Secretary (1 year)
Webmaster (1 year)
Fundraising Chair (1 year)

We need everyone to show up tomorrow so that we can hold this election, so PLEASE make sure you are there!!!

Thanks!

Occoquan Sprints 2009

2009-04-06T13:00:00.005-04:00

Another exciting day of racing for VCU Crew Club! This time racing took us up to Fairfax Station, VA to race on a 2000m long, 7 lane race course at the home George Mason University Crew, who sponsored this event.

The following boats competed in this event: Men's Varsity 8+, Women's Varsity 8+, Women's Novice 8+, Men's Varsity 4+, Men's Novice 4+, and Women's Novice 4+.

A full listing of results with times for the day can be found >here<.

1st Place:
Men's Varsity 4+
Cox: Crystal Tamayo
Str: Paul Burgess
3: Matt Auer
2: Jordan Dodson
Bow: Bill Weirich

2nd Place:
Women's Novice 4+
Cox: Jaimie Gillespie
Str: Lauren Coogle
3: Kelsey Thurber
2: Dani Ferguson
Bow: Elizabeth Ferree

Congratulations to both crews for a job well-done!

Photo Credits: Kristina Mixon

Rockett's Landing Collegiate Regatta 2009

2009-03-29T12:34:00.003-04:00

What a day!

After anxiously anticipating and preparing to host Richmond's only collegiate regatta, Mother Nature decided she was against us! Going into Sunday we were prepared for a little rain, maybe a thunderstorm or two, but certainly not the wind that kicked up with unfortunate consequences!

Only three events were rowed before the wind caused racing to be cancelled. Results can be found at >here<.

In the end, University of Maryland Baltimore County, NC State and VCU all had boats swamped by the torrential winds and the waves created by them. All rowers were rescued and returned safely to land.

Coverage of race day's events can be found in this Richmond Times-Dispatch article >online<.

In addition, photos from the regatta can be found online >here<, courtesy of JFord Photography.

We hope that next year the weather will cooperate with us, and we can continue to run this awesome event for collegiate rowing in Richmond!

Welcome!

2008-12-27T11:42:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the new website!

Feel free to have a look around to familiarize yourself with all of our new features!

Please have patience, some things are still under construction.

Thanks!