Winter Break

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!