Buckeyes Travel to Florida for Nine-Day Training Session – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/10/1998 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
December 10, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State crew team will spend half of the winter break training in Florida for the upcoming spring regattas. Over 50 rowers, three coaches, two trainers and Ohio State sports psychologist Greg Monden will travel to Merritt Island for a nine-day stay begining Dec 11.
“This does a lot for the team dynamic,” head coach Andrew Teitelbaum said. “The girls have a chance to get to know each other and it really creates a team.”
Merritt Island is near Cocoa Beach, about 60 miles northeast of Orlando. The team will be rowing on the Indian and Banana Rivers, part of the Intercoastal Waterways.
The crew team has made similar trips in each of its four years as a varsity sport, but perhaps never with such high expectations for the spring. The Buckeyes enjoyed their most successful fall season ever and now find themselves as legitimate national championship contenders.
“In terms of performance, this was the best fall we’ve ever had here,” Teitelbaum said. “When you start comparing yourself as a program to schools like Princeton and Virginia, you put yourself in a very elite group.”
The Buckeyes began the season at the Head of Ohio in Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 3, where the Varstiy 8 finished fourth of 19, just 13 seconds off the lead. At the Head of Charles in Boston, Oct. 18, Ohio State finished 12th in a field of 59 teams including the national teams of Denmark, Canada and the United States. The final fall regatta was held in Princeton, N.J. at the Princeton Chase, Oct. 25, where the Varsity 8 finished fourth of 43 and the second team finished 13th, beating all but two “B” boats.
Teitelbaum is working with a group mostly made up of talented youngsters and experienced upperclassmen. Veterans like captains Kathy Milette (Sr., Hudson, Ohio) and Mira Carrigg (Sr., Batavia, Ill.) provide leadership to a crop of talented underclassmen.
That group of underclassmen includes freshman Conny Kirsch (Potsdam, Germany), a two-time Junior World Champion in 1995 and 1997 for her native Germany in the double scull. Kirsch also was a silver medalist in the double scull at the 1998 Nations Cup, a competition of ages 23 and under national teams. Teitelbaum has been excited but not surprised by his team’s success.
“We know we’re very good but its always pleasing to see that realized,” he said.
