2007 Rowing Season Outlook – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
March 9, 2007
With over a decade of excellence that has established Ohio State as one of the top programs in the nation, head coach Andy Teitelbaum and the Buckeyes look to maintain the tradition and continue to success that has become synonymous with OSU rowing in the 2007 season.
“Last year we did so many things that we had never done before, and the list of things that have never been accomplished before is getting shorter and shorter,” Teitelbaum said. “I don’t necessarily want to define success or failure just based off whether or not you’ve done something that’s never been accomplished before because obviously there is going to be a lot more failure than success if that becomes your benchmark. Last year we won a Big Ten championship, a regional championship, put all of our boats in the NCAA Grand Finals and scored more points than ever have before. Obviously we would love to equal or do better than last year, but I think doing anything that upholds the tradition that’s been established over the last decade would be a measure for most teams of a very successful season.
“With the graduation of the 2006 seniors, including the Big Ten Rower of the Year Ninett Kossowsky, it becomes more and more difficult just to reload. The rest of the conference and the country respect that more and more schools are competing at the level that we’ve been racing at for a little while. You have to recognize the margin for error gets smaller and smaller every year. At this point, we’re really just focusing on trying to be as good as we can be in the hopes that our performance will continue to improve.”
The Big Ten Conference
With the 2006 crown, Ohio State became just the second program in Big Ten rowing history to win more than one conference championship. The Buckeyes won both the first and second varsity eight Grand Final races at Lake Phalen in Minnesota as they battled both tough competition and weather. The challenge of facing fellow Big Ten programs throughout the regular season is something Teitelbaum is excited to use to build into the postseason races. “It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “Only so many crews out of a conference or region are going to get selected and one of the struggles that we face is if you’re going to pull a lot of crews out of the Central Region to the NCAAs, then you have to race well outside the region. We are in a cold weather region, and a lot of the interregional races are early in the season, so sometimes we’re a little bit handicapped. But nationally, the Big Ten has been recognized quite favorably as a conference that’s had four teams represented at the NCAAs a few years in a row now.”
Teitelbaum added, “When you’re in the conference and you’re seeing conference crews two or three times a year you, more so than others around the country, start recognizing how programs are coming on and what they’re doing. It is a culmination of what we’ve been seeing for a long time which is a conference that has some of the best coaches in the country at universities that are interested in being nationally competitive. You’re going to see some great rowing programs.”
Returnees
Ohio State’s 2007 roster is a mix of experienced veterans that have won Big Ten and Central Regional titles as well as raced in the Grand Finals of the NCAAs and youthful newcomers that are anxiously looking to reach such successes. The varsity roster consists of 17 returnees and 15 newcomers, six of which were members of the novice team last season.
The first varsity eight returns five of its members including the senior duo of Jessica Shepherd, a 2006 Second Team All-Central Region and All-Big Ten selection, and three-time All-American Annabelle Fago. Along with junior Second Team All-Big Ten honoree Gabrielle Albertaviciute the boat will be in the hunt for its fourth NCAA Grand Final appearance in a row having raced in four of the last five races. The first eight also returns a pair of sophomores in Charlott Goldstein and Susanne Herbrand.
“The stern pair of Jess and Annabelle coming back for their senior years and Gabriele are all seasoned varsity rowers who led the boat last year and are going to have to do even a little bit of a better job,” Teitelbaum said. “Everyone is going to have to step up to replace the seniors that we lost (in Kossowsky, Jana Schiller and Beth Tompkins). Those were three really strong athletes and it’s going to take a little bit from everyone throughout the program to compensate for that.”
Along with Shepherd and Fago, the senior class includes Giulia Benedetti, Briony Clare, Mackenzie Hiltbrand, co-captain Justine Mahler, Jackie Ruetenik, Mary Sheehan and Susanne Wilson – six of which raced at NCAAs last season. The junior class includes returnees 2V8 rowers Andrea Dymalski, Patricia Goodeman and Simone Haubner, while sophomores Peta-Leigh Dakyns and Zuza Trzcinska enter their second season with experience, racing in the first four and second eight, respectively.
“We’re looking at them elevate their games,” Teitelbaum said. “Whether that means in the first or second boat, rowers that have been in and out of the varsity four are not only going to have to take seats in the second eight but do it effectively and help those boats maintain their speed.”
Newcomers
The Buckeyes welcome six freshmen in 2007, including a pair of rowers from Italy in Claudia Wurzel and Cleonice Renzetti who have national and world championship experience. German-native Nora Franzen is a two-time member of the national team and won a gold medal in the 2005 World Junior Championships.
“Nora comes in as one of the strongest freshmen in the country on the machine,” Teitelbaum said. “The real question with her is whether or not she’ll be able to make the transition from sculling to sweep rowing quickly enough to use her power in our top boat. She’s going to be a powerhouse somewhere in program helping a boat go really fast. Claudia and Cleonice bring the experience of a world championship with them as well. The three of them as freshmen are rowers we are looking at to absorb the loss of our seniors.”
Staff Additions
Ohio State not only adds new student-athletes to its 2007 roster, but two new assistant coaches as well. Former Buckeye All-American Diana Albrecht returns to her alma mater and Ohio State also welcomes Bethia Woolf, who has competed for the Thames Rowing Club and brings her experience from across the pond to Columbus.
“It’s really exciting to have both Didi and Bethia on staff,” Teitelbaum said. “Didi is a former Buckeye so she brings a lot of tradition, a lot of credibility as well as a lot of understanding when dealing with the rowers and what they are going through as far as being student-athletes. Bethia has done a great job of breathing new life into the novice program and has assembled a really athletic group of novices that we’re excited about not only for this year but for the upcoming years as they move up to the varsity.
“For the first time ever we have a graduate assistant and we’re excited to add another former athlete, Sarah Mominee, who was in last year’s four and is interested in pursuing coaching as a profession. As a former novice who came off campus, she’s really helping Bethia with Ohio State and comes in with a lot of understanding as to the transition of becoming a student-athlete.”
Schedule
Teitelbaum and the Buckeyes continually challenge themselves in the regular season in preparation for the postseason, and the schedule for this year is no different. Ohio State opens its season against some of the toughest competition from the 2006 season in Princeton and Brown March 24 in Princeton, N.J., the site of NCAA championships last year. The Buckeyes then travel to Virginia to face the Cavaliers and Duke Blue Devils before returning to Columbus to host their lone home regatta of the season April 7 when they take on Tennessee and Michigan at Griggs Reservoir.
After competing against the Wolverines and Michigan State the following weekend in East Lansing, Ohio State begins postseason action April 28 when the team travels to Madison, Wis., to defend its Big Ten championships title. The Buckeyes go for their fifth-consecutive Central Regional championship May 12-13 and look for their eighth NCAA appearance in a row May 25-27. Both the regional championships and NCAAs will be held at Oak Ridge, Tenn., a site that has equaled success for Ohio State in a past.
“The schedules is as difficult as always,” Teitelbaum said. “We open up against Princeton and Brown. Princeton had the fastest eight in the country by a long shot last year and I don’t think they’ve lost a dual race in over two seasons now. And Brown, who as a team hasn’t finished below third in the NCAAs in over 10 years. Then it doesn’t get any easier the next week as we race Virginia, who was the top varsity eight on the water this fall, and move into some regional action against Tennessee, Michigan and Michigan State. Essentially every week we are racing someone who was at last year’s NCAA championship.
“There’s an awful lot of racing before NCAA selections, and you never want to take anything for granted, but Oak Ridge has been a great venue for us and it would be exciting to be able to race for a national championship at that site.”
