Columbia
National Lightweight Championships (at IRA Regatta)
Varsity Pair Earns Bronze Medal to Lead Lightweight Effort at IRA Regatta
6/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Lightweight Rowing
That's the heavyweight varsity pairs, people with athletes going 40-60 pounds more than stroke Greg Pupo's 145 or bow oarsman Brian Mulligan's155.
They stared when the two Columbia sophomores came up to the starting line, they stared when they propelled the little craft down the Cooper River course in record time, and they were still staring when the two Lions rowed up to the awards dock to receive their bronze medals (from long-time rowing official John Garnjost '56CC) for finishing third in the Varsity Pairs.
The pairs combined with the varsity lightweight eight to represent Columbia, as the eight finished ninth, just one spot below its seed, in the National Lightweight Championship.
“They did a fantastic job,” said an admiring Mike Zimmer, Columbia's Director of Rowing. “You have to take your hat off to V for what he accomplished with those guys.”
“V”, as assistant lightweight coach Vaclav Kacir is known, couldn't contain his admiration for his valiant duo.
“I'm very proud of them,” he said. “They showed a lot of heart and a lot of skill.” Both qualities enabled them to stay in contention as the five other pairs, all heavyweight oarsmen, turned on the power in the late stages of the race.
Although Columbia had jumped out to a quick start, it was soon passed by Wisconsin, Temple and Yale. Successfully holding off Cornell and Cal, the Lions stayed within striking distance of the three leaders.
At a pace that had veteran observers marveling, the front four headed for the finish line, Temple slightly ahead of Wisconsin and Yale still ahead of Columbia.
“With 600 to 800 meters to go, Yale still led by one and a half lengths,” Kacir said. “In the last 500, Yale still was up by a length. With 200 meters to go, Yale was still up. Then Columbia made two hard moves on Yale and beat them.
“They rowed a helluva race. We broke the course record.”
All three medalists broke the Cooper River course record, Temple winning in 6:47.162, Wisconsin second in 6:48.923, and Columbia third in 6:51.646. Yale was fourth in 6:53.101, followed by California and Cornell.
V was beaming. “It was an awesome day for Greg and Brian,” he said, “and an awesome day for the Columbia rowing program.”
Head lightweight coach Marc DeRose was pleased, too, with his varsity eight. “Our goal was to go as hard as we could,” he said.
In the Petite Final, Columbia went out aggressively, rowing, the coach said, “like there was no tomorrow.” They pulled away from the 4-5-6 teams, and battled Princeton and Penn down the course, totally in contention.
In the stretch, Princeton made its move, and Penn moved up to challenge. “But we didn't have the extra gear,” DeRose lamented. “We didn't have enough energy at the end.”
Princeton crossed the line first, in 5:53.874, with Penn second in 5:56.930. Columbia was third, just 6/10 of a second behind the Quakers.
In the opening heat, the day's first race at 7 a.m., Columbia also came out aggressively, but soon fell back to fifth place. With less than 400 meters to go, the Lions rowed through fourth-place Delaware and set their sights on third place, which would send them into the Grand Final. But Navy was able to hold off the surging Lions. “It was a great heat,” DeRose said, “a really tough race.”
The results:
National Lightweight Championship/IRA Regatta
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Cooper River, Camden County, N.J.
Varsity Lightweight Eight - Petite Final, National Lightweight Championship
1. Princeton, 5:53.874
2. Penn, 5:56.930
3. COLUMBIA, 5:57.529 (4th of 6 in heat)
4. Delaware, 6:02.704
5. St. Joseph's, 6:05.268
6. Georgia Tech, 6:07.082
Varsity Pair - Grand Final, Heavyweights (IRA Regatta)
1. Temple, 6:47.162*
2. Wisconsin, 6:48.923*
3. COLUMBIA, 6:51.646*
4. Yale, 6:53.101
5. California, 7:08.192
6. Cornell, 7:11.997
*broke the Cooper River course record
