Welcome to Wheaton Crew's blog

Crew,
This blog is intended to disseminate important information to rowers and anyone else interested in crew. Events will be announced, schedules will be posted, and anything else that leadership thinks is important will be posted here. I would also like to document everything that goes on just for the sake of memory, which is why I've posted stuff that already happened this season. I think this will be better than a webpage, since it is easy to add information quickly and it is easy for me to give posting privileges to leadership.

Great Plains Rowing Championships

Wheaton did very well at their first trip to the Great Plains Champs, with with six medal performances. In only their fourth time rowing together, the Men's Varsity Eight walked away with a gold medal by the narrow margin of 3.5 seconds in a chaotic race in choppy water. The Novice Men also had a slim margin with just four tenths of a second between them and Nebraska.

Wheaton closes the season with six gold medals, two silver, and three bronze.

This was an extremely windy regatta. After Wheaton's first race, the Men's Varsity Eight, the rest of the day's racing was moved to a 400m course, which was less windy. All starts were floating.

MV8: (race in two heats, fastest time taken)
1st, 6:10.4 (with a huge tail wind)
MV4A+: 2nd in heat, 1:16; 2nd in final, 1:17.7
MV4B+: 1st, 1:31.3
MN4+: 1st, 1:21
WV4+: 4th, 1:31.8
WN4A+: 1st, 1:29.3
WN4B+: 3rd, 1:58.1

America's Other West Coast Regatta

Both of our Women's Novice Fours did very well at this race, with a silver for the A boat and a gold for the B. The Men's Varsity Four A and the Women's Varsity Four also received bronze medals. This was the Men's Varsity Eight's first time rowing together.

Season medal count: 2 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze.

Complete Results

1700m upstream, strong current. Floating start.

MV8: 6th, 6:55.48
MV4A+: 3rd, 7:02.10
MV4B+: 3rd, 7:38.67
MN4+: 4th, 7:41.20
WV4+: 3rd, 8:54.71
WN4A+: 2nd, 8:29.6
WN4B+: 1st, 8:55.5

Lake Lanier Rowing Sprints

Wheaton Crew did well against stiff competition in their first regatta of the year in Gainesville, GA. A gold medal was won by the Men's Varsity Four A, and the Women's Varsity Four advanced to their semi-final round in a very competitive race.

Complete Results

Distance: 2km. Conditions were calm.

MV4A+: 1st in heat, 7:06.20; 1st in final, 7:04.90
MV4B+: 4th in heat, 7:45.30
MN4+: 3rd in heat (2 advance), 7:52.10
WV4+: 3rd in heat, 8:43.70; 5th in semi-final, 9:01.10
WN4A+: 4th in heat, 8:58.90
WN4B+: 5th in heat, 9:08.00

Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships

Wheaton Crew had several phenomenal performances at the CIRCs on February 7th. Tate Williams (6:15.8) and Jonathan Rosa (6:26.3) took the gold and silver for the Collegiate Men's category. Mary Sley (7:37.9) took first among Collegiate Women. Emily Huelskamp (7:29.9) was runner up for Collegiate Novice Women. The Crew also entered the Open Challenge to try and win a free erg. Men and women entered five person teams. Their average 2k times were added to a 2500m relay. Wheaton's men came in third, and the women fourth (though their average 2k time was second fastest).

Other notable finishes:

Varsity Men
Lars Anderas 5th, 6:32.5

Novice Men
Will Duval, 5th, 6:50.0
Greg Hall, 6th, 6:51.8
Andrew Jones, 10th, 7:00.8

Novice Women
Molly Teune, 4th, 7:54.3
Emily Mindrebo, 5th, 7:56.1
Becca Terhune, 10th, 8:07.4

Complete Results

Spring '07 Schedule

February 17th: Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships
March 31: Lake Lanier Rowing Sprints, Gainesville, GA
April 14: America's Other West Coast Regatta, Grand Rapids, MI
April 21: Great Plains Rowing Championships, Topeka, KS

About Wheaton Crew

Wheaton Crew is a men's and women's club sport of Wheaton College. We practice on the Fox River in St. Charles, IL, from a dock at Riverwoods Christian Center. We participate in three to five regattas each semester, including the Head of the Charles Regatta and the Dad Vail Regatta. We practice about six times a week, sometimes early in the morning. Most of our rowers compete in coxed fours, though occasionally we race a men's eight. We own six fours and one eight. Our funding comes from donations, member's dues and fundraisers. All students are welcome to join as rowers or coxswains.

Wheaton Crew's Traditions

The Cheer

Through the ages the oarsmen and oarswomen of Wheaton Crew have launched their vessels to the sweet song of this conglomeration of Evangelical buzzwords shouted from the shore by the rest of the team. Legend has it that the Cheer was inspired by a similar cheer used by MIT Crew consisting of words like "algorithm" and "differential equation." The cheer begins at a low cadence (about 24 spm) and gets faster as it goes on, climaxing in a fury of inspirational screaming.

Unfortunately, the cheer is strictly an oral tradition and is unable to be written down for any purpose. You'll just have to come to a regatta to hear it for yourself!





Victory in Jesus

At the end of a hard day of racing, no matter what the results of our effort, Wheaton Crew gathers together to celebrate the victory we have in Christ over death with this hymn.

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.

Chorus
O victory in Jesus
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

Join Up

Wheaton Crew welcomes all students of Wheaton College who would like to learn to row or cox. No experience is required or expected. Though strength and size can be helpful, we have rowers of all sizes. Coxswains steer our boats and coxing is a good way to improve leadership skills. The practice is demanding, but very few find it impossible. Your boat's practice schedule will be tailored to the needs of that boat to minimize conflicts. Those interested can contact a captain: Tom Diehl (tom.diehl@my.wheaton.edu) or Charlotte Foote (charlotte.foote@my.wheaton.edu).

Donate

Wheaton Crew would not exist without generous donations from alumni and parents of rowers. If you are interested in making a donation, contact Kyle Godden at kyle.godden@my.wheaton.edu.