Men's crew rows to victory in Indianapolis
Jeff Novack
Issue date: 4/7/04 Section: Sports
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The Invitational, which is the first ever of its kind and hopes to become an annual event, featured six teams from the University Athletic Association (UAA). These teams included Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western University, University of Chicago, Emory University, University of Rochester, and the Bears. Fellow UAA teams New York University and Brandeis University were unable to attend because of budgetary restraints.
The Bears headed in to the competition with high expectations.
"We were confident that we could do well. We weren't sure if we were going to win," senior captain Ben Brodie said. "We had competition in Rochester, who beat us in a couple races, but we pulled out a win."
In the men's competition, the Bears posted a dominating performance. The Bears won in the men's pair with the duo of Brodie and junior Matt White. They also finished first in novice men's 8+ and novice 4+. The Bears fielded teams that finished second in men's varsity 8+, men's varsity 4+, and men's JV/light 4+. The team finished strongly despite the fact that two of their top rowers were injured and needed replacements.
On the women's side, the team was led by the second place finish of senior captain Renea Poppino and junior Kristin Nelson in the women's pair. The team also finished second in the women's varsity 8+ and third in the women's novice 4+.
Senior captain Brodie saw the team's pre-match intensity as one of the things the team did well.
"We all went out there prepared to race, which I'm very proud about.," Brodie said, "No messing around, no [funny] business."
Still, Brodie saw room for improvement including "technique and race plan, trying to work together," Brodie said.
