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In this issue of Toledo Rowing Newsletter...

A Message from Matt Ramlow
Mary Mazzio Visits St. Ursula Academy
TRC Collegiate Rowers Compete

A Message from Matt Ramlow

My freshmen year rowing for the Yale Heavyweight Crew Team has been both a challenging and rewarding experience. Challenging in the time commitments (much greater than high school athletics), focus and determination required, and physical exhaustion, yet rewarding in the amazing community of teammates, the vast improvements in my personal technique and physical fitness, and the history and traditions associated with the Yale Crew Team. I am currently writing form Gales Ferry, the location of the Harvard Yale boat race, and here we are surrounded by pictures of teams spanning many years, and programs from hundreds of past races. This has been an exciting first year at Yale and a program I am very fortunate to be a part of.

Adjusting to collegiate rowing was not the easiest jump to make and humility was the key. In the fall I remember how nervous all the freshmen were to be joining with rowers they had competed against the last four years (being one of the only Midwest rowers in the freshmen class I didn't really know anyone) some of whom had won national regattas, or spent summers at junior nationals. Even more intimidating were the varsity who had already achieved greater accomplishment in rowing and had highly developed technique. Throughout the fall we pushed each other as a team to work hard, get stronger, and row as a team. I quickly realized that while I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to row in high school for four years I wasn't anywhere close to my full potential in power or form, and will have to work extremely hard throughout my entire college career to get any closer. I saw improvements though as my erg scores significantly dropped and I began to get more connected with my boat and fellow oarsmen.

As the various seasons passed our freshman boat continued to improve. We were successful in the fall winning our home regatta, the Head of the Housatonic, and having our two freshmen boats take first and second at the Belly of the Carnegie. We also had a very interesting race at the Head of the Charles where our boat collided with a Dartmouth boat on one of the turns and our strokeman's oar broke causing him to jump out of the boat to keep from weighing us down. We had intense training throughout the winter complete with a training trip to Tampa during spring break. During our duel races in the spring we beat Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, and Cornell, but were defeated by Princeton. Recently were had our East Coast Championships at Eastern Sprints and took fourth with our freshmen eight. My freshmen season will soon come to a close with the national regatta, IRAs, and finally the culmination of the season the Harvard Yale race. We are very excited for these last two races to prove what we have worked for all season. This year has been an amazing experience I am very fortunate to have and I look forward to my years ahead racing with the varsity.
     

Film-maker and Olympic athlete Mary Mazzio Inpsires St. Ursula Academy

Award winning documentary film-maker and former rowing Olympic athlete Mary Mazzio brought an inspiring message of empowering young women to St. Ursula Academy in early April. Her talk garnered some gold medal smiles among the entire SUA student body.

Mazzio first addressed the young women at the school and then visited the SUA rowing team and helped dedicate a boat by using a bottle of champagne she was awarded at the 1992 Olympics. The Olympic rower and her 10-year-old daughter Daisy then had a special dinner with the SUA rowers at Zias at The Docks. The girls were able to meet one-on-one with Mazzio and were given autographed posters.

SUA Rower Krissy Nowakowski said she will never forget the motivational talk. "Mary Mazzio was an inspiration to not only the Crew, but all of SUA. She showed us that we can all accomplish anything we set our minds to, and to never take 'no' for an answer!"

Mazzio was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic rowing team before becoming an independent film-maker who has written, directed and produced Lemonade Stories, Apple Pie and A Hero For Daisy. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Georgetown Law School, Mazzio is a frequent commentator on women in sports and she speaks nationally on a variety of issues.



She is best known for A Hero for Daisy, which profiled the Title IX demonstration at Yale University in 1976 by two-time Olympian Chris Ernst. The New York Times called the moving account of Ernst's sacrifices a "landmark film" and Sports Illustrated called it "fantastic." Mazzio showed Hero, which has aired on ESPN Classic, during her visit to St. Ursula.

Mazzio has a special relationship with St. Ursula's crew team thanks to the team winning the Chris Ernst/A HERO FOR DAISY trophy for the fastest women's eight-person boat at the Head of the Cuyahoga regatta in Cleveland in 2007 and 2006. When the team competed at the prestigious Head of the Charles race in Boston last October, Mazzio called them her "new favorite high school team" on her Web blog and featured a picture of an SUA rower.



A former law firm partner with Brown, Rudnick in Boston, Mazzio has served on a number of Boards of Directors including Shackleton Schools, Sojourner House (a homeless shelter), The Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, The Head of the Charles Regatta, and the National Rowing Foundation.

"It would be hard for me to overstate how much the SUA community and crew enjoyed and appreciated Mary and Daisy's visit to Toledo," said Cindy Dana, organizer of the Mazzio visit. "It is an extraordinary woman (and her daughter) who can appeal to, empower, and entertain adolescents, teens, young women, moms, and grandmoms all in the same afternoon. Her movie about the legendary Chris Ernst's struggle to advance Title IX and her message of personal accountability, pushing your limits, finding the right role models, and striving to be your best self were timely and timeless."

If you plan on rowing this season, be sure to get your membership fees in. For a membership application, e-mail denise_gehring@yahoo.com.
     

TRC Collegiate Rowers Compete

A number of local college students have continued in competitive rowing at various collegiate levels. These young men and women had participated in the rowing programs that call the Phillip LeBoutillier Boathouse home. This is a recap of the 2007-2008 season for these college athletes.

Taylor Montague (SJJHS '07) has just finished his freshman season rowing for the Georgetown University Lightweight Men's Crew. His season culminated in a silver medal at the ECAC Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Georgetown Freshman Lightweight Eight finished second to Yale and Navy received the bronze medal in this event. Next year, the Georgetown University rowing teams will be welcoming Chris Ulrich (SJJHS '08) and Taylor Dana (SUA '08) to their rosters.

Other Toledo rowers at the Eastern Sprints event included Steve Barchick (SJJHS '05), rowing for the Harvard Lightweights and Matt Ramlow (AWHS '07), competing in the Yale University Freshman Heavyweight Eight which earned a fourth place. Mr. Barchick also competed in the Harvard Lightweight Eight at the Head of the Charles the previous fall. His most recent success was at the IRA competition, where he and his partner placed second in the Men's Varsity Pair Grand Final.

At Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, the Keller siblings of Perrysburg, finished their regular seasons with spectacular results. Tom (SJJHS '05) finished with a record of 30-2. The only losses were to Stanford and Cal. Sarah's (NDA '07) boat's record was 30-4. Losses came to Ithaca and Williams. The Trinity Men won the Conference and ECAC's for Division III. Women's placed second, but the two teams combined, won the all points trophy at ECAC's.

At the NCAA's DIII competition in Sacramento, the Trinity Women's team finished second.

Tom and Sarah will now travel to England to compete in the summer's regatta season. The Trinity women will leave for England on June 13th and will be competing in the Henley Women's Regatta on June 19th. The Trinity Men will be competing at Reading and in the Royal Henley a couple of weeks later. Tom will be rowing in the V8 race for the coveted Temple Cup. The Kellers, their sister, Molly, and parents, Steve and Virginia, hope to see great racing and catch up with Rod and Gail McElroy at the Royal Henley, where Coach will be reuniting with his Harvard Lightweight Eight to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their victory.

Also traveling to England is Alex Thornton (SUA '07). This will be a return trip for Alex as she coxed her St. Ursula Academy boat in the Women's Henley in 2007. This year, Alex will be coxing the Boston University Women's 8 at Reading and the Women's Henley. If they qualify, the BU team will stay on to compete in the very selective Royal Henley's only women's event. Alex started her Freshman year at Boston University as a walk on coxswain. She caught the attention of the BU coaching corps and earned a seat in the Varsity 4 at Head of the Charles. No rookie to this race (HOCR '04,05,06) Thornton's boat finished 12th, after starting with bow number 21. She was cheered on from the Lars Anderson Bridge by a contingent of her former SUA boat and classmates. The BU Second V8 also placed fifth in the Grand Final at the ECAC Women's Sprints held in Camden, New Jersey in June.

Katherine Broderick (SUA '07) now a student at Boston College, while deciding not to pursue rowing at the collegiate level, has accepted an internship this summer with the Head of the Charles' Local Organizing Committee. She will be spending her summer working at the Cambridge Boat Club with the director of the regatta. She hopes to get in a little rowing or coxing on the Charles.

8 June 2008