Indiana University Athletics
Indiana Rowing Announces 2009-10 Schedule
9/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
Sept. 23, 2009
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana Rowing team has announced it's 2009-10 schedule, which is highlighted by the second annual Dale England Cup and the Big Ten Double Dual in April.
The fall season opens on Saturday, Sept. 26, with the Lemonhead Regatta at Lake Lemon. The Hoosiers will then travel to Princeton, N.J., to compete in the Princeton Chase on Sunday, Oct. 25. In November, Indiana will travel to Chicago for the Southland Regatta at Fay's Point on Sunday, Nov. 1, and compete in the Head Race at Ohio State on Sunday, Nov. 15. The fall season wraps up with the Fall Intra-Squad Class Race Classic on Lake Lemon on Saturday, Nov. 21.
"With this year, one of the things we were looking at is that we have a bigger team and there's a lot more competition within the team, which will create speed on race day," said head coach Steve Peterson. "One of the big things in our training program that we tried to do, and also in the race schedule, was put them in race situations more so that they get comfortable with it.
"With the racing that we're doing this year, it's similar to what we've done in past years, we added in a race at Ohio State on Nov. 15 and will include Michigan State and maybe some other Big Ten schools," Peterson continued. "The Southland Regatta is one that we've done in previous years also, and it has all Big Ten schools in it and Notre Dame. The idea really is to get our student-athletes comfortable for races. We're getting stronger and we're getting faster. It's just getting comfortable sitting on the line next to some of the top teams in the country."
The Hoosiers will take a Winter Training Trip to Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 2-9.
"The big goal with the Winter Training Trip is to continue what we did in the fall from a physiological standpoint. It's about building endurance base and a technical base. That's also when we really start trying to do some identification in trying to figure out who the top people are on the Varsity team and who the top people are on the Novice team. We won't take the full team because it's performance-based, so we'll probably be taking four, maybe five 8's worth of student-athletes. It's changed dramatically over the last couple of years and it has really helped in the competitiveness within the team and that will help us move forward into the spring."
IU opens the spring season with a scrimmage against Wisconsin on Lake Lemon on Saturday, March 6, before taking its annual Spring Break Training Trip to Clemson, S.C., March 13-20. The Hoosiers will race Clemson on Saturday, March 20.
"The Wisconsin scrimmage is great because it allows us to race them four times in the morning and four times again in the afternoon, so in one day we'll be getting 5-10 races against a national-caliber crew. We want our student-athletes to perform on race day the way they do in practice. For spring break, it will be a tune-up before we get into the season and that's where we really start putting the pieces together as far as race strategy and how we're going to get from start to finish. It's really where we start firming up our game plan. It's also when we really do our final selection for the crews and forming the line-ups."
Following the Hoosiers race against Clemson, the team will compete in the Indiana Invitational, with races against Notre Dame, Purdue, Buffalo and Eastern Michigan in Indianapolis on Saturday, March 27. Indiana will host the second annual Dale England Cup on April 2-3, and will compete against Boston University, Central Florida and Miami, before hosting the Big Ten Double Dual against Michigan, Michigan State and guest Brown on Saturday, April 10, at Lake Lemon.
"We're looking for more opportunities to help our student-athletes get faster, but also get more recognition in terms of national rankings," Peterson said. "To do that, you have to have competitive crews that are of similar speed or just a little faster than us. Clemson has been to the NCAA's the past couple of years. I like to start out with a fast school and a tough school for the simple fact that we know right away where we stand. The next week is the Indiana Invitational with Purdue and Notre Dame, along with Eastern Michigan and Buffalo - those are all good crews and fast crews, but if we're doing our job, I feel like we should be beating them. The Dale England Cup is turning into a great race with Boston University, Central Florida and Miami. They are all similar programs to ours, but if we can beat them we'll start getting noticed in the national rankings.
"The Big Ten Double Dual is a regular event and rotates around all of the Big Ten schools and it's going to be an amazing race," Peterson added. "Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State will be coming in. Brown University is coming in as a guest. All of those schools were at the NCAA's last year and Brown University is the winningest program in NCAA history. I think those four teams were all in the top 10 last year, so it doesn't get any tougher than that. It's going to be really exciting. I have some high hopes for us and the fact that it's on our home course will be a advantage for us."
The Hoosiers will travel to Oak Ridge, Tenn., on April 17-18, to compete in Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, before heading to East Lansing, Mich., for the Big Ten Championships on Saturday, May 1. The Aramark NCAA South/Central Region Sprints will take place on May 15-16, in Oak Ridge, and the season will conclude at the NCAA Championships on May 28-30, in Sacramento, Calif.
"The Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships is a regatta that is similar to the Indiana Invitational. There will be some really good schools there," said Peterson. "It gives us an opportunity to see a lot of the southern schools that we might not normally see, so it's a great race. Then we finish up with the Big Ten Championships and then our NCAA South/Central Regions, which everything leads up to. I'm sure, again this year the top-four or top-five schools in the Big Ten will be going into the NCAA's and last year the top six were all ranked among the top 20. The Big Ten Conference is arguably one of the fastest in the country, so if we do our job at the Big Ten's, nationally we'll be fine."
