Annie Kakela '92 and Ted Murphy '94 will compete on the United States crew teams at the World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia next month.
Kakela, who was involved with the U.S. Elite Team since the spring, will race in the women's heavyweight eight- and four- member boats. Murphy, who was recently chosen from the Pre-Elite level, will row with the men's heavyweight four-member boat.
Kakela started rowing as a freshman at Dartmouth, and competed for three years for the Big Green at the varsity level. Her senior year, Kakela's boat won the open-eight division at the Henley Women's Regatta in England.
After graduation, she decided to spend a year training under the supervision of the U.S. National Team coaches.
"Rowing at Dartmouth had been great as far as a team experience, but it wasn't as successful as I thought it could have been in terms of personal results," Kakela said. "I wanted to see how far I could go for myself."
Last month at the U.S. National Championships, Kakela won a gold medal competing with the U.S. Elite women's eight-member boat.
"For the first time in the last few years, the U.S. actually won our own nationals by beating the Canadians, who in the past have taken the title, by over ten seconds," she said.
Murphy, who will return next year to row with the varsity heavyweights, came to Dartmouth with the intention of making the basketball team as a walk-on.
But during his freshman winter, after being convinced to give rowing a shot, Murphy entered the Crash B Sprints, an ergometer competition in which participants tried to pull the fastest time possible over a given distance.
It was when he beat everyone, including the seniors and varsity members that had come to compete, that Murphy first realized, "If I put in the time and work, I could go pretty much as far as I wanted with rowing."
Murphy went on to become a member of the Dartmouth varsity heavyweight boat which had its best season in the College's rowing history by taking first place at Eastern Sprints, winning the IRA Regatta, and barely losing to Harvard at the National Championships.
This summer he was invited to the U.S. pre-Elite camp, but after beating everyone, including some ex-Olympians, on a 1500-meter ergometer test, Murphy was asked to move up to the Elite level.
"It didn't hurt that the Elite coach was standing right behind me during the test," Murphy said. "I guess I was in the right place at the right time."
Both Kakela and Murphy are optimistic about the upcoming World Championships.
"I believe, and I've been told, that this is a very strong boat. I think we'll make the finals," Murphy predicted.
"It's given me a chance to row with some very good oarsmen and have some coaches look at me and give me their opinion," Murphy said of the experience so far. "I should come back highly improved. This experience will help in training and racing."
"If my body holds up, the Worlds next year are not out of the question. That is a lot of time, but my eye is set in that direction."
Kakela has also thought about her future in rowing. "I will stick with it as long as I am having a good time," she said. "I will need to find a situation where I can train as I need to train while also working."
"I don't think of myself as a rower. That's not how I envision me, or explain me. I like to row, but that's not all of me."
Kakela, who majored in biology and received her environmental studies certificate at Dartmouth, would like to go into the public health field.
Both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams will train at Dartmouth through the 20th of the month.
