As Dartmouth rowers gear up for another season on the Connecticut River, the men's crew squads are setting their sights high. Both the heavyweights and the lightweights expect to finish near the top of the pack this year. With a little luck and a lot of sweat, they may be able to improve upon last year's performances.
Lightweight varsity Coach Richard Grossman is not afraid to assert his high expectations. "The lightweight crew is looking forward to a great season," Grossman said. "We have five lettermen returning: Morgan Soutter '97 [Captain], Will Taylor '97, Brook Detterman '98 and Chris Czaja '97 from last year's varsity, and Stephanie Yu '97, who coxed the varsity in 1995."
Last year's lightweight varsity finished fourth in the East, as well as in the nation, while the second varsity won an Eastern Bronze Medal. The Freshman boat took home an Eastern Gold Medal to round out the lightweight achievements.
"Although we graduated five men from the first boat, we have some outstanding younger oarsmen moving up," Grossman said. "[We] expect to have a good spring. As to the fall, we're missing seven oarsmen due to the Dartmouth Plan but should perform fairly well with those who are here."
Captain Soutter has no doubts about the lightweights' potential. "We have been moving quite well on the water, and it's clear that the members of last year's strong freshmen group will contribute significantly to this year's varsity," he said. "We certainly have the physical capability to win gold this year; it's just a matter of everything coming together at the right time."
The Dartmouth rowers will compete next week at the Head of the Connecticut. The Princeton Chase will then follow on Nov. 10.
"We got a late start due to the Dartmouth schedule, but we expect to have people moving well for [these races]," Grossman said.
Hopefully, a strong performance this fall will prepare the lightweights for the important spring rowing season.
"The fall is typically less stressful than the spring, as the races are head races rowed over longer distances," Taylor said.
Heavyweight varsity co-captain James Jarrett '97 also hopes to have his squad in shape for the spring season.
"We graduated some key people in key roles, but we have five people with varsity experience plus a strong '99 class," Jarrett said. "We should be able to fill in the gaps for those who left."
Filling those gaps, however, may be tough to do, as the heavyweights competed very well last spring, finishing fourth in the International Rowing Association Regatta. All the biggest and the best schools from around the nation attend the IRA Regatta.
"The IRA is the unofficial national championship," Jarrett said.
Despite tough competition, the heavyweight rowing title is still up for grabs. The Dartmouth team will certainly make a strong bid for it if heavyweight Coach Scott Armstrong has any say in the matter.
"The heavyweight varsity crew is a young but hungry group this year. We graduated a total of nine seniors from last year's squad. This year's team has only three seniors, but we have some strong underclassmen ready to fill in," Armstrong said
Leading the varsity eight this year will be oarsmen Jarrett, Dan Perkins '97, Dominic Seiterle '98, Dan Protz '98 and Ken Deem '98.
"These five guys are focused, tough and determined oarsmen [who] will be the core of next spring's varsity crew," Armstrong said. "[They] raced well at Henley, England last summer, losing by only two feet to a German club crew called 'Rudergeschellseschaft Hansa Hamburg' that included some previous World Champions."
Other varsity rowers who will play pivotal roles this year include David Smith '98, Dave Hoverman '98, Doug Van Citters '99 and Jamie Peschel '99.
The competition here in the U. S. could be as stiff as it was in England. Brown, Yale, Harvard and Washington are perennial competitors, while schools like Wisco, Navy, Northeastern and Princeton can hold their own as well. These strong schools will challenge for the national championship, and Dartmouth hopes to be right up there with them.
Armstrong has the utmost confidence in the Dartmouth team. "I expect this year's varsity to be physically strong and big. If they can learn to race with that balance of killer instinct and maturity, they will be very fast."
