As the last layer of ice recedes to the banks of the Connecticut River, the Massachusetts crew team is ready to leave behind the winter monotony of rowing machines for a spring on the water.
Entering the season as the eight-time defending Atlantic 10 Conference champion, the UMass squad is eager to defend its title. The 2004 season begins Saturday, when the Minutewomen travel to Kingston, R.I, where they will be favored to win the Yankee Cup Regatta. The Yankee Cup will feature all the state universities from New England, including Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In the 2004 national rankings released last week, UMass was listed as a bubble team, placed just outside the top 20.
“I think that this years team will be the best we’ve had,” coach Jim Dietz said. “We have an incredible amount of returning talent and the experience to do some impressive things.”
Last year’s squad captured victories at the A-10 and ECAC championships, and finished the season ranked 23rd in the final NCAA coaches poll. The Massachusetts varsity eight capped off a successful season with a gold medal performance at the summer’s Henley Women’s Regatta in England.
As one of the largest sports at UMass, the crew team will return 60 rowers, including seven new recruits. Stephanie Hoph, the 2003 Maroon and White Rookie of the Year, will be called upon to power the first varsity- eight boat this spring.
Joining Hoph will be senior Katie O’Brien at stroke, junior Lea Jakobsen in the sixth seat, senior Lizzy Boyle in the seventh seat, and sophomore Catherine Gariepy in the bow.
Recently appointed captains Kate Bonner and Carrie Champigny rowed in the second varsity boat last spring, and will be looked upon to lead a group of experienced rowers to the NCAA tournament. Champigny, the boat’s coxswain, guided her squad to a semifinal birth at the Henley Regatta. After a summer of training on the Connecticut, Bonner will return as the team’s veteran stroke.
“We lost eight seniors from last year’s team, but we’re senior heavy this year so we will unfortunately be graduating twelve after this season,” coach Jim Dietz said. “With the talent we have, we should be as strong or stronger than we were last year.”
UMass placed 19 out of at least 60 squads in the Open Division at the Head of the Charles earlier in the fall, its best finish ever. The Head of the Charles is one of the world’s largest rowing competitions, which featured rowers on collegiate, Olympic, and national teams. Of the ten collegiate squads to finish ahead of UMass, USC, Duke, Texas and Iowa finished within seconds of Maroon and White – all teams that qualified for the NCAA’s in 2003.
Dietz returns for his ninth season at the helm of the Massachusetts crew program. Since founding the team in 1995, he has been named the A-10 Coach of the Year five times.
UMass finished second in the NCAA Championship in 1997 and 1998, and will be vying for its first ever-national title.
