Rockford Strong, Row On!
It’s fall crew season! Beyond Design sponsored the Chicago Rowing Foundation team at the Rockford Rowing Regatta last month. If you aren’t familiar with the sport here is a quick breakdown.
Crew Quick Facts:
– Rowing origins date back to ancient Egyptian times and is one of the oldest practiced Olympic sports (1900).
– Sweep rowing means each rower only has one oar, while sculling means the rowers have two.
– The coxswain in a rowing crew is the member who sits at stern and faces the other rowers to coordinate and direct them. – Rowing compresses lungs and limits the amount of oxygen. Rows must tailor their breatHing to each stroke and train their body to be in tune with the boat.
-In rowing competitions you can compete with as low as one rower and as high as eight.
– The first rowing club in the U.S. was the Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839.
– In 2016, the women’s win in the eight at the Olympics extended their winning streak to 11 in international competition (USRowing.org).
CRF teams wait to compete at the Rockford Regatta last month.
As rowing becomes a more popular sport and a highly endorsed sport at universities (especially for women), more and more high school students are taking to Chicago lakes and rivers. A typical high school team has 150 crew athletes and practices and training are year round (even in winter). When not rowing in the the Chicago River or the Clark Park Boathouse, student athletes are training indoors on technique and endurance. Locally, New Trier, Loyola, and Ignatius are the top (and few) schools that offer the sport to their student body and compete against other high schools across the Midwest for coveted Nationals competitions. Those that are hoping to continue their seasons post graduation have their eyes on Duke, Stanford, UVA, and Wisconsin for coveted rowing scholarships.
Indoor training at the WMS Boatpark at Clark Park (top) and the Chicago River Boathouse (bottom).
Below are the top ranked (female) rowing teams:
Stanford University – Stanford
University of Washington – Seattle
University of California – Berkeley
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Ohio State University – Columbus
University of Virginia – Charlottesville
University of Texas – Austin
Syracuse University – SyracuseUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison
Yale University – New Haven
It was an exciting regatta with fierce competition this year at Rockford and we look forward to seeing the athletes compete the remainder of the season as recruiting gets more competitive. For more informatoin on the Chicago Rowing Foundation please visit their website here.
Image Source: Lincoln Park Boat Club.
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