April 27, 2006
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s rowing team is currently in the midst of its most successful season in school history. The varsity eight boat is ranked 12th in this week’s Collegiate Coaches Rowing Association (CRCA)/USRowing poll after beginning the season unranked. Notre Dame reached an all-time high of 11th just two weeks ago.
As the Irish head into this weekend’s BIG EAST Championship looking for its three consecutive team title, head coach Martin Stone reflected on the team’s success this season.
On the progress of the team during the spring …
“This is a different team than last year with a different mindset than we had a year ago. We’ve changed aspects of our training and strength and conditioning program and I think that that has been helpful to us this year. I think our team is very excited about what they have accomplished thus far.”
“There was some apprehension at the beginning of spring break and until we raced Tennessee and Minnesota because I think we weren’t sure whether the changes we made in our training during the fall and winter were going to work or not work. We had a very difficult and intense week of practice before we rowed those two teams, but we came away with some very impressive results.”
On a very successful showing at the San Diego Classic …
“When we went out to San Diego, we knew we had some speed and were confident that we would have a successful weekend despite the fact that we weren’t ranked. Our varsity eight had a great race on Saturday morning and I think that carried us through the rest of our weekend with our remaining boats. We raced extremely hard to make the Grand Final, but when comparing times of other boats we knew that this wasn’t a one- fluke race. Our team knew that we had some speed and could compete with the other top boats in the country.”
“The next weekend in Indianapolis, we saw some of those same teams (Indiana, Wisconsin and California (ranked No.2) and had similar results. We beat Wisconsin and Indiana and moved closer to Cal in terms of time.”
“I’m happy with we are at and the confidence that we have. I think that we are finding some speed.”
On the upcoming BIG EAST Championship as Notre Dame aims for third straight team title …
“First off, we’ve got all the events covered and we are ranked fairly high in all of the races going in. Once you start racing though, your seed doesn’t really matter. I think our team is very focused right now on racing really hard and winning another BIG EAST championship. We want to be like all the other Olympic sports here at Notre Dame. There is a certain standard here. “
“The competition is going to be very tough and we expect it to be another great championship. This year’s field is very strong. We’re just going to try to race really well and see what happens.”
On team’s focus for an NCAA team berth …
“We are probably very close right now to team bid, but I am not sure we are there quite yet. I think that what we definitely do at the BIG EAST and then how we do at the Central Regions. Also a determining factor will be how well we have done outside of our region. Our showing on the West coast this year is definitely going to help us this year.
“I also believe that the team bid is in our hands. If we have great showing at the South/Central race then I think that we would have done a good job of positioning ourselves for one of the team bids. There are some schools that have varsity eight boats ranked ahead of us that could also challenge for a team bid, but we may be stronger and have better second varsity eight and varsity four crews.
What are the determining factors of getting a team bid …
“The team bid is considered the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four. The NCAA takes 12 teams and then four additional at-large varsity eight. For us to get a team bid I think our varsity eight has to go very fast, our second varsity eight has to do well at BIG EAST and South/Central regional and then our varsity four has to score some points. Then it will come down to the committees (comprising five regions) who will get together and rank the crews from their region and then the national committee compares everything to determine what schools will get a team bid.”
On what has pleased you most about this season …
“I think that the work that we did in November, December and January and what we did during spring break. Everyone on our team worked extremely hard during those months and especially during the week before our first competition. We did lots of volume and intensity and it showed off.”
On what the success of this season will mean in the future for Notre Dame’s rowing program …
“I think this will be a really springboard right because right now we have five sophomores rowing in the varsity eight. It’s a young group with many others in the boat returning next year. And are second eight is also very young. We have a young group of rowers who are very excited and who work really hard. They have an understanding of what it takes to get us to that next level.”
On the significance of potentially earning an NCAA team bid …
“A team bid obviously would be the next step for this program. I think it is on the forefront of the minds of our team and that really is what our team is aiming for this season. Our team is very unselfish and we have a number of people on this team who want to do whatever they can to help us get that bid. This is a very hungry group that just wants to be successful.”