Click. Catch. Exhale. Send. Click. Recover. Inhale…This succession of sounds is the rhythm of rowing. It’s conducted by members of the Northwestern Crew team as the sun rises, just about every day on the Skokie Channel. The club team’s hard work paid off last weekend when it won the Illinois State Championship. Reporter–and rower–Angelina Campanile has the story.
UENO: My heart’s pounding…we were like, this is our race, everything we got, let’s go. My stroke seat Olivia will tell me if the flag is up or not…trying to get my point as best as I can…and then I’ll be like ok.
[Ueno: Half, half, three-quarters, lengthen, full. Let’s go…]
SENIOR LUCAH UENO IS A COXSWAIN FOR THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY CREW TEAM. HER BOAT CROSSED THE FINISH LINE FIRST AT THE ILLINOIS COLLEGIATE ROWING INVITATIONAL (ICRI) IN FARMER CITY LAST WEEKEND.
UENO: I try to bring the raw power out of the rowers.
[Ueno: I’m at four seat of U-Chicago, I’m at the bow for Illinois, let’s pull away now. Legs through, legs through.]
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THE STUDENT-RUN CLUB TEAM HAS WON THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP SINCE THE REGATTA’S START IN 2012. THE GOLD TYPICALLY GOES TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS–ONE OF NU CREW’S BIGGEST RIVALS.
CAMPANILE: What’s your favorite call to make?
UENO: I guess I don’t say this during practice, but the ‘crush their souls.’
[Ueno: I’m at their bow for U-Chicago, pull away now. Crush their souls now! Crush now! Crush now! Crush now! That’s it!]
FIVE OUT OF NINE NORTHWESTERN BOATS WON THE REGATTA’S MARQUEE EVENTS. THE CREW GARNERED MOST OF THEIR POINTS BY WINNING THE VARSITY MEN AND WOMEN’S EIGHTS AND FOURS. ROWERS IN THESE BOATS EACH HAVE ONE OAR. A COXSWAIN SITS AT THE STERN TO STEER THE STRAIGHTEST COURSE POSSIBLE AND MOTIVATE THE BOAT TO FINISH THE RACE BEFORE THEIR COMPETITORS.
[Ueno: We have open water with U-Chicago. Let’s say bye-bye to them. Bye-bye! Bye-bye! Bye-bye!]
DARTON: We showed up just a little different caliber speed than the rest of the competition.
THIS IS 27-YEAR-OLD COLIN DARTON’S FIRST YEAR COACHING NU CREW. THE MIDWEST NATIVE ROWED THROUGHOUT HIGH SCHOOL AND GRADUATED THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN IN 2017, WHERE HE ROWED FOR FOUR YEARS. HE ATTRIBUTES LAST WEEKEND’S SUCCESS TO THE TEAM’S GROWING COMMITMENT TO ATTEND PRACTICE AND PULL HARDER WORKOUTS THAN EVER BEFORE.
DARTON: I think the difference between this year and past years before I got here has been giving the team a more challenging set of workouts and giving them the opportunity to rise to the occasion. You can only pull the workouts you’re being assigned and you can only do the work that you’re being given. When this team was given the opportunity to work a little harder and get better results, they rose to the challenge.
[Ueno: Two strokes for Andie and Pickles. That’s one, two on the front end. That’s it! Big push!]
SENIOR SARAH PICKLES IS THE PRESIDENT OF NORTHWESTERN CREW. SHE SAYS DARTON’S WORKOUTS HAS THE TEAM ROWING ALMOST DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF METERS THAT IT WOULD ROW DURING PRACTICE WHEN SHE WAS A FRESHMAN.
PICKLES: This winter we really built our endurance with a lot of steady state, a lot of one hour pieces.
CAMPANILE: So you’d be on the rowing machine, the erg, for an hour?
PICKLES: Yes, we’d be on the erg for an hour and every stroke you’re trying to go as hard as you can.
CAMPANILE: Now is that something that you did in the past or not really?
PICKLES: Not for that long, no. I’d say the longest steady state I would do typically before this winter was like 30 minutes or 40 was long. Then this winter we were having hour pieces and then on some Saturdays like an hour twenty.
PICKLES WON GOLD IN THE WOMEN’S VARSITY FOUR. JUST AN HOUR LATER–AGAIN IN THE EIGHT.
PICKLES: In past regattas, maybe one boat would do well at each race and that was exciting at the time. To all of a sudden have pretty much every single boat winning or still placing really high–woah!
[Ueno: Leg’s drive. Weigh enough in two: one, two. Good job.]
PICKLES: It was a really proud feeling of everyone in that boat just knowing that everyone gave it their all. We had a novice rower in our boat and I was just so happy for her.
[Ueno: Katerina, great job!]
THAT NOVICE ROWER WAS FIVE-FOOT-ONE WEINBERG FRESHMAN KATERINA CLAUD.
CLAUD: I remember hearing Lucah just make all her calls like the most aggressive I’ve ever heard her. It was actually amazing. I was like ok we gotta go we gotta go!
BEING THE SHORTEST MEMBER OF THE WOMEN’S TEAM HASN’T STOPPED HER FROM BEING ONE OF THE FASTEST. SINCE JOINING LAST FALL, CLAUD HAS COMPETED IN THREE REGATTAS…AND SHE’S MEDALED AT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
CLAUD: I think showing up at practice, putting in the work, just trying to figure out technique and stuff once we got back out after winter…it was just a lot of being able to wake up and show up to practice and definitely just like having a bunch of people around me to support me, correct me, you know all those good things.
THE NORTHWESTERN CREW TEAM WILL COMPETE IN THE MID-AMERICA COLLEGIATE ROWING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS IN MICHIGAN ON MAY FIRST. UNTIL THEN, YOU CAN FIND THEM TRAINING ON THE NORTH SHORE CHANNEL IN SKOKIE FROM SIX TO EIGHT IN THE MORNING…SIX DAYS A WEEK…RAIN OR SHINE.
[Ueno: Catch, finish, catch, finish, catch finish.]
FOR WNUR NEWS, IM ANGELINA CAMPANILE
