University of Oregon Rowing Team

The University of Oregon Rowing Team is located in Eugene, Oregon and practices at Dexter Reservoir nearby. The club was founded in 1967 and has operated continuously under the guidance of the University Club Sports Program.^[1][2] At Oregon, men's and women's teams practice together and compete against other club teams regionally and nationally in a number of regattas each year. At the end of May, the team races in the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Championship. Marlene Kindorf, Oregon's Head Coach, has been with the program since 2011.

The University of Oregon Boathouse is located next to the Oregon Association of Rowers (O.A.R.) at Dexter Reservoir. Each year, O.A.R. hosts the Covered Bridge Regatta which is the home regatta for both programs. In 2013, Dexter Lake was named one of the top racing venues in the United States by Row2k.^[3]

History

1967-1972: The Founding Crew, Don McCarty, and Victoria Brown

Before 1967, the University of Oregon made a modest attempt to field a crew team. The 1961 Oregana yearbook notes The Rowing Club at Fern Ridge Reservoir as, "one of the newest interest groups on campus," with plans to "row against similar organizations from other West Coast Schools."^[4] The original group boasted 20 members, three rowing shells, and a small tract of land to build a facility at Fern Ridge.^[5] However, it shut down in 1963.^[6]

Efforts to build a rowing program at Oregon reappeared in 1967 under the direction of university administrators Don McCarty and Ken Abbey and a founding crew of twenty-two oarsmen.^[7] Don McCarty was a director for the University Career Planning and Placement Services in the 1960s. When asked about his motivation for creating the team and building the original boathouse he said, "all the other Pacific-8 schools had crew programs at the time except for Washington State and us. I thought the Ducks should be on the water."^[8]

Ken Abbey, previously a rower for the University of Washington, helped to get the Oregon program off the ground before moving back to Washington in 1968. Abbey went to work at Washington State University where he used his experience at Oregon to get the WSU rowing program started in 1969.^[9][10][11]

Before building a boathouse for the team at Oregon, McCarty took a number of steps to procure boats in 1967. Oregon State Head Coach Karl Drlica offered early support to the program with a loan of two rowing shells,^[12] and McCarty rented a number of shells from his Stanford coach, Conn Findlay, at cost of $1500 per year.^[13] In addition to this, McCarty put a small ad in The Register-Guard on May 23, 1967, soliciting funds to build a training barge and buy a new eight-man shell, a goal that was never realized.^[14] The team was able to use the dock of the concessionaire at Dexter to launch their boats and a berth for the coaching launch was donated.^[15]

McCarty and the rowers then set to work building a boathouse. The U.S. Corp of Engineers and Lane County were willing to lease a site for such a facility and dock at a nominal cost. During 1967-1968, the crew team estimated the cost of putting up such a facility would [be] approximately $3,260 and the team felt that they could easily raise that amount in cash, materials and donated labor.^[16]

In the first season, Oregon's results on the water were mixed. On a high note, during an early scrimmage against the Beavers in February the Ducks pulled off a surprising victory. At a meeting after the race McCarty reported, "They didn't want to get it in the newspapers, but we took our varsity Saturday up to Corvallis for a practice race with Oregon State. We beat their varsity by one length and their junior varsity by several lengths."^[17]

By 1969 the Oregon Rowers were regularly competing in varsity races, and the University felt confident enough to elevate the start-up program to intercollegiate status on a trial run. An April 3, Register-Guard, article explained, "the University of Oregon had officially elevated crew to varsity status on a one-year provisional basis making it the 10th intercollegiate sport at the school."^[18] Oregon Rowing continued to be recognized as a varsity sport and a club sport for the next seven years, although the team was always funded and managed as a club sport. In total, 70 rowers earned varsity letters rowing for Oregon between 1969 and 1976.

Initially, Oregon Rowing was an all men’s group, and because of Oregon’s mixed status it was exempt from the new regulations of Title IX in 1972. Despite this, the Oregon Women's Crew would be founded in 1973 and the team would receive significant national attention surrounding coxswain Victoria Brown, one of the first female coxswains to compete in men's collegiate rowing.^[19] By the fall season of 1971, Don McCarty had left the Ducks, as had Oregon’s second head coach Dave Thomsen, and Don Costello, a recent graduate of Cal-Berkeley, became Oregon’s third head coach.^[20]

Oregon’s crew put up one win and eight losses in 1970-1971^[21] and Costello’s intention coming into the 1971-1972 season had been to turn that record around with his early prediction that, “we’re going to win some races this year and that’s the kind of publicity that I want.”^[22] Costello’s Ducks would win the season opener against Seattle, a competitor that had thrashed them the year before, but the greater publicity would come from Oregon's female coxswain Victoria Brown. Traditionally men's crews relied on male coxswains and Brown's presence on the Oregon team stirred controversy. Coach Costello had checked with Oregon State coach Karl Drlica to see if Vicky would eligible to cox during races for Oregon. Drlica, president of the Western Intercollegiate Crew Coaches Association, came back and said that Vicky would not be eligible to race.^[23]

In response, Costello got into contact with an Oregon Law professor to research the matter further. The professor discovered that, “the WICCA rule barring women was based on a supposed NCAA ban. Since no such NCAA rule could be found, [he] declared Vicky eligible."^[24] Seattle’s coach, Jorge Calderon was the first person to publicly stand up for Vicky and the Ducks declaring, “If she’s a good cox, put her in there,” but other coaches were hesitant and resistant.^[25][26] Karl Drlica at Oregon State stood by his assertion that she was ineligible and Dick Erickson, the Washington Coach, declared that if they were going to race against Washington they would have to do it without Vicky.^[27] Stories of the conflict spread through national news syndicates ending up in newspapers in California and Wisconsin among other places, as well as in a featured article of Sports Illustrated, “Case of the Ineligible Bachelorette.”^{[28][29][30][31]}

In the end, Vicky coxed Oregon’s season opener against Seattle, an exciting victory, but Sports Illustrated declared that the Ducks “had won the race but not the war.” Oregon was forced to put in a substitute coxswain against Oregon State and Stanford shortly thereafter, before voting as a team to withdraw entirely from a race against Washington. When “asked if he would oppose a girl in a shell even if she showed she was the best on the squad, [Washington Coach] Erickson said, ‘You bet I would.” ^[32]

Despite the resistance, history has proved that the Ducks, indeed, won the war. Two years later, in 1974, an Oregon coach would exclaim, “last year we raced a lot of men’s crews with female coxswains that wouldn’t have been there except for [Vicky].”^[33] Vicky, for her part, explained, “I feel silly about this, but I'm not on a crusade. If we had a women's team I’d be rowing on that. But we don’t, so I'm here." ^[34]

1973-1980: Oregon's First Women's Crew

Don Costello left the Ducks after the season for law school at Lewis and Clark College where he would help found the Lewis and Clark Rowing Program along with the Station L Masters Rowing Club.^[35] Despite the coaching change, 1973 marked an important year for the Ducks because it was the first year that the University sponsored a women’s rowing program.^[36] Jeanne Arnold, an incoming Oregon freshman signed up for a rowing class looking for some physical education credit. She had not realized that the class was the all-male rowing team. “When I found out that it was a crew course for men, it surprised me... but it was one of the only courses left open,” explained Arnold, “I thought it was rowing row boats.” Undaunted, Jeanne and a friend, “put an announcement in the student newspaper, and 40 girls tried out for Oregon’s first girls’ crew.”^[37] Ralph Neils and Marti Abts had taken over for the men's and women's programs with Mike Napier and Bill Lioio as assistant coaches.

In the first year, the women’s crew received $350 of the $4200 which was allocated for the team ($1500 went to boat rentals). The Eugene Register Guard exclaimed, “The $350 spent on Oregon’s first women’s crew this year was apparently well spent. The U of O lightweights finished second to Washington in the recent Northwest championships in Seattle. And so did a heavyweight pair, Zanne Pratt and Debbie [Sprecher]."^[38]

In addition to the women’s successes in 1974, the Ducks fielded both men’s heavyweight and men’s lightweight crews. Coach Neils speculated that both men’s boats were the best ever for the program.^[39] In the next season, Reed Adler took over as men's coach for the Ducks, and he would be followed by Chuck Knoll in 1976.^[40][41] Meanwhile, Brian Cole took over in 1975 as the coach for the Oregon women. Cole had been Oregon’s first stroke seat on the 1967 men's crew. He very nearly made the 1968 Mexico City Olympics as a novice rower. After early encouragement from Oregon and Washington coaches, Cole entered the 1968 Long Beach Rowing Trials finishing two spots shy of an Olympic berth and earning a bronze medal.^[42][43]

Cole’s first women’s team was made up of 18 novice women with no returning rowers from the original women’s crew in 1973-1974. They showed success as the Oregon Daily Emerald reported, “After only two weeks of practice with five members who had never rowed before, the Oregon [crew] took third place at last Saturday’s Invitational Regatta in Corvallis.” ^[44] Two men from the Oregon team would make an attempt at the Olympics under the direction of Knoll and Cole in 1976.^[45] But, the Duck hopes would be overshadowed by Oregon State’s own first rowing Olympian Robert Zagunis who went on to finish 11th in the Coxed Fours event at the Montreal Games.^[46]

For Oregon, the 1976-1977 season saw another coaching change as Mike Johnson took over for the men and Jim Medlock took over for the women.^[47][48] Johnson was a collegiate rower at Cal Berkeley, and he would go on to coach the Oregon men for the next three years. Medlock, a former Washington rower and a member of the National Team, coached a team of 13 women in 1977 before leaving to be replaced by Paul Schultz for the next two seasons.^[49] The Oregon Daily Emerald, a school newspaper, noted a strong performance against the Beavers in the spring of 1977: "The University of Oregon varsity crew came up with two surges to hand Oregon State University a defeat... on Dexter Lake Saturday. With Lance Baughman at stroke and Russ Ward at coxswain, the Ducks held the Beaver eight, composed entirely of heavyweights (160 pounds and up) at bay over the remainder of the estimated 2,200-meter course, crossing the finish line in 7 minutes flat to 7:05 for OSU."^[50]

1981-1985: MV4+, WL8+ National Championship Appearances

1981-1982 stands as an important year in Oregon Rowing history because this crew purchased the team’s first rowing shell, and four members of the men’s crew defeated boats from Washington, Cal-Berkeley, and UCLA over the course of the spring en route to a fourth-place finish at the Rowing National Championships in Indiana. In 1982 the 4-man heavyweight crew would claim Oregon’s first Pac-10 title.^[51][52]

In the fall of 1981, fifty rowers came out for the team and there was a coaching change. Lori Huseth, a Pacific Lutheran graduate with rowing experience, showed up at the University in the fall to ask if she could help out with the crew. She explained, “There was supposed to be some guy coming up from California to coach the team, but the guy never showed up.” Huseth would leave team just before the end of her first season, but her impact and the impact of those who rowed for her was dramatic, marking a turning point for the crew.^[53]

After significant fundraising from cleanups at Autzen Stadium and MacArthur Court as well as donations from the 100-mile Row-A-Thon, the team purchased a brand new Pocock Series C fiberglass four.^[54] The shell, priced at $4,400 was named the “D.B McCarty” after the program’s founder. The Oregon Daily Emerald picked up the story in March, “At a light 145 pounds, she runs through the water with an easy grace that’s the mark of a winner... Never before has Oregon crew owned a racing shell. Since the birth of Oregon crew, the team has practiced in rented boats, which could not be transported to races.” In addition to the shell, the team purchased eight new Dreissigacker Fiber-Graphite Oars for $189 apiece.^[55]

Crews in the new boat racked up a number of stunning victories in a hurry. In the second race of the season, the lightweight women christened the D.B McCarty with its first win.^[56] The team then hosted a race at Dexter Lake against seven schools where they swept every category. Then the team headed to Portland where they won six out of eight events and brought home the first-ever overall team trophy from a Regatta. Then, at the Pacific Northwest Regionals the four-man lightweight and heavyweight boats overtook powerhouse UW and Victoria crews as well as “all twelve of their competitors in the preliminary heats... to win the Championship in those events. For the first time in the crew team’s history, they beat the Huskies in a varsity rowing event [!]” ^[57]

Following this race the varsity women's 4+ would take a silver medal at the Pac-10s, and once again the men's 4+ would put up an incredible show in the heavyweight category beating Cal-Berkeley by one foot in a stunning race to win the Pac-10 title. Leading up to the final race of the season against a dominant and undefeated UCLA boat, the crew earned the nickname Cinderella.^[58]

The Oregon Daily Emerald and The Eugene Register Guard closely followed the story in the spring of 1982. In one article titled, “It’s an unlikely row to anywhere,” the Register Guard reported, “The key to the success of the four seems to be Hugh Watson, the 32-year-old Australian... ‘I was rowing before Sietske (Folkens) was born,’ said [stroke seat] Watson. [In addition, Sietske Folkens] rows No. 2. The No. 3 man is John Bigelow... the bow is Bryan Andressen... and the coxswain is Brenda Thornton." ^[59]

As the boat geared up for its final challenge against UCLA, Hugh Watson sought out the help of graduate school dean and University vice-provost Dick Hersh. “Hersh... was an old-timer in the world of competitive rowing. After four years on the Syracuse crew, Hersh had been coxswain on the U.S. team at the 1966 world championships in Yugoslavia. He then coached at Harvard and coached two of seven Olympic rowing teams at Mexico City in 1968.” When Watson approached Hersh, he was skeptical, “I think he thought that nobody in Oregon could be competitive on a national level. He came out for one row and was surprised at our standard. He’s been out for every row since.”^[60] Hersh explained, “I told them that I felt I could make them six or seven seconds faster than they were, and that they needed to do 2,000 meters in six minutes, forty five seconds to beat UCLA. Well, they did six forty-six and won.” ^[61]

In an article titled, “Oregon crew out-rows UCLA,” The Register Guard reported, “The University of Oregon crew team beat UCLA in a dual race Saturday to qualify for the National Sports Festival in Indianapolis, Ind., July 23–27.” Adding, “The Ducks completed the 2,000 meter course in 6:46.3. UCLA finished in 6:50.3.^[62]

Oregon stroke Hugh Watson said, “They were a lot bigger than us, and certainly more experienced. It was quite an upset. It is the most remarkable thing the Oregon crew has ever won.”^[63] Coaches Dick Hersh and Jim Petrusich stayed on for the remainder of the 1982 summer season as Lori Huseth left the program early to take final exams. In the end the Duck heavyweight 4+ finished fourth in the National Sports Festival. The result had the Ducks just shy of a medal against “five larger teams from schools that offer rowing scholarships, and four teams from the national Olympic camp." ^[64]

By the fall of 1982, Mike Holcomb was coaching the Oregon men, Matty Elliot was coaching the Oregon women, and there were 67 rowers on the team.^[65] This surge of numbers made the crew the largest ever after a season when only three rowers had returned. In the next two seasons the team would transition from morning to afternoon practices and the numbers of rowers trying out for the team would swell to 100+ at some points.^[66]

Holcomb’s first crews were not as dramatic as in the year prior, but in two years’ time eight of his rowers would manage to do what the Cinderella 4+ had not, earn a medal in a national championship. In the meantime, the lightweight men’s 4+ remained a contender and favorite against northwest 4+s in both heavy and light classes during the 1983 spring season. The annual budget for the team at this point was $7,900.^[67]

Under Holcomb multiple crews would record successes from 1983-1985. Matt Eccles would be named to the Pac-10 All-Conference team in 1984, and the men's lightweight 4+ would claim the Pacific Coast Rowing Championship title with a record time of 7:12 in 1985.^[68][69] Meanwhile, the women's lightweight 8+ boat would pull off one of the most spectacular seasons by any Oregon boat to date. In a June 4, 1985 article the The Register Guard reported: "In the best finish ever for a University of Oregon crew team, the women's 'lightweight eight' team finished second Sunday in the Women's National Collegiate Rowing Championships. The Oregon unit, coached by Mike Holcomb, lost to Radcliffe, which covered the 1,750 meter course in 5:48.6. Oregon's team clocked 6:08.1... The Oregon crew was Robin Hendricks, Julie Martinson, Teresa Bujacich, Sasha Stone, Margie Bernards, Gayle Johnson, Cate Renfrew, Teresa Hukari and coxswain Lisa Woodworth." ^[70][71]

The race marked Oregon rowing's first major success on a national stage, and a remarkable achievement for a women's crew that was only 11 years old. Holcomb moved on after the season, but one of his rowers from the lightweight eight, Sasha Stone, would go on to become an Oregon coach in the fall of 1986 before being hired to coach at Amherst and then at Wisconsin where she would become the first Lightweight Women's Head Coach in 1996.^[72][73]

1986-1991: Jeff Moag and Marty Billingsley

In the 1985-1986 season Andy Josa, Dave Baugh, and Tim Meier would coach the Ducks. Josa took over the men’s squad and Baugh, who had been a varsity coxswain at Washington, coached the women. Three boats would put up wins at the 1986 PCRC Regatta as the crew continued to solidify its growth.^[74] In addition, the women’s ‘lightweight eight’ would again claim gold medals at the 1986 Pac-10 championships.^[75]

In the fall of 1986 Sasha Stone would join the coaching staff.^[76] Stone was initially responsible for a group of 25 novice women, and at the end of the season the top women’s novice 4+ won their event at the Pac-10 Championship.^[77] In addition, the Duck team would organize a Row-a-Thon in the winter of 1987 and successfully raise $1,200. Soon thereafter, the ‘Row-a-Thon’ would be replaced by an ‘Erg-a-Thon’ as the team would purchase its first rowing machines in 1987.^[78][79]

On the men’s squad under Josa, rowers Jeff Moag and Bob Vogel would spend the spring of 1987 preparing for U.S. National Team testing.^[80] Moag, who assumed coaching responsibilities for Oregon in 1988, would eventually become the first Oregon rower to make the U.S. National Team; he would compete in the World Championships in 1993 and again in 1994.^[81] As the 1987 spring season drew to a close, Andy Josa, would leave the team to work out at sea for a number of years. He would eventually return to Eugene and the rowing team in 2011 to resume coaching.

Sasha Stone would continue with the Duck women in 1987-1988 and Dave Baugh took over for the men as he finished his law degree.^[82] The Ducks ran their first Erg-a-Thon in 1988 and the team began leasing boats to South and North Eugene High School Rowers.^[83] Sasha Stone would move on after the spring of 1988. In her stead Jane LaRiviere and Jeff Moag took over as crew coaches. Jane LaRiviere, a native of Alberta, Canada, had come to Oregon for graduate school and to coach crew. She would coach the Ducks until she earned her master's degree in athletic therapy in 1990, when she returned to Canada to begin a long coaching career taking jobs at the University of Western Ontario, the Canadian Women’s National Team Development Camps, Oregon State Freshman Women’s Crew, and finally Washington State as the women’s head coach in 2002 where she continues to this day.^[84][85][86]

In the 1989-1990 season the Ducks put up a number of strong performances on both the men’s and women’s team. In the fall, the women’s varsity 4+ placed first in the Portland Loop Regatta and the men’s varsity 4+ placed second.^[87] At the Northwest Regional Rowing Championships in the spring, the men’s eight would win the event and the women’s eight would take second place.^[88] At the Pac-10s that year, the women’s novice lightweight 4+ brought home a gold medal for the Ducks.

LaRiviere would leave after the season making Jeff Moag the team's coach in 1990-1991. This big story for the crew in 1991 surrounded Marty Billingsley, a 31-year-old computer science graduate student from Wisconsin. Billingsley had run track at Wisconsin for four years and was therefore not eligible to race with the club in the spring, but she practiced with the team and could still compete as an individual rower in the master’s division. In the winter of 1991 she entered the Ergomania Indoor Rowing Machine contest in Seattle, a satellite contest for the Crash-B Erg Sprint Championship in Boston. She qualified for the championship, and then traveled out to the event on February 16. Her final time of 9:02 over 2,500 meters won the women’s master’s competition. Coach Moag explained that Billingsley’s time was, “comparable to the times of rowers in other categories, not only the best in the master’s division but among the world’s top times.” Adding, “Its probably a top 10 finish out of everybody in the world.” This remarkable feat gave Oregon its first World Champion (Indoor) Rower.^[89]

1991-1996: Crews under Emerich, Borton, and Busse

After Moag left to compete on the National Team, there would be a quick succession of coaches for the Ducks as Morgan Emrich coached from 1992–1993, Joe Borton coached from 1993–1994, and Phil Busse coached from 1994-1996.^[90][91][92] Susan Belcher and James Mcqueen also served as assistant coaches in these years.^[93] A number of Oregon boats would put up strong finishes despite the coaching turnover including a lightweight men’s 4+ that competed in the Varsity IRA National Championship in 1993, a men’s 4+ that traveled to Boston for the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in 1995, and four boats that qualified for nationals amid a successful year for the crew in the spring of 1996. Next door to the Oregon boathouse, the Oregon Association of Rowers finished construction of a boathouse in the spring of 1993. They then hosted the first Covered Bridge Regatta in 1995.^[94]

The Oregon Daily Emerald featured an article on five members of the rowing team in June 1993. “The men’s lightweight team of the crew club will compete for the national championship June 11 and 12, in East Fork State Park in Cincinnati Ohio,” explained the article, adding, “Oregon defeated some of the top teams in the west, including California and Cal-Davis. Oregon must now face Ivy League powerhouses Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth in the national competition.”^[95] Despite defeat at the 1993 national championship, the lightweight four had a near perfect season in 1994 winning every race except for their last.^[96] The other strong boat in 1994 was the women’s novice 8+. Their boat finished third out of sixteen competitors at the Northwest Regional Championship with a time of 7:19.5.^[97] Four rowers from this boat would reach the National Championships two years later and make an initial push towards athletic department support for women’s rowing at Oregon.

In 1994-1995 Phil Busse took over as head coach for Oregon and the crew’s success continued.^[98] In the first Covered Bridge Regatta in 1995 the Ducks would put up solid performances. The Oregon Daily Emerald noted that, “the Oregon men’s and women’s crew teams made a mockery of the competition on Saturday, taking home first place in all but one of their eight divisional races.^[99] Admittedly the competition was modest for the Ducks in 1995, but the race continues to be held annually. In 2014 the Covered Bridge Regatta boasted five hundred rowers, from 36 teams, competing in 44 events.^[100] At the end of the season, the men’s varsity 4+, would qualify for nationals but could not attend because of lack of funding.

Busse continued as the Oregon coach in 1995-1996 during one of the strongest years for the program. In the fall the team had 35 varsity and 45 novice rowers and $9,000 in funding from Club Sports.^[101] Early in the season, the successful MV4+ boat from the previous spring traveled to Boston for the Head of the Charles race finishing 25th/57 in the club fours event.^[102] The team would race at the LO/OP regatta in Portland and the Head of the Lake in the fall and the San Diego Crew Classic, the Corvallis Invitational, the Covered Bridge, Northwest Regional, The Pacific Coast Championships, and the National Championships, in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[103][104]

Much of the story for the spring of 1995 surrounds the women’s varsity 4+ and the women’s novice 8+ boats. The varsity 4+ made up of Amanda Cook, Megan Campbell, Karen Long, and Sanja Gould would take second to Mill’s College with a time of 7:38 at the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships, making them eligible for national competition, and the group would publish an article titled, “Varsity Crew,” encouraging the University of Oregon to consider upgrading the women’s program to varsity status. They wrote, “As a varsity sport, the University crew team will no doubt attract higher number[s] of elite level athletes [from] all over the United States.”^[105] The article also applauded the successes of the women’s novice eight-boat which defeated UCLA and Stanford in the San Diego Crew Classic and would later dominate the field at the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships.^[106]

In addition, the men’s novice 4+ also had a noteworthy performance in the spring of 1996. The Oregon Daily Emerald reported, “Aided by a stiff tail wind, the men’s novice four team upset the No. 1-ranked Washington squad by a half second in the day’s closest race. It was a crushing defeat for the Huskies who had been undefeated much of the year. Coach Phil Busse remarked, ‘It was just a great day for the whole Oregon team, the men’s novice four race was very exciting and worked out well for us.’” At the end of the season, the Oregon team was in contention for the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships trophy, an award reserved for the most dominant club in a given year.^[107]

1997-2001: Crews under Holmes, Gerlach, and Neron

After 1996 Phil Holmes took over from Phil Busse. Holmes was an experienced rowing coach with short stints at UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, Cal Maritime Academy in the late-1970s, and Lakeside High in Seattle up to 1985.^[108] In 1996-1997 two crews were invited to the prestigious Opening Day Regatta at the University of Washington. The men’s boat finished fourth of seven. The women’s boat was unfortunately disqualified from their race after hitting a buoy and breaking a rigger. Holmes noted, “I had no idea what to expect from that race, but they were winning at that point.”^[109][110]

Discussion about turning the women’s crew into a varsity sport picked up again after 1997. In a February 1999 article, the Oregon Daily Emerald noted that the University was considering upgrading women’s crew among a number of sports to intercollegiate status, in order to stay in compliance with Title IX. “Such a move has generated mixed feelings in team members and coaches, who say varsity status can be as much a curse as it is a blessing,” explained the article, adding, “Many women on the team now wouldn’t make the cut on varsity.” At that point, the UO women’s crew had about 50 female rowers.^[111]

The rowing results were mixed in 1998-1999. An early March article noted that the rowers were meeting between 10 and 12 times per week, including afternoon practices on three out of seven days, leading up to the San Diego Crew Classic at the end of March. At the Crew Classic, the men’s lightweight eight was the only boat to make the grand finals finishing sixth, but Holmes explained that, “the team was more than satisfied,” with the result because of the quality of the competition.^[112][113] Scott Jones started as a novice coach in 1999 and the Ducks would race at The Covered Bridge, The Pac-10 Championships, and the PCRC’s in that season.

Craig Gerlach, Joe Neron, and Chris Peters would all serve as coaches between 1999 and 2003 as the Ducks would put together the final chapter of Oregon rowing’s uninterrupted growth period beginning with the 1982 crew.^{[114][115][116]} Galen Mitterman and Laura Riekki would coach the team through a successful but waning period in 2004-2005. By 2006 the team began to show real signs of decline, and when Mitterman left in early 2007 the team would face serious challenges.

In the 2000-2001 season the rowing team continued with a large group of athletes under the direction of Craig Gerlach. At the Covered Bridge Regatta in the spring Oregon entered more than a dozen boats. In mid-April the team put up a strong finish at the Husky Invitational with all of its competitors placing in the top three of their respective events, although the team as a whole had been edged out by Oregon State.^[117]

In 2001-2002 the team was led by Joe Neron who had rowed for Oregon in the late 1990s under Phil Holmes. The most successful boat in the spring of 2002 was the women’s varsity 8+. At the midpoint in the season, the WV8+ was ranked fifteenth in the nation leading up to the Windermere Cup, an invitation-only regatta in Seattle. Neron expressed his pride and excitement, “It’s a tremendous experience and an honor to be part of it, [and] I expect a great race from my girls.” The Emerald picked up the story in May: "Through cheering crowds, chaos and harsh winds, the Club Sports women’s crew team overcame a slow start to finish third in the Windermere Cup, an international regatta held in Seattle."^[118][119]

In the spring of 2002, Oregon participated in a number of other regattas including The Covered Bridge Regatta, The Redwood Invitational, The Pacific Coast Rowing Championships, and the Pac-10 Championships. After the spring season a group of Duck women decided to enter one more regatta, the Corvallis to Portland Row/(CPR). This race, hosted annually since 1999, is a grueling 115 miles of rowing over two days. The race begins at the Oregon State Rowing Facility on the Willamette and ends in South Portland at Oaks Park. A separate crew would complete in the CPR in the spring of 2004 and again in 2005.

2002-2007: Athletic Department Overlooks Rowing

In the fall of 2002 Chris Peters took over as head coach. Peters explained that he was attracted to the Oregon program because the University had, “potential to be a good rowing school. It has a lot of students, it’s a large school and it’s in the Pac-10.” Peters would leave after one season, but the discussion surrounding varsity status would continue.^[120][121]

In a February 2003 article titled, “Reservoir of Reasons,” the Register-Guard reviewed the discussion over the potential for a varsity rowing program at Oregon. The article followed an announcement by the University of Oregon earlier in the month that, “lacrosse will be the school’s new women’s varsity sport,” which, “sent waves crashing through the hopes and dreams of some members of the local rowing community.” The article highlights Yasmin Farooq, a local volunteer coach for the O.A.R. master’s program and a former NCAA Champion (1986), World Champion (1995), Olympian (1992, 1996) as a coxswain.^[122]

In the article Farooq exclaims, "It’s so mind-blowing to me that Oregon failed to see the potential right in front of them. You put a great coach on that lake, with the athletes that are available in this area alone, and within five years you could have a national champion.” Adding, “When I moved out here (in 1996) and saw Dexter Lake, I had to pinch myself, I’ve raced on some of the best water in the world and I can tell you, Dexter is in the top five in the nation, and easily the best on the West Coast if you consider climate.

The article features comments from the Oregon associate athletic director Renee Mack Baumgartner, the senior women’s administrator for the athletic department. According to her, a number of variables factored into the decision for women’s lacrosse. For one the surveys of the team indicated that the “women’s crew club team did not want to be separated from the men’s crew team.” Another factor was distance as Baumgartner noted that, “Dexter Reservoir is 21 ½ miles from campus, while the lacrosse team will play on the field in front of the Casanova Center.” Cost raised another potential issue as, “Oregon figures show a $270,000 difference in yearly budget estimates ($530,000 for a fully funded lacrosse program, $800,000 for crew), and estimate a $4.17 million start-up cost that would include construction of a boat house at Dexter Reservoir and the purchase of boats.”^[123]

However, Baumgartner noted that athletic director Bill Moos never made cost a variable, and that competitiveness was a much greater factor in the decision. She explained: "Oregon wants to be competitive immediately. California, Stanford, Denver and Saint Mary’s College are the only Division I women’s lacrosse teams west of the Mississippi River... Crew, on the other hand, is already established at every Pac-10 school except Oregon, Arizona State and Arizona. [Adding] it would have taken a significant amount of time to be competitive." Baumgartner concluded the article exclaiming, "I think in the future we will look back and say that we were proactive, we had the big picture and picked the right sport." Farooq responded with frustration towards a view she believed was shortsighted, “They may win conference championships with lacrosse, but they would have won national championships with rowing.”^[124]

Ten years after this dispute a number of events have occurred which create a striking picture. In women’s lacrosse, as of fall 2014, Oregon is ranked 5th in the Mountain Pacific Conference behind Denver, Stanford, USC, and Colorado. Overall, the team is ranked 52nd in the nation.^[125] In addition, Oregon won one lacrosse conference championship in 2012. Meanwhile, Farooq received an offer from Stanford University in 2006 for the head coaching position of their women’s varsity rowing program. Farooq eventually accepted the offer. In 2008, her second year of collegiate coaching, the Cardinal Women took second place in the Varsity 8+ event of the NCAA National Championship in a tight race. Farooq was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year. In 2009, the Stanford Women won the NCAA Championship outright for the first time in program history setting course records at the Pac-10 Championships (6:18.6), and the overall NCAA racing record in the Grand Final of the NCAA National Championship (6:11.95) that year. Farooq was named Rowing Coach of the Year by Rowing News among others. In addition, in 2011 Stanford lost a tiebreak for the National Championship, and in 2014 Stanford won its first ever Pac-10 Conference Championship. Stanford is currently ranked second in the nation behind Ohio State in Women’s Rowing. Additionally Farooq coached the 2012 U.S. Under-23 women’s eight to a World Championship.^{[126][127][128]}

During the fall of 2003 the Oregon men’s team finished third at the Portland LO/OP regatta, and the women’s 4+, second. In the winter the team hosted an Erg-A-Thon and seven rowers traveled up to Seattle for the Ergomania indoor competition where two Ducks brought home the distinction for “The Fastest College Female,” and “The Fastest College Male.”^[129]

For the 2004-2005 season the team had a particularly strong year attending twelve regattas plus the CPR event on a Club Sports allocated budget of $13,400. Laura Reikki and Galen Mitterman would coach through the entire season. In the fall, four Oregon women traveled to Boston for the Head of the Charles to compete in the Club Fours event. Their boat finished 5th of 41 entries in a very strong performance for the Ducks.^[130] In the spring at Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships (WIRA), the men’s varsity 4+ boat finished second and the women’s varsity 4+ finished sixth.

After the season, Laura Reiki would leave as James Beasley and Brian Shimek served as assistants under Galen Mitterman.^[131] The team would attend seven regattas in 2005-2006. In the fall Oregon would again send two boats to the Head of the Charles in Boston. The WV4+, seeded fourth because of their performance in 2004, finished the event in 10th of 34 entries. The MV4+ seeded 36th of 38 competitors, “surprised the field, crossing the finish line in ninth place.” ^[132]

Despite these success the team began to decline. In a spring 2006 article, “Duck rowers race at Dexter Lake,” The Emerald noted that the Ducks only fielded three boats at the Covered Bridge Regatta and that, “membership in the Crew Club has declined going into the busy spring season despite starting the year with a large roster.” Galen Mitterman finished coaching in February 2007 and he was briefly replaced by Marissa Mason and Erin Dury for the remainder of the 2007 spring season. The team would field a few small boats in the spring bringing a V4+, a W2-, and a novice 4+ to PCRC in 2007. The V4+ finished fourth overall, the novice 4+ finished ninth overall, and the W2- finished third.^{[133][134][135]}

2008-2013: Carly Schmidt and ACRA

In the fall of 2008, Club Sports Director Sandy Vaughn discovered that the rowers had been practicing without a coach at Dexter Lake. She gave the crew an ultimatum: find a coach or get off the water. After a search, the team found Carly Schmidt, a rower and recent graduate from the University of New Hampshire who had just moved to the area. Schmidt would coach until the end of spring 2013. Her tenure of 4½ years represented the longest of any Oregon rowing coach to that point.

In addition to a new coach, two developments would arise in 2008 which have had profound effects on the crew. First, at the 2008 Covered Bridge Regatta, O.A.R. Masters would premiere their newly configured race course, “After more than two years of planning, O.A.R. this week completed a $50,000 course expansion, adding three lanes for a total of five,” noted The Register Guard. The race course, which had been in planning since 2004 would eventually cost $70,000, and create 7-lanes of racing at Dexter. This project was initiated by Dave Lingenfelder and the O.A.R. leadership at the suggestion of Yasmin Farooq before she left.^[136] The course was recently named one of the ten Best Rowing Venues in the United States by Row2k.com.^[137] In addition to a new course for spring practice, the Oregon Team was hit with a crisis in the fall of 2008 as the city bus line used by the team for transportation would be cancelled.

News articles began to appear for Coach Carly Schmidt’s crews in spring of 2010. Three articles, titled, “All Aboard,”^[138] “Rowers respond,”^[139] and “Closer than They Appear,”^[140] traced the progress of the team over the season. In the first, Schmidt described some of the challenges facing the club including budget limitations. The next article, detailing the Covered Bridge Regatta, noted that the Ducks won two and medaled in four of six events. Assistant coach Molly Fales is also briefly mentioned. The third article described a ‘middle-of-the-road’ showing at the PCRC championships. One boat, finishing in fourth overall, was spotlighted, “considering the competition, [Kendra] Nyberg and [Nini] Valerio’s performance was probably the most impressive of all the Duck rowers.” The success of Nyberg and Valerio would foreshadow a much greater triumph to come for both rowers in 2011. Additionally, in early 2010, team captain AJ Handly expressed a goal to, “get into the top five in the Pac-10 to make an argument [for the Ducks].” At the Pac-10 race, the Oregon boat finished fourth reaching Handly’s goal.

After the 2010 season, row2k.com featured Schmidt’s comments and some highlights for the season. She explained, “University of Oregon Crew is continuing to build as a club program. We are looking forward to participating in the WIRA Championship this spring, as well as sending a few crews to ACRA Championships in Georgia.”^[141]

With 44 rowers in the fall and 35 in the spring, the 2010-2011 season showed that the Oregon rowing program had recovered. The team attended nine regattas over the season. The Oregon team brought five boats to the ACRA National Championship in 2011 including a WV4+, MLW4+, a MN4+, a W2-, and a M1x. With modest expectations for the event, two boats, would bring home national medals. In the first event of the day, Trevor Mathwick, finished first of six in his heat of the men's singles, with a time of 8:01.4, and the women’s varsity four including rowers Rachel Boehm, Laura Thompson, Nini Valerio, and Kendra Nyberg finished first in their heat of six to advance to the finals. On the final day of the event Mathwick would race against boats from Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, College of Charleston, and Ohio State finishing second overall with a time of 7:48.9 and earning a silver medal. Later in the day, the WV4+ would race in their final against Washington University, UC Davis, New Hampshire, Pittsburg, and Colorado. Their final time of 7:36.9 put them ahead of coach Carly Schmidt’s former team New Hampshire by less than two seconds in a stunning race for third place and a bronze medal.^[142]

Carly Schmidt continued to develop a crew of approximately 40 people throughout the 2011-2013 seasons. Additionally, in the winter of 2012 the crew team would transition their indoor workouts to the hallways of Macarthur court from the erg-house located on 17th and Villard. The successes of the WV4+ would fade after the 2011 season, although a fairly strong group of men’s boats would emerge over the next two seasons. The MV8+ finished third at the Covered Bridge Regatta in 2012, the men’s team captain Ian Davis would be named to the All-Region team in 2012 and Delaney Butler would receive recognition as a First Team Academic All-American.^[143] In 2013 the MV8+ finished second at the Covered Bridge Regatta and win the NCRC regatta in Vancouver. Carly Schmidt would leave after the 2013 season, and coaches Marlene Kindorf and Trevor Mathwick would take over for the 2013-2014 season.

2014-Present: Marlene Kindorf and WN8+

Over the course of the 2013-2014 season under Kindorf the team made a number of equipment upgrades through $50,000 in fundraising and donation. In the fall the varsity men’s four would put up a number of strong finishes including winning the LO/OP Regatta and the Portland Fall Classic before finishing 4/10 at the Head of the Lake.^[144] The men’s varsity four and eight would face major obstacles during the season but the men's lightweight four recorded strong finishes at WIRA and ACRA.^[145] The big story of the spring season, though, came from the women’s novice group of rowers.

Early in the season a varsity eight of women raced as a composite of novice and varsity rowers—eventually settling as a boat of eight novice rowers. Tracking the progression of this leading women’s eight through five regattas shows a tremendous increase in speed: Cascade Sprints (8:57.8), NCRC (8:07.7), Covered Bridge (7:46.8), WIRA (7:32.0), ACRA (7:07.7). In the ACRA National Championships the group pulled their fastest time of the year, 7:07, to finish second behind UCSB defeating crews from Purdue, Colorado, Northwestern and UCSB ‘B,’ taking home silver medals in the National Championship.^[146] The 2014 ACRA crew was Leah Schluter (Cox), Olivia Somhegyi, Annie Gilbert, Lily Oswald, Maddy McBride, Liz Olson, Hali Meyer, Bridget Riggs, and Sierra Cummings.

Oregon Rowing will celebrate its 50th anniversary in September 2017.

Former Coaches

Name	Year Associated
Don McCarty	1967–1971
Ken Abbey	1967–1968
Dave Thomsen	1968–1969
Don Costello	1972–1973
Ralph Neils	1973–1974
Marti Abts	1973–1975
Bill Lioio	1973–1975
Mike Napier	1973–1974
Reed Adler	1974–1975
Chuck Knoll	1975–1976
Brian Cole	1975–1976
Mike Johnson	1976–1979
Jim Medlock	1976–1977
Paul Schultz	1977–1979
Lori Huseth	1981–1982
Richard Hersch	1982
Jim Petrusich	1982
Mike Holcomb	1982–1985
Tim Meier	1983–1984
Andy Josa	1985–1987, 2011–2015
Dave Baugh	1985–1988
Sasha Stone	1986–1988
Jane LaRiveiere	1989–1990
Jeff Moag	1988–1991
Morgan Emrich	1992–1993
Joe Borton	1993–1994
James McQueen	1994–1995
Phil Busse	1994–1996
Phil Holmes	1997–1999
Scott Jones	1998–1999
Joe Neron	1998–2002
Craig Gerlach	2001–2002
Chris Peters	2002–2003
Laura Riekki	2004
Galen Mitterman	2004–2007
James Beasley	2005–2007
Brian Shimek	2006–2007
Erin Dury	2007
Marissa Mason	2007
Carly Schmidt	2009–2013
Molly Fales	2009–2010
Marlene Kindorf	2011-
Michael Johnson	2012–2013
Trevor Mathwick	2013-
Delaney Butler	2014-
Rachel Boehm	2014

Covered Bridge Regatta

The Oregon Association of Rowers (O.A.R.) began working to construct a boathouse at Dexter Lake in 1984 with the support of a $3000 US Rowing Grant. After nine years the boathouse was completed in 1993.^[147] The group then organized and hosted its first Covered Bridge Regatta in 1995.^[148]

The event traditionally takes place in the middle of April and offers three levels of competition: Masters, Collegiate, and Juniors. The event's namesake, the Lowell Covered Bridge, sits approximately 100 meters from the starting line of a 2,000 meter course running down to a finish line adjacent to the UO/OAR Boathouses. There is a dock which extends out along the course allowing for spectators at the 1,500 meter mark. In 2008 the OAR Masters completed the construction of a $70,000 Buoyed Course at Dexter.^[149] In 2013, Dexter was named one of the ten best race courses in the country.^[150]

In 2014, for its 20th anniversary, the event hosted, "Five hundred junior, collegiate and master rowers from 36 clubs competed in 44 events" over two days.^[151] In 2015 the event is separating into two weekends: Collegiate Covered Bridge on April 11, and Covered Bridge Regatta (Masters/Juniors) on April 18–19.^[152]

References