Pelham, NY ? Members of the Iona College men's rowing team voluntarily competed in the NYAC Valentine's Day Massacre Erg Regatta on Feb. 18.
Due to NCAA regulations Iona College is not allowed to sponsor athletes to participate in indoor rowing competition (2000m time trials on rowing machines). However members of the men's team elected to pay for their own entries to participate in this local event, in order to test their strength, fitness, and nerves in a public arena.
Results show that everyone on the team, novice and varsity, were able to demonstrate improvements in their times over 2000m, the standard testing distance in the spring season. The highlights for the men include junior and team captain Kerry Moss winning the men's collegiate openweight division with a time of 6 mins 51.9 secs and freshman Chris Barrett, a novice rower, winning the men's collegiate lightweight division with a time of 6 mins 53.3 secs.
Coach Patterson says, “It was great to see so many positive individual performances but additionally it was important to see the team working together, cheering each other on and really supporting one another throughout the morning's racing. Obviously I am delighted that everyone was able to post either season best times or personal best times. It shows that the training plan is having the desired effect. However I urge the men to start making much more regular use of the facilities that they now have for training because overall the times of the squad are simply not competitive. Rowing alum, John Boyd '04, also competed at the event today, representing the New York Athletic Club, pulling a personal best time of 6 mins 17.7 secs, and it is my hope that his score can be an inspiration to the guys on the team. The closer we can get the men down at least into the 6 min 30 secs range the more chance we have of being able to put up a good competitive race out on the water. The men need to understand that competitive rowing is based on a year long training plan and not just the 26 weeks that they can get officially coached at college. Essentially it is the extra voluntary workouts during the day and during the course of year which will have the greatest bearing on their ability to compete. Sub seven minute scores are taken for granted in men's rowing and I look forward to the Iona College team pouring on the intensity and discipline required to get their scores pushed through this basic time standard.”
The team returns to their new indoor training facility in the Hynes Athletics Center in search of more strength and speed for the final three weeks of indoor training before going back out on the water to train in boats and finalize racing line-ups for the season opener on April 1st at the Manhattan Invitational Regatta.
