No. 18 Men's Crew Set To Peak At Pac-10 Championships
May 9, 2000
SCHEDULE: The Oregon State men's crew heads to Sacramento for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships on Sunday, May 14 at the Lake Natoma course.
OSU RANKED: The OSU varsity eight boat is ranked 18th in the May 3 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Poll.
LAST YEAR: The Beavers were third last year in the varsity eight Grand Final (places 1-6) at the Pac-10s with a time of 6:02. The second varsity eight took fourth in the Grand Final with a 6:13, and the freshman eight's time of 6:17 was good for third.
OSU's best finish at the Pac-10s is third, which they have done seven times, including four of the five years that Head Coach Dave Reischman has been at Oregon State. The Beavers finished second in 1977, when they were in the Pacific-8 Conference.
OSU COACH DAVE REISCHMAN ON WHERE THE TEAM STANDS: "I think we're peaking right now. We felt like, in our earlier races, we were somewhat respectable because we were working hard and putting in the effort coming down the racecourse. We never really thought we had put one together, and we were maybe working a bit too hard, in that we hadn't found that efficient rythm that allows you to maintain that aggressive pace.
The varsity has been off for two weeks since we raced Washington, and our main focus has been to figure out how to establish that aggressive rhythm. We want to make it sustainable so we don't have situations like we did against Washington where we're pretty tight with them coming into the last 500 meters, and then can't match their speed because we spent too much energy. We've been working pretty hard on that, and we've had some good practices, but as any coach knows, practice is one thing and race-day is another. We have to prove to ourselves that we can row with that sort of rhythm under competitive circumstances, and I think that is the real key to what we're going to try to do at Pac-10s.
"I think that for all of our crews, the Pac-10s are their chance to show the coaching staff that they deserve to go to Nationals. I know that's foremost on their minds, because they don't want their season to be over. We put a lot of emphasis on the fact that you can do it every day in practice, but the big key is doing it when you have to, because that's when it matters most.
"I think all of the crews have been showing improvements. Hopefully Randell (Embertson) will be healthy, because he's a big part of that JV crew." Embertson is out with a possible case of Mononucleosis.
REISCHMAN ON THE LAKE NATOMA COURSE: "It has the potential to be a great course. It also has the potential to be troublesome in that it can get really hot at times. It was above 100 degrees a couple of years ago, which we aren't quite used to yet, so it can cause some problems. There's a particular wind scenario that happens, in that when there's a crosswind, the lanes become pretty unfair. Most of the time, 75-80% of the time, it's a fair course, a great course with a great facility for hosting a regatta, but there is this one particular wind that can create some problems."
REISCHMAN ON THIS YEAR VS. LAST YEAR AT PAC-10s: "That's the tough thing to figure out about men's rowing on the West Coast. The varsity eight has been third in the Pac-10s for the five years that I've been here, but I feel that we've gotten significantly faster during that time. There was Cal and Washington, and then significantly back was the rest of the West Coast. Our first year here, we kind of established ourselves as being ahead of the rest of that pack, but we were getting raced tight by some of the other crews. Now, we're probably closer to (Cal and Washington) than we are to (the other teams), so we're kind of in no-man's-land. Cal and Washington are No. 1 and 3 in the country, and we're not that speed. I think we're a top-10 school, but the rest of the crews on the coast, on the men's side, aren't ranked in the top-20 right now.
"We know that last time we raced Washington, we were seven seconds behind, and Washington's going to be a little more pressed (by Cal), so they're going to have a little more motivation in front of them, which is going to make them faster. Hopefully the changes that we've made will make us faster, so that we can be seven seconds or closer. When Washington in racing us and they're seven seconds in front of us, and they're not chasing anybody, then you know they've got a second or two in them. It's not a strict seven seconds, so we've got to prove we're in the ballgame."
THE BOATS: OSU will take varsity eight, junior varsity eight, varsity four, and freshman eight boats to the Pac-10 Championships.
CURRENT VARSITY EIGHT LINEUP: B- Sam Bobek, 2- Dan Willey, 3- Mark Squire, 4- Joey Hansen, 5- Josh Inman, 6- Kevin Mann, 7- Scott Fortner, 8- Andrew Jackson, C- Emmy Gardner.
LAST ACTION: The varsity eight was off last week, but the JV eight, freshman eight, and varsity four rowed in the Opening Day Regatta at Seattle's Montlake Cut course.
The JV eight finished second to Washington in the Windemere Cascade Cup with a time of 5:55.17. The varsity four took third with a 6:46.17, and the freshman eight finished in 6:04.65 for second place. The varsity eight and varsity four set season-bests with their times.
OSU lost tough races to third-ranked Washington on the Beavers' home course at Lake Vancouver, Wash., on Apr. 22. The varsity eight clocked a time of 6:09.83, but lost by 7.4 seconds as UW finished in 6:02.43. UW edged out OSU in a close JV race that saw the Huskies finish in 6:01.7 and the Beavers in 6:07.5. The freshman eight took second in a four-boat race with a time of 6:41.78. OSU's varsity four was third in its race with a 7:13.84.
SPRING FORWARD: A look at OSU's best times of the spring so far: VARSITY EIGHT - 5:55.0 (vs. Stanford, Lake Vancouver course, 4/15), JV EIGHT - 5:55.17 (at Opening Day Regatta/Windemere Cascade Cup, Montlake Cut, 5/6), VARSITY FOUR - 6:46.17 (at Opening Day Regatta, Montlake Cut, 5/6), NOVICE EIGHT - 6:00.18 (vs. Stanford, Lake Vancouver, 4/15). Note: Lowest times are not necessarily representative of best performances, as course conditions are a considerable factor in how the times turn out.
COACHING STAFF: Dave Reischman is in his sixth year at Oregon State after coming from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where he was the Director of Rowing and Head Men's Crew Coach. During his tenure at Gonzaga, Reischman brought the program to varsity sport status and guided two varsity crews to the Grand Finals at the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships. In 1991, his varsity took fourth and qualified for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in Syracuse, New York.
In the summers of 1993 and `94, Reischman was a coach for the United States National Sculling Team. In `93 he was in charge of the Men's Single Sculler that competed at the World Championships in the Czech Republic. He was an assistant for the men's and women's squads that competed at the 1994 World Championships in Indianapolis.
A native of Silvana, Wash., Reischman attended Arlington High School and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Gonzaga in 1987 with a degree in Computer Science. He then served a one year coaching internship at Harvard University. Just prior to his position at Gonzaga, Reischman was the Freshman Coach at the Florida Institute of Technology. His crews finished second and third at the Dad Vail National Championship Regatta.
In his five years at Oregon State, the Beaver men have finished third in the Pac-10 Championships and have been invited to the Intercollegiated Rowing Association Championships in Camden, New Jersey. The program has continually improved its talent and depth under Reischman, and finished as high as eighth at last year's IRAs.
Matt Imes is in his third year at Oregon State University after joining the program in July of 1997. Imes came to Corvallis from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where he served as the Freshman men's coach for three years. he guided his team to a pair of fifth-place finishes at the Pac-10 Championships, and a fourth-place finish at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in the Freshman Four.
Imes' coaching experience also includes assisting at the 1998 Men's Nation's Cup Pre-Elite Camp in Elkhart, Ind. He also was an assistant coach at the 1999 Pan American Games.
Imes, who served as a two-year graduate assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin, is a U.S. Rowing Level II certified coach.
The Wisconsin native lead the Oregon State Freshman Eight to a third-place finish at the 1999 Pac-10 Championships.
Imes competed on the collegiate level at the University of Wisconsin from 1988-91, earning a varsity letter in 1990. He was a member of the IRA's Men's Varsity Four title team in 1990. Imes earned a degree in history in 1994 from the University of Wisconsin.
