Still Standing Tall

Following a bizarre season that saw a boat-wide bout with pneumonia and an overhaul of its lineup, Virginia beats odds to advance to Temple Challenge Cup quarterfinals

Henley-on-Thames, England — If there was ever a year that the University of Virginia varsity eight would post its greatest performance at the Royal Henley Regatta, 2011 would not have been the obvious guess.

"Yeah," said senior captain Mark Bezold, "it's been a weird year."

Yet, lo and behold, Virginia notched a one-length victory over Oxford Brookes University this afternoon as the sun made its slow decent toward the horizon over the River Thames.  The win propelled the crew to a quarterfinal meeting against the University of London in the Temple Challenge Cup — the furthest any Virginia crew has ever advanced at Henley.

“This win forces us to kind of take a step back and think, ‘Wow, other crews have come here and haven’t done this well,” said Bezold, the crew’s bow seat.  “It’s pretty exciting for us, with everything we’ve been through, to get to come out here and really show what we can do on the water.”

As Bezold spoke, it was clear that none of this seemed possible around a month ago.

Let’s remember back to the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta in mid-May.  Virginia was a crew on life support, (almost) literally.  Following a third-place finish behind Florida Tech and Temple at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in mid-April, the team was besieged by ill fate.

Pneumonia struck six members of the varsity eight.  For a five- to six-week span, antibiotics were used more than ergs.  The crew knew since last August that a trip to Henley was going to be made regardless of what occurred in Philadelphia, but at that point, Virginia simply needed to fill a boat healthy enough to row 2,000 meters on the Schuylkill River.  

By the time the Aberdeen Dad Vail wrapped up, a fourth-place finish in the grand finals practically seemed like a victory.  Because the Henley trip was already scheduled, Virginia was able to take many positives from its performance at Vails.  That focus resulted in a resounding gold-medal performance two weeks later at the American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships—the national championship for club rowing programs.

Not only did Virginia win gold at ACRA, it defeated Michigan, the Dad Vail champion, in the process.

“Having Henley in the background helped us keep some perspective,” Bezold said.  “We knew we were training for something just beyond the next week.”

On top of needing to get healthy, Virginia coach Frank Biller also shuffled the deck in his varsity eight during the time between SIRA and Dad Vail.  Over the time, Scott Stuard shifted from three seat to two seat, Sean Fagan moved from stroke to three seat and Jon Furlong shifted from bow to eight seat.  As if that wasn’t enough, Bezold was moved from the JV eight to the varsity bow seat and Ben Hammond, a sophomore who never rowed prior to September, moved from the novice eight to the varsity seven seat.

Only the four, five and six seats — Steven Lee Kramer, Matt Miller and Alan Kush — have remained unchanged.  Coxswain Allie Plettner has also been there all along.

“The way we train all year long is to adapt to situations,” Biller said.  “We do a lot of individual work, we scull a lot and some times I send them on some adventures that work on their mental strength.  This way they’re able to face awkward situations and take it as it is.”

Five member so of Virginia’s crew are seniors.  At this point, each race at Henley is one more opportunity to extend their careers — one more opportunity to keep this bizarre season alive.

“We can still do more,” said Bezold.

Given Virginia’s resilience, there isn't much it can’t do.

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