Tuesday, July 29, 1986
Page 6
Daily Nebraskan
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BuiildiBg a UNL tradition
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Paul VonderlageDaily Nebraskan
Silhouetted by the early morning sun, the crew prepares
for a long practice at Capitol Beach.
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Paul VonderiageOaily Nebraskan
An early morning practice at Capitol Beach doesn't dampen
the crew's spirit. Coach Steve Knapp sets the pace for the
ether crew members.
By Chris McCubbin
Staff Reporter
Short on publicity but long on
tradition, the Nebraska crew team
is carving a place for itself in Corn
husker athletics.
Modern competitive rowing began
more than 150 years ago in London,
when barges would race on the
Thames river. Soon Oxford and
Cambridge Universities had picked
up the sport. Rowing moved to
America in 1871 when both Yale and
Harvard adopted the sport.
UNL's crew has been competing
for 15 years. Crew is a club sport at
UNL and the team members must
sacrifice physically and financially
in order to compete. In addition to
club dues, the members are expected
to buy their own uniforms and help
with travel expenses.
Crew's long-standing association
with the Ivy League may conjure
images of preppie diletantes, but in
fact the crew trains as hard as any
team on campus. A study done in
the early '80s compared the relative
fitness of all UNL sports teams. The
Crew ranked number one in every
category except raw strength, where
they placed second after the foot
ball team.
Sarah Staples has been rowing
for one year. She says their summer
conditioning program consists mainly
of running 3 to 4 miles a day and
running drills on Memorial Stadi
um's stairs. This sort of intensive
leg training is necessary because
modern rowing boats have sliding
seats which allow the rower to use
their whole body to row.
Staples estimates she spends 15
to 20 hours a week in training. The
team trains all year round. During
the winter they concentrate more
on weight training, Staples said.
Staples rows for the women's
lightweight four. Rowing competi
tion is divided into 1, 2, 4 and 8
person events. Each rower uses
either 1 or 2 oars, depending on the
event. For each event there are
heavy and lightweight, and men's
and women's divisions.
Weight restrictions are taken very
seriously in rowing. Before one race
in Wisconsin Staples discovered she
was a few pounds over weight. That
night she ran. The next morning she
was still over. Before the race she
ran again, then she ran stairs. Finally
she made her weight and was able
to compete.
Staples said in a race the first 10
or 20 strokes hurt, but after that the
rower's intense concentration blanks
out the pain. After the race, Staples
said, the rower is totally exhausted.
Rowers frequently vomit over the
side of the boat after a race, she
said.
Staples also serves as a coxswain
from time to time. The coxswain
doesn't row, in the larger team
events the cox steers the boat and
sets the team's cadence. Women,
being lighter than men, very often
cox for the men's events.
The Crew team is just finishing a
total overhaul of their equipment.
Team coach Steve Knapp said that
previous coaches neglected the
equipment in favor of intensive
conditioning, so he decided to take
a couple of weeks to get the equip
ment into top shape.
After the equipment is ready
Knapp will begin preparing his 18
men and 12 women team for Lin
coln's own rowing event, the Neb
raska Fall Regatta, on October 26.
Games beneficial
zarkowski
for S
By Rob White
Staff Reporter
Szarkowski
When Karyn Szarkowski com
peted in Moscow during the Goodwill
Games, it may have been the first step
on the road to a long international
career.
Though there
were only seven
competitors in the
javelin competi
tion, Szarkowski
said her first trip
abroad was a good
experience.
"When you're go
ing against compe
tition like that (four Soviets and the
world record holder), you can't help
but throw well," she said. "The adre
nalin really gets going."
Szarkowski had four flat throws, in
which the tip of thejavelin doesn't land
first, and wound up last of the seven,
but remained undaunted.
"I had some PR (personal record)
throws, but they didn't give me a mark
because they were flat," she said.
Szarkowski qualified for the Good
will Games after finishing second at a
TAC track meet in Eugene, Ore., with a
throw of 182-10.
Facing the best competition in the
world wasn't the only benefit for Szar
kowski. She also was impressed by the
Russian culture.
"It was pretty unbelieveable," she
said. "It was my first international trip,
period, and just to see another culture
first-hand, especially theirs, was some
thing. I could go on and on and never
give you the impression of what it was
like. You'd just have to see it."
Szarkowski said she probably will be
the third or fourth ranked javelin throw
er in the country next year, but feels
she'll need to increase her top throw
from 185-8 to 200 or 210 feet to be able
to be successful in Europe.
"It's kind of foolish to pick a dis
tance and say that it's your goal," she
said, "but if I have a goal it's the Olym
pics and that's somewhat of a dream.
But I'd like to make it in either 1988 or
1992."
"I'd just like to travel internation
ally, see Germany and Switzerland, and
do the best I can do within myself.
That's my greatest goal."
Szarkowski came to Nebraska from
Bismarck, N.D., where she won three
state javelin titles and was named the
1983 North Dakota high school female
athlete of the year.
She suffered a knee injury before the
start of her freshman season and was
forced to redshirt. She said that the
knee is finally rounding into shape.
"I didn't compete until this season
and the knee was at about 87 percent
and I did fairly well. I'm really excited
about track and field and now I realize
how much work it takes to be world
class."
Co-rec touimament
starts tonight
By Jeff Apel
Sports Editor
Seven weeks of regular season
competition will climax tonight with
the beginning of the university co-ed
Softball tournament.
Bill Goa, assistant coordinator of
intramurals at Nebraska's office of
campus recreation, said all 22 teams
entered in this year's summer compe
tition were placed into the tournament
according to their records.
For example, Let's Play Ball was
given the No. 1 seed in the double
elimination tournament because of
their perfect 7-0 record.
The remaining 21 teams in the tour
nament were then seeded according to
how their record faired when it was
compared to the record compiled by
Let's Play Ball, Goa said.
Goa said campus recreation officials
elected to raise this year's tournament
to the double-elimination format to
provide each team with more playing
time in the eight-week season.
While the new format could pose
potential problems, Goa said tourna
ment officials are expecting positive
results from it.
"Everyone seems really excited about
it," Goa said.
Ray Koziol, the manager of the No.
5-seeded Evil Horde's, said his 5-2
squad is anxious to compete in the
double-elimination tournament.
Although it is difficult for Koziol to
predict how the Evil Horde's will do, he
said the campus recreation office deci
sion to lengthen the tournament defi
nitely was a step in the right direction.
"It will make us try harder," Koziol,
operations manager of the East Cam
pus Union, said.
Steve Kyle, the manager of Let's Play
Ball, said his squad also was in favor of
an expanded tournament.
Because of their dominance this
season, Kyle said most teams entered
in the tournament will be looking to
knock off the top-ranked members of
Let's Play Ball.
If that should happen, Kyle said all
of the members of his squad will be
thankful for the change in the tourna
ment format.
"I've learned to never say anything is
for sure in intramurals," Kyle said.
"With the change in format, some of
that uncertainty is taken away."
Goa said he would like to remind all
team captains who haven't yet picked
up their Softball playoff schedules to
please do so at the Office of Campus
Recreation, 1740 Vine Street.
Night game a possibility
From Staff Reports
The Nebraska-Colorado football game
on October 25 may be moved to night to
accommodate the ESPN Television
Network, according to the most recent
issue of "Colorado Alumns," the alumni
magazine of the University of Colorado.
The magazine listed the Nebraska
game as one of several television possi
bilities for the 1986 season. Colorado
Sports Information Director Dave Plati
said Monday the game is under consi
deration by the ESPN programming
selection board, but the final decision
will not come until at least 12 days
before the game is to be played.
"There are four or five other games
being considered for that day by ESPN,"
Plati said. "They (ESPN) have to wait
and see how the season progresses
before they can make a decision."
Plati said there is also a possibility
the game may be shown on other net
works, or not at all, depending upon
the circumstances.
"If both teams are 5-1 or 6-0, ABC
might pluck it off for one of their after
noon games," Plati said. "If either
team falls flat on their faces early in
the season, though, the game may not
be on at all."
Plati said if the game is televised by
ESPN, the kickoff time is likely to be
moved back to 5:45 Mountain Standard
Time, 6:45 CST.
