BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | MAY 01, 2009 7:28 AM

Walk down by the IMU sometime between 6-8 a.m., almost any day of the week, and just look at the river for about 10 minutes. The sleep will be knocked out of your eyes pretty quickly.

The peaceful setting of the Iowa River will quickly be displaced by the uniform thumping of oars hitting water, sounding like troops marching into battle followed by amplified voices exploding from megaphones.

“Imagine we’re racing Ohio State right now,” Iowa head coach Mandi Kowal yells to her rowers.

What you’ll see is Iowa’s 17th-ranked rowing team feverishly preparing for this weekend’s Big Ten championships, which will be held in Columbus, Ohio.

The team has been on hiatus since April 11, when it competed with No. 3 Michigan State, No. 4 Michigan, and No. 18 Louisville in Belleville, Mich. The Hawkeyes have used the time to fine-tune their technique and strategy.

“We have been focusing on what our strengths have been all year, ” Kowal said. “We need to put all of those together in one race.”

The second half of the race is where Iowa excels, so much of the training has been working on building speed from the start, similar to the thought process of a sprinter running a race.

To do this, the team has focused on improving its rating — its strokes per minute.

“We’ve been focusing as a whole on taking it up a notch,” Iowa assistant coach Emily Lewis said.
All of this comes into play with the team’s race plan.

“There are little things other teams do as a crew that we’re aware of so that we’re not caught off-guard,” Kowal said.

The Hawkeyes’ first heat of the weekend will be against two formidable foes in No. 7 Ohio State and No. 14 Wisconsin.

“We think that they’re tough, but we also think they’re within reach,” Lewis said.

Iowa has already gotten looks at Wisconsin this spring, having competed against the Badgers in scrimmages as well as at the Longhorn Invitational in March.

But Kowal isn’t necessarily thinking about the competition her squad will be up against.

“The most important thing we can do is worry about ourselves,” she said.

The Hawkeyes have gotten better each week, breaking into the top 20 after their strong performance in Michigan, and they will try to continue that this weekend against some of the country’s best competition.

Six of the top 20 teams in the country are from the Big Ten. Along with Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, and Wisconsin is No. 20 Minnesota, making the Big Ten one of the best rowing conferences in the country, and the meet is one of the most prestigious as well.

“It’s going to be some very tough rowing this weekend,” Kowal said.

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | MAY 01, 2009 7:28 AM

Imagine Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz not having a football field or locker rooms to show recruits when he brings them on campus. Right now, this is the case for the No. 17 Iowa rowing team.

With no locker rooms, showers, or even a restroom to its name, recruiting has been more of a chore than an opportunity, at least until now.

In August, the Hawkeyes will receive a new home on the banks of the Iowa River. Along with the expected upgrades of restrooms and showers, the team will enjoy a rowing machine room, a medical training room, and a meeting space, along with the biggest prize: a state-of-the-art rowing tank.

“The tank will have moving water that can be set at different speeds; it was modeled after several others that exist throughout the country,” said Sloane Tyler, an associate director for athletics development for the UI Foundation.

The tank was enhanced by the UI Hydraulics Lab, making it the best tank ever built, something the Hawkeyes will need in the frosty winter months when rowing outside isn’t an option.

The amenities will move Iowa into a whole new game as far as recruiting is concerned.

“Having these new things makes a statement,” Iowa head coach Mandi Kowal said. “Athletes are going to have something to be proud of.”

While Iowa may not have the name recognition in the rowing world as, say Harvard and Yale, to be able to bring recruits to campus and show them the new facilities will be an enormous tool.

“To have bathrooms, to have showers, to have meeting rooms — I think its going to be hard to measure,” Kowal said.

The current home of the Hawkeyes is definitely not up to par in terms of a Division-I sport.
Iowa graduate assistant Melissa Schomers endured the days at the team’s current boathouse during her tenure as a Hawkeye rower.

“I remember having to go from practice to class and being cold and miserable,” she said.

Tyler feels the boathouse will have an immeasurable effect in recruiting for the team.

“We feel that Coach Kowal’s expertise, combined with the training opportunities in this new facility, will ensure that Iowa rowers have unlimited potential for success,” she said.

The new facilities will also help the Hawkeyes succeed by allowing rowers to develop quicker through year-round training provided by the new tank.

There also has been no corner cut, and everything is being built to the highest specifications.

“This has way exceeded my expectations,” Kowal said. “I think it will be one of the best boathouses in the Big Ten.”

She is excited about the opportunities the new facilities provide.

“Most recruits we bring out to Iowa are pleasantly surprised,” she said. “This will just be icing on the cake.”

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | JUNE 08, 2009 7:26 AM

Iowa women’s track and field senior Renee White was calm as she approached the pit in the triple jump during the Big Ten championships in Columbus, Ohio. The result was the largest jump in Big Ten and Iowa history, and it defeated the second-place finisher by more than 9 inches. It was also 2 inches longer than White’s previous season best.

She always had the monster jump in her — she just had trouble with her nerves when it came time to perform at meets. It became something her coach, Clive Roberts, felt she needed to overcome in order to be successful in her last season with the Hawkeyes.

“We’ve been working on controlling her temperament, keeping her at an even keel,” he said.

White earned an at-large bid at the NCAA championships in Fayetteville, Ark., after jumping 41-71⁄4 to take 12th place in the NCAA Midwest Regional finals. While the jump was not her best of the season, it was enough to get her to her ultimate goal coming into the season and kept alive her dream of becoming a national champion.

White and her coach are not messing around — the two are all business in their preparation for her final collegiate meet and a chance to be an All-American. One of the most drastic changes is the complete focus on the jumping events and a move away from the running events that White has excelled at in the past.

“Renee and Coach Roberts agreed that they were going to focus on the jumps,” Iowa head coach Layne Anderson said.

This being her last meet for Iowa, she feels compelled to do well. The memories and past achievements would be that much sweeter to look back in if she were able to add All-American to the list.

The expectation to do well has pushed White to accept Roberts’ advice on controlling her emotions, making her sound almost Zen-like when discussing how she expects to do.

“I just want to discipline my body and discipline my mind to go out there and jump farther than I ever have,” she said.

The jump at Big Tens was the catalyst for White’s postseason, proof that she could put up jumps with the best in the country. Now, she and the coaches want her to put up with another powerful showing.

“Coach Roberts has been saying all year that she has that big jump in her,” Anderson said. “The challenge has been maintaining the consistency.”

Consistency from the Big Ten championships to the NCAA championships will be crucial, but all White will need to do is to place that one perfect jump that she got a taste of earlier in the season.

Place or not, the senior from Portmore, Jamaica, will look to influence those around her by pulling from past advice.

White said: “My coach always told me to keep my emotions in check, that you never know who’s watching or who you could inspire.”

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | JUNE 16, 2009 7:11 AM

The Prime Time League got off to a fast start on Monday in North Liberty as two incoming Iowa freshmen took to the pace quickly inside the new gym of the North Liberty Community Center.

Cully Payne of Schaumburg, Ill., and Eric May of Dubuque were pitted against each other for most of the game in their first competitive action since signing their letters of intent with the Hawkeyes.

Payne, whose Imprinted Sportswear/Goodfellow Printing team took a 89-74 win, was upbeat about the game as well as his newfound home in Iowa.

“It was a good win,” he said. “I’ve been up here for two weeks, and I really like it.”

The two Hawkeyes-to-be guarded each other for most of the game, but it was May who won the individual battle, pouring in 20 points, 12 of those after halftime for Mike Gatens Real Estate/McCurry’s.

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Even with the competition, the two seem to be readily anticipating the upcoming season together.

“Me and Eric have been together for the past two weeks, so we’ve kind of developed a friendship,” Payne said. “We’re going to be good.”

Payne managed the game well, controlling the ball and setting up the offense each time down as well as handling constant pressure from the defense which he easily broke down on his way to the hoop, on the way to a 12-point, three-assist performance.

Neither of the young additions to Iowa seemed fazed by the competition; each roster was filled with current and former college players, some of whom are stars in their own right. May noticed the difference right away, not that it changed the way he played.

“Speed. It’s a lot quicker,” May said. “Everybody is a good player on the court. There are no bad players out here.”

The speed may have been a factor early in the game for May, but once the tempo became more natural, he really turned it on en route to the huge second half he had, highlighted by a dunk off of a Payne turnover.

“I got into the flow of the game a little more, but I also haven’t played in a couple days,” May said. “So it was nice to get out here and get the dust off.”

If there was any dust, it was gone quickly. Monday night’s performances from both May and Payne made the losses from the Hawkeyes’ tumultuous spring a little easier to swallow.

Other Hawkeyes joining the new guys on the court were redshirt freshman-to-be John Lickliter, who played with May for Gatens/McCurry’s, and sophomore-to-be Aaron Fuller and senior-to-be Devan Bawinkel joined Payne on Imprinted/Goodfellow.

Bawinkel was quiet most of the night, scoring only three points on a first-half 3-pointer, and Fuller finished the game with eight points on 4-for-9 shooting for Imprinted/Goodfellow in the win.

Lickliter went 0-for-2 from the field with one assist in the loss.

With one game under their belts, the two young Hawkeyes are on their way to being ready to compete with the best the Big Ten has to offer.

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | JUNE 17, 2009 7:20 AM

After months of strenuous training and competing filled with many highs and lows, the Iowa women’s track and field team’s 2009 campaign ended with the conclusion of the NCAA outdoor championships on June 13.

The third day of competition in Fayetteville, Ark., saw two of Iowa’s three entries, sophomore Karessa Farley and senior Renee White finish in 17th and 14th places in their respective events. Farley, who placed sixth in the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA indoor championships, was unable to repeat the All-American performance.

White, meanwhile, capped an impressive senior outdoor season in which she shattered the Big Ten and Iowa school record in the triple jump with a monstrous performance at the Big Ten championships, where she jumped 43-103⁄4 for the conference title. The jump ranked 10th in the nation.

Iowa head coach Layne Anderson was pleased with the way his squad responded after a last-place finish in the Big Ten indoor meet. Even though the Hawkeyes didn’t manage to get themselves out of the last place in the Big Ten during the outdoor portion of the season, there were plenty of good things to find.

“I felt the outdoor season was better overall, just not quite at NCAAs,” Anderson said. “We got a little more experience and a little more comfortable in each event.”

The entire team did better during the second half of the season, he said, and there was no one athlete he could single out as being the only improved one of the bunch.

“It’s hard to pinpoint any one person because I felt we really did get better across the board,” he said.

The important thing going forward for Iowa will be to build off the base of solid young talent it has in its favor. Those such as Farley, freshmen Betsy Flood and McKenzie Melander, and sophomores Hannah Roeder and Bethany Praska will be catalysts for the team.

The Hawkeyes will miss White and fellow seniors Racheal Marchand and Mandy Chandler, who brought a lot to the team (in Chandler’s case, the entire throwing squad).

“I will definitely miss my past head coach and bonding with the team,” White said after four years at Iowa.

The Hawks will have a very good chance to replace the losses with their recruiting class, which, between transfers and new freshmen, will be large. Headlining the class is graduate transfer student Megan Lessard from Columbia.

“She is someone who can come to our program or any program in the country and be an All-American right away,” Anderson said. “We’ll definitely have some weapons to work with going into next season.”

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | JUNE 18, 2009 7:21 AM

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When Iowa swimming head coach Marc Long came to the Hawkeyes’ summer camp in 1983, the program was the hottest team in the Big Ten, fresh off back-to-back Big Ten championships in 1981 and 1982. Since then, Long earned himself six All-American awards and two Big Ten championships as a Hawkeye, and he now finds himself running the camp for the fourth year.

The camp, which is held at the Field House pool, is made up of two sessions for kids between the ages of 9 and 17, with this week being the first of the two.

Each day consists of two-to-three training sessions a day, a mix of everything from dryland training to time in the pool, where the campers are able to get hands-on help from the Iowa coaching staff and athletes.

Growing up in Cedar Falls, Long was a self-described “small-town kid” whose team didn’t have the kind of things a Big Ten university could provide. Through the weeklong camp, he hopes to provide that for kids with similar backgrounds.

“We do a lot of things that these kids don’t have access to with their home teams,” Long said.

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One of those is a personal DVD of the swimmer that the coaches take to analyze their stroke and work out any kinks in order to improve. Also, there are presentations on nutrition and strength training for the campers to participate in.

When Long came to the camp 26 years ago, he remembers being amazed at the college facilities and the attention he got during his time there.

“I still think it’s a neat experience to come to a university facility and experience and see the different ways we can coach,” Long said.

Accompanying the coaching staff with the campers are some of Long’s Hawkeye swimmers. Junior Hilary Leigh is helping out with the camp while staying on campus during the summer months.

“It’s interesting coming from the collegiate level and having to simplify things so much,” Leigh said. “We’re trying to really break down every element of each stroke to make it as good as possible.”

The difference comes in the intricacy with which Division-I swimmers critique their own stroke and technique. By comparison, the younger swimmers are just learning the proper way to get themselves through the water.

During Long’s visit, the Iowa pool was one of the best in the Big Ten. Now, while young swimmers methodically glide through the water back-and-forth through their lanes to the soundtrack of their coach’s stern instruction, it is easy to tell the new facility being built is eagerly anticipated.

“The place is a bit antiquated,” Long said.

For now though, the camp will continue to go on in the same place that Long came to for extra instruction over two decades ago with the hope the camp might help one of the 150 campers in attendance to a similar road of success

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | FEBRUARY 19, 2009 7:51 AM

The hurdles event is one of precision. One small mistake can make the difference between first and last place.

Karessa Farley knows this.

Last week at the Iowa State Classic, she was perfect, clearing the 60-meter hurdles with ease en route to an 8.30 finish.

The time earned the Hawkeye sophomore first place, but maybe more importantly, ranks as the best time ever for an Iowa women’s hurdler.

“It felt good,” Farley said. “For some reason, I wasn’t nervous. I was able to go out and ran fast.”
For someone who is described by her coach Layne Anderson as shy and soft-spoken, the record was a big statement.

Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, she came to Iowa upon being offered a scholarship out of Queen’s College High School, where she was named high-school athlete of the year as a senior while also being crowned the 100-meter hurdles champion.

While for her the cold weather has taken some getting used to, part of her decision to come to Iowa was that she felt comfortable with then-coach Victor Houston, also a native of Barbados.

No stranger to big meets, Farley competed in both the Central American and Pan American Junior Games while in high school. She managed to run a 8.46 at the Meyo Invitational before her freshman season at Iowa was cut short by injury.

That time ranked as fifth in school’s history before last weekend.

After redshirting during the outdoor season because of injuries, Farley came into this season with a new mindset based on working harder and keeping track of her health.

“I started to take better care of myself all the time,” she said. “I started to pay more attention to my body.”

Saying this while drying off from a dip in the ice tub, with two more bags of ice in her hand, it was evident that she has stuck with this mentality.

She also has worked with her coaches to focus more on her technique.

“The main thing for me is keeping my arms moving and sprinting between the hurdles,” Farley said.
The new mindset has paid off. The time from this past weekend also provisionally qualified Farley for the NCAA national meet, which Anderson believes she will find herself at eventually, if not this season.

“It’s just a matter of time for Karessa; she should be at the national meet soon,” he said.

By shaving a couple of fractions of a second off her time from the Iowa State Classic, she will be assured a chance to compete at nationals.

The Big Ten championship meet on Feb. 28 will be her last chance to automatically qualify — she will sit out this weekend’s Iowa Invitational in order to rest her legs.

Farley is taking it easy this week by concentrating on light workouts and opting to continue to perfect the technique that can be so difficult. She will, of course, continue with ice baths and training-room sessions.

Farley will need another “rocket start,” as Anderson described the beginning of her race last weekend, in order to better her performance and continue to set records.

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | FEBRUARY 24, 2009 7:29 AM

In 2008, the Iowa women’s track and field team had four All-Americans. Coming into this season, only one of those four, senior Racheal Marchand, returned.

The makeup of this year’s team is much different. Losing that much talent to graduation can be devastating for a team to handle, but luckily for Iowa, it has a solid group of underclassmen to lead the way for the next few years.

In previous seasons, freshmen and sophomores have not had as much asked of them, but this year’s crop of youth hasn’t felt any added pressure.

“We have an absolutely great staff of coaches who don’t put that much pressure on us,” Iowa sophomore Bethany Praska said.

The lack of pressure and chance to compete more often has allowed the women to blossom on the track. Nowhere else is this more evident than in the middle- and long-distance events, home of the lone all-American, Marchand.

In most meets this year, Iowa’s top finishers in those events have been Marchand, followed by a swarm of young Hawkeyes not far behind. Seniors such as Marchand have gone out of their way to help the younger women in their first couple years on the team.

When Karessa Farley got hurt during her freshman year, she turned to the older women for help.
“They have been very supportive and were great in helping me to get back to the track,” said Farley, now a sophomore.

The support doesn’t stop there. Praska spoke of a “mothering” attitude around the team in which each group of upperclassmen takes care of those below them.

“If you get to a meet and are a little nervous, they will sit you down and talk to you to get rid of that fear,” Praska said about the older girls.

That is a major asset for a freshman such as Betsy Flood, who describes herself as a very nervous person by nature before a competition.

This is the same Flood that Iowa head coach Layne Anderson describes as having “the talent and level of commitment to be an All-American.”

She’s not the only one the coach feels that way about. The feeling on the team is the freshman and sophomore classes can be compared with those containing former All-Americans Kineke Alexander and Meghan Armstrong.

“They’ve come in, and they’re at about the same level,” Anderson said.

Along with Praska, Farley, and Flood are other standouts — including freshmen Mckenzie Melander and Nicole Erickson and sophomores Tiffany Hendricks and Amanda and Lauren Hardesty.

The group has come together through the bonding of dinners out and long trips on the road. This team, however, is even closer. Many of the members are neighbors, and Flood even said she doesn’t have many friends who aren’t on the team.

The philosophy of the coaches paired with the general demeanor of the team has produced an atmosphere in which the young members of the team can prosper.

“We all know that we don’t have to compete like freshman and sophomores.” Praska said, “We can step up and compete with juniors and seniors at any school.”

That confidence permeates graduation years.

“I feel that there is a lot of potential in everyone, we can do big things together,” Flood said.
This weekend’s Big Ten championships in Bloomington, Ind., will be another chance for Flood, Praska, Farley, and the rest to try to put their names next to Alexander, Armstrong, Marchand, and all the rest of the great Hawkeye runners to come through Iowa.

BY JAKE KRZECZOWSKI | FEBRUARY 27, 2009 7:30 AM

Leading up to a championship meet, it is a given that coaches would stress to their athletes about good technique and taking care of their bodies.

Iowa women’s track and field head coach Layne Anderson has added confidence to the list of things needed to prepare his team for this weekend’s Big Ten indoor championships in Bloomington, Ind.

“We’ve been looking at the season as a whole, just really reflecting on the successes we’ve had,” Anderson said.

There has been plenty to reflect on. Since the beginning of the season on Jan. 17, the team has competed well, with almost everyone on the team earning a personal best in her event.

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One of those top performers, senior Mandy Chandler, feels her best performances are still to come after a great meet a week ago at the Iowa Invitational.

“I feel like I’ve been training well and peaking at the right time.” Chandler said. “It’d be great to beat some people who have finished higher than me in the past.”

Sophomore Bethany Praska went to the Big Ten meet last year and feels more relaxed going into the weekend.

“I definitely know what to expect with the atmosphere and everything else that goes along with a meet like that,” Praska said.

Someone who will feel right at home this weekend is senior Renee White, last year’s Big Ten indoor triple jump champion. By winning last year White became one of 30 Big Ten champions in Iowa’s history.

When asked about the meet, White was cool and collected.

“I trust my preparation, and I trust my coach, and I’m just excited to see what the team and I do this weekend,” she said.

The Hawkeyes have traditionally done well at the championships, finishing as high as third as a team in 2004.

This year, Iowa hopes to add a few more names to that list of champions and have a good chance with such runners as senior Racheal Marchand and sophomore Karessa Farley performing well in their events lately and being well rested after not competing Feb. 20 at the home meet.

Joining those two will be 16 other Hawkeyes, all of whom make Anderson feel confident himself.

“We’re excited about the 18 we’re taking,” Anderson said. “They’ve put themselves in a position to compete well.”

Anderson and his staff have been doing all they can to ensure that those going perform as well as they can.

“We’re doing everything we can to give them a boost of confidence.” Anderson said.

Now coming into the biggest meet of the season, the Hawkeyes have been focused, enjoying the light workouts before heading to Bloomington on Thursday.

While confidence is an important component, the athletes still have to run their races and Anderson knows this.

“We’ll see where we’re at when we load up the bus on Sunday to come home,” he said.