Men's Rowing Kicks-off 2006-07 Season
9/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Rowing
Sept. 11, 2006
The GW Men's Rowing team began practicing for 2006-07 campaign on Monday, September 11, as the squad looks to build upon last year's successes. The varsity squad returns all nine members of last year's varsity eight, which took 19th place at the 2006 IRA National Championships.
Returning senior Jon D'Alba was named to the U.S. National Team and rowed to a 5th-place finish in the Lightweight Eight at the 2006 World Championships in Eton, UK in August.
"It's very exciting to have a returning oarsman with World Championship experience," GW men's head coach Greg Myhr said. "That's something that we haven't had here in a very long time. Jon [D'Alba] is an excellent athlete and a team leader and it will be exciting to see the levels he can reach in the coming year."
Additionally, GW has eight more returning athletes who rowed this past summer with U.S. Development squads, including one National Champion, senior Henry Roosevelt, and two Canadian Henley champions, Roosevelt and junior Joe DeLeo.
Other returning rowers for the varsity eight include coxswain Amy Garrison, Oliver Blodgett (stroke), D'Alba (7), Roosevelt (6), DeLeo (5), Matt Brady (4), Pete Magee (3), Andrew Cummings (2), and Mike Mancusi in the bow position.
"All told, the bulk of our returning athletes took strides this summer in order to come back ready to go and a handful did some truly extraordinary things," Myhr continued. "Clearly, 19th place at last year's IRA leaves a lot of room for improvement, and it's a highly competitive field. If we can work hard enough, we will hopefully be able to capitalize on this markedly improved foundation."
GW's first competition of the fall portion of its schedule will be Oct. 15 in the Occoquan Chase at Woodbridge, VA.
Players Mentioned
