University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Rowing Looking Forward to Its New Home
9/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
In the month of November, the University of Minnesota rowing program will experience something it has never had before: a state of the art, on-campus boathouse. Since the inception of the varsity rowing program in the 2000-01 season, the Golden Gophers have competed out of a tent storage unit. The new boathouse, resting on a half acre of the 38.6 acre East River Flats Park, will serve as the permanent home for the women’s varsity team and the men’s club team.
The Gophers will train out of this new, two story boathouse on the banks of the Mississippi River year round. Along with rowing on the mighty Mississippi, the Maroon and Gold will also work out in the boathouse’s erg room and indoor rowing tank during the winter months. In the previous years, the rowers would winter train on erg machines in the basement of the Sports Pavilion and could not practice bladework until they returned on the water in February. In the near future, that will all change, and this combinatiuon of the placid raiver and boathouse facility will give the Golden Gophers one of the best training sites in the country..
The boathouse groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 18 and since then, construction has come at a strong and steady pace. From the time of the groundbreaking, the facility is scheduled to be fully functional in just seven months. Constructed by HGA, the facility will also have locker rooms, a medial training area and a coaches’ room.
The Golden Gopher rowing program has excelled every year it has been in competition. The Gophers were ranked for the first time in school history in the 2004-05 campaign in the CRCA poll as they posted a top 15 ranking. Minnesota followed with a banner year in 2005-06, ranked as high as ninth in the nation. With over 80 rowers on the team and 20 Minnesotans on the roster, the Gophers placed second at the Big Ten Championships, held on their home course of Lake Phalen in St. Paul, Minn. Head coach Wendy Davis was named Co-Big Ten Coach of the Year as Minnesota advanced to all six Grand Finals and won three. The Gophers continued to excel when their First Varsity Eight boat earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships, held in West Windsor, N.J. Minnesota made strides on the national scene as the Gophers placed eighth overall in the 1V8 competition, the highest finish of the four at-large teams.
“We’re extremely excited about this opportunity,” Davis said. “This boathouse will completely changes our program. With the locker rooms, our student-athletes can shower, stretch and have a roof over their heads. Our rowing equipment will have the proper storage and safety it needs. That’s just the basics that other programs may take for granted. Our next step is the erg and tank room. If you look at the races at NCAAs, the schools that finished ahead of us had better timing. You don’t get that without tanks. I know we would have been top-five in the country if we were able to train in the winter. We are so excited to have this facility and it’s finally becoming a reality.”
The Gophers will train out of this new, two story boathouse on the banks of the Mississippi River year round. Along with rowing on the mighty Mississippi, the Maroon and Gold will also work out in the boathouse’s erg room and indoor rowing tank during the winter months. In the previous years, the rowers would winter train on erg machines in the basement of the Sports Pavilion and could not practice bladework until they returned on the water in February. In the near future, that will all change, and this combinatiuon of the placid raiver and boathouse facility will give the Golden Gophers one of the best training sites in the country..
The boathouse groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 18 and since then, construction has come at a strong and steady pace. From the time of the groundbreaking, the facility is scheduled to be fully functional in just seven months. Constructed by HGA, the facility will also have locker rooms, a medial training area and a coaches’ room.
The Golden Gopher rowing program has excelled every year it has been in competition. The Gophers were ranked for the first time in school history in the 2004-05 campaign in the CRCA poll as they posted a top 15 ranking. Minnesota followed with a banner year in 2005-06, ranked as high as ninth in the nation. With over 80 rowers on the team and 20 Minnesotans on the roster, the Gophers placed second at the Big Ten Championships, held on their home course of Lake Phalen in St. Paul, Minn. Head coach Wendy Davis was named Co-Big Ten Coach of the Year as Minnesota advanced to all six Grand Finals and won three. The Gophers continued to excel when their First Varsity Eight boat earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships, held in West Windsor, N.J. Minnesota made strides on the national scene as the Gophers placed eighth overall in the 1V8 competition, the highest finish of the four at-large teams.
“We’re extremely excited about this opportunity,” Davis said. “This boathouse will completely changes our program. With the locker rooms, our student-athletes can shower, stretch and have a roof over their heads. Our rowing equipment will have the proper storage and safety it needs. That’s just the basics that other programs may take for granted. Our next step is the erg and tank room. If you look at the races at NCAAs, the schools that finished ahead of us had better timing. You don’t get that without tanks. I know we would have been top-five in the country if we were able to train in the winter. We are so excited to have this facility and it’s finally becoming a reality.”
Head of the Mississippi Hype
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