SE: K-State Rowing Riding Team-First Mentality into Big 12 Championship
May 10, 2017 | Rowing, Sports Extra
A rising tide lifts all boats. It's a phrase with closer ties to economics and former president John F. Kennedy than anything water related. In the case of K-State's rowing team, however, it's fitting.
The Wildcats have embraced a complete team focus, a shift from years past when boat placement could affect how rowers viewed their importance to the team.
"We have one goal and that's to make our team as fast as we can as opposed to pushing one boat forward," K-State senior Noelle Dykmann said. "We're really focused on bringing the team together as a whole. I think we've achieved that pretty well."
Fellow senior Kayla Brock agreed.
"This is my fifth year, and it's way different than when I started. I think that people are really buying into that this is one team and everybody matters, every boat matters," she said. "It's been so, so cool just to see the whole team evolve that way."
K-State's performances have reflected such a change. For the first time since 2014, all four of the Wildcats' boats claimed gold medals at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta a month ago in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Even more, K-State's First Varsity Eight earned Big 12 Boat of the Week honors on April 20, for its work, which included a finals time of 6:44.936. It marks K-State's fourth weekly conference honor since the award's inception in 2013 and its first since 2014.
"That's a huge honor," Dykmann said. "We've been working really, really hard this season, and in the offseason, so it's nice to have the hard work pay off."
K-State head coach Patrick Sweeney applauded the First Varsity Eight's performance but said it was a reflection of the entire team's improvement. He credits a number of factors in the team's gains.
"It's getting a little bit better every year, a little bit faster, a little bit deeper," said Sweeney, whose team will return to Oak Ridge for the Big 12 Championship on Saturday and Sunday. "Hopefully, it will continue."
The Wildcats' Intercollegiate Rowing Center, opened in 2013, makes training possible every day of the year. Sweeney said it has played a significant role in this team's improved fitness levels, which has led to better technique and faster times. A strong core of leadership has also made sure this improvement spreads throughout the team.
"As much as we push them, if the kids aren't willing to do the work, it's not going to change anything. It really comes from the girls themselves, the peer pressure that they put on each other as a team to not accept somebody over here not doing the work," Sweeney said. "It's, like, 'Do the work or get out.' That's what we want as coaches, but it's the kids who have to really want it. Some of the older girls have been putting it on the younger ones, saying, 'Come on, you can do this. Push it.'"
From this, more depth in talent has been developed, allowing Sweeney to switch up boating positions more freely without worrying about a drop-off in performance.
"A few years ago, you had the first boat and then there was a big gap between the second boat. You couldn't say they were of equal standing. Now, with our top-three boats, they're pretty much of equal standing," he said. "I can take a kid from the third boat, put her in the first boat and you're not going to see a vast difference, which is nice to have. They are working hard enough that those other boats have come up to that level."
Maybe more important, K-State's rowers have taken these movements in stride. What used to be seen as a demotion is now viewed as a chance to help a different boat and, therefore, the team.
"When we move them around, some kids would just give up, but they've really taken it on. No matter what boat I'm in, I'm doing it for the whole team," he said of the team's mentality. "I think they're really starting to learn that it doesn't matter which boat you're in."
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