Kansas rowing coach Rob Catloth has some holes to fill in his Varsity Eight boat.
Eight to be exact.
Catloth has only one returnee from his top scull No. 6 seat Heather Muir, a senior from Eden Prairie, Minn. All the others including Risa Petty, KU’s 1999-2000 female student-athlete of the year, and veteran coxswain Nikia Rosenberger completed their eligibility last season.
Not that Catloth is gnashing his teeth. The sixth-year coach has plenty of talented rowers eager to move up from the second Varsity Eight and the first Varsity Four.
“That senior boat was fast every day. They were never beat up by practice,” Catloth said. “The second eight was just as fast as the first eight two or three days a week, but they couldn’t do it every day because they were so young and not in condition.”
In last year’s NCAA Central Regional at Oak Ridge, Tenn., KU’s Varsity Eight missed qualifying for the finals by a mere four-tenth of a second. The second Varsity Eight missed by almost five seconds, yet both boats bounced back the next day to win the petite finals.
KU’s second Varsity Eight had three seats filled by freshmen and two by sophomores.
“The second boat was very young,” Catloth noted. “Of the three freshmen, two were recruits and one was a walk-on.”
The walk-on was Erin Harrington of Frankfort. The frosh recruits in the No. 2 boat were Galina Levin and Jen Van Ruyven, both from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
So impressed was Catloth by his two Canadian freshmen that he signed four more from the province of Ontario last spring, including two more from St. Catharines Christine Corbett and Hayley Dool.
Also at the Central Regional, the Varsity Four finished second in the grand finals to Clemson. Returning from that boat are juniors Caren Nies and Alane Thomas and seniors Ali Brox and Angie Kratochvil (coxswain).
Thus Catloth will have plenty of competition for the prestige berths on the Varsity Eight boat.
“We had the best freshman squad we’ve ever had last year,” he said. “We have eight recruits coming in, and two or three could make a run at the top two boats.”
Catloth went out on a limb for one signee Jessica Watson, a volleyball player at Barton County CC with no rowing experience.
“We’re taking a chance on her,” Catloth said, “but she looks very athletic and is the right size.”
Like volleyball and basketball coaches, Catloth is always searching for size and athleticism. Most of his rowers are in the 5-foot-8 to 5-11 range.
Kansas made women’s rowing a varsity sport six years ago basically as a Title IX balance for football.
Kansas has one home meet scheduled this fall a Nov. 4 dual with Kansas State on the Kansas River. KU, KSU, Baylor and Texas are the only Big 12 Conference schools with varsity rowing. Baylor’s program is new this year.
“When we started there were 60 schools in the country with rowing,” Catloth said. “Now there are 150.”
With the number of rowing schools growing, it obviously becomes more difficult each year for a school to make the NCAAs.
“We came close last year,” Catloth said. “Our goal is to get there and stay there. We’re looking to have a fast Varsity Eight this year.”
