March 31, 1997
Bears' Crew Teams Travel to San Diego Crew Classic
THIS WEEK: April 5-6 at San Diego Crew Classic, San Diego, CA, All Day
NEXT RACE: April 19 at California Collegiate Rowing Champs, Sacramento, CA All Day
SAN DIEGO CREW CLASSIC:
The Cal men's and women's crews will make their annual pilgrimage to Mission Bay in San Diego to compete in the San Diego Crew Classic, April 5-6. Racing is scheduled 7:00 am to 4:50 p.m. on Saturday with the finals scheduled Sunday from 7:00 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.
ABOUT THE CREWS:
Under the new leadership of head coach Steve Gladstone, the men's crew looks to return to the top echelon of collegiate rowing. This years men's varsity is made up of stalwarts from the 1996 varsity, including Djordje Visacki, Danko Djunic and Wolf Thiele, last year's fourth ranked JV eight, Mark Rolson, the second ranked freshman eight, Sebastian Bea, and transfers, Scott Kaslusky, Lars Erdman and Andeja Stevanovic.
The women's varsity should look similar to the successful novice crew from a year ago. Cal returns only Caroline Ingham and coxswain Ilyana Achzinger from last year's varsity boat. Moving up to varsity from last years novice crew are: Victoria Cloud, Carey Wagner, Marlowe Penfold, Marie Haddock, Mercy Ringelmann, Jaime Goodrich, Jane Watkinson.
In addition to the varsity eights, the Bears will travel with both men's and women's JV and frosh/novice eights.
THE COMPETITION:
Once again, the men's varsity event will feature the elite of collegiate rowing, with California and defending champion Washington squaring off against perennial eastern powers Harvard, Penn and Wisconsin in the Copley Cup. The varsity women's event will highlight Cal, Washington, WSU, Stanford, Penn, Wisconsin and Yale in the Whittier Cup.
STEVE GLADSTONE RETURNS TO CALIFORNIA:
Regarded as one of the premier coaches in the United States, Steve Gladstone guided the Bears to three undefeated dual race seasons, an Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship, and a Pac-10 championship during his previous 8-year tenure at Cal between 1972-1980.
He, returns to Cal after serving as the Director of Rowing Operations at Brown University from 1981-1994. During his time at Brown, Gladstone established a program that was regarded the best in all of collegiate rowing. His crews amassed four Eastern Sprints championships, five Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships and two National Collegiate Rowing Championship titles. In both 1993 and '94 the Brown varsity crew completed the "triple crown" with victories in each of these regattas; a feat that had never before been accomplished. In Gladstone's final season at Brown, as an indication of the depth created, the men's crew went undefeated as a program at all levels of competition.
It seems Gladstone's name has been synonymous with success ever since he began coaching in 1966. After directing the Princeton freshmen to a pair of second place finishes in the IRA's, Gladstone took over as varsity lightweight coach at Harvard. There he led the Crimson to four straight undefeated seasons, four Eastern Sprint Championships and, in 1972, the Thames Challenge Cup and Wyfold Challenge Cup victories at Henley. During his tenure at Harvard, he was coach of the United States National team (1969) and was a selector for the U.S. Olympic team (1972).
A graduate of Syracuse University, Gladstone has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen and has also been a member of the Men's Olympic Rowing Committee. In 1984 he was selected by ABC to serve as the expert commentator for the rowing events and in 1988 worked in the same capacity for NBC at the Seoul Olympic Games. Immediately prior to his return to Cal, Gladstone served as the President and Director of Marketing Resolute Racing Shells.
