Author Archives: Danielle Nelson

Rowing relocates tent

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The women’s rowing team has temporarily moved its tent to the opposite side of St. Joseph’s boathouse until the East Park Canoe House is renovated.

Before the move, the women’s team was sharing tent space with the men’s crew team. Now with their own tent, coach Rebecca Grzybowski said having the tent closer to the river is more convenient for the team, instead of trotting across the St Joe’s boathouse parking lot to get their boats to the bank of the river.

The Owls look to move into their permanent home within the year.

Sacramento State, San Diego State join AAC

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Beginning in 2014-2015 season, Sacramento State and San Diego State women’s rowing programs will join the American Athletic Conference.

Temple’s women’s rowing coach Rebecca Grzybowski said it only benefits the conference with both teams coming into The American.  The conference currently has five rowing programs – Central Florida, Southern Methodist, Tulsa, Connecticut and Temple. Now by adding two more programs to The American, Grzybowski said by winning the conference championship, a team will automatically qualify for the NCAA. This  could only be granted to a conference with a minimum of six teams.

Sacramento State will come into the conference with the most success, winning two Dad Vail varsity 8 titles in 2004 and 2010. As a result, Grzybowski said the level of competitiveness and urgency will increase, as Temple will rarely race against the two teams until the conference championship since they are on the west coast.

Sacramento State and San Diego State are currently members of Conference USA.

Rowing to open season on the Schuylkill

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The women’s rowing team is set to kick off its spring season Saturday on the Schuylkill.

Temple will race against Drexel, Delaware and Lehigh. Beginning at 2 p.m., the women’s novice eight “B” will go head to head against Delaware “B.” Drexel and Delaware’s women’s novice eight “A” will square off against the Owls 12 minutes later. The varsity four “B” will compete with Delaware and Drexel followed by the varsity four “A” slated for 2:36 p.m. versus Lehigh, Delaware and Drexel. The race will conclude with both varsity eights competing against Drexel, Lehigh and Delaware starting at 2:48 p.m.

The men’s crew team will scrimmage against Rutgers at 7 a.m.

Rowers hold ‘Champ Week’

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DANIELLE NELSON | TTN

DANIELLE NELSON | TTN

From wrestling to “Cear Bare” costumes, the women’s rowing team recently celebrated its second annual Champ Week.

The team of close to 60 women was separated into groups throughout the week for intersquad competitions, but before the competition started, each group wore matching costumes.

“When we were explaining to them we said bonus points for costumes, half jokingly expecting one day they would all wear matching red shirts, something simply, but they took it to the complete extreme and it was awesome,” coach Rebecca Grzybowski said.

There were unicorns, “Temple Maids,” and a team of Steve ‘Erg’- el all prancing around the erg room this past week to culminate a month of brutal indoor training. The team looks to get on the water this week as their season is less than three weeks away.

Champ Week was started a year ago by an assistant graduate. More photos can be seen here.

Crew heads to Florida

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The men’s crew team is heading to Florida on Friday ahead of its first race of the season in the Stetson Invitational on March 8.

With the exception of two juniors, all the sophomores, juniors and seniors will be heading to Delanco, Fla. to row on a lake during spring break. The men will row twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening. The freshmen will be staying behind to train with an assistant coach.

The men will row for the first time this year on water in Florida because the Schuylkill River has been frozen for much of the winter.

Crew begins training

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Although the men’s crew team cannot go out on the water just yet, the team began its winter training on Monday for what is set to be the final season for the historic program.

The team will spend much of the next few weeks indoors, lifting, perfecting its rowing techniques on erg machines and doing towers in Wachman Hall.

“Towers, you run up 14 flights of stairs and back,” senior co-captain Zephyr Dippel said. “That is one tower and we do that over and over until you pretty much throw up.”

The team will begin practicing on the water a few weeks before spring break.

Crew begins practicing

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Although the men’s crew team cannot go out on the water just yet, the team began its winter training on Monday for what is set to be the final season for the program.

The team will spend much of the next few weeks indoors, lifting, perfecting its rowing techniques on erg machines, and doing towers in Wachman Hall.

“Towers, you run up 14 flights of stairs and back, senior co-captain Zephyr Dippel said. “That is one tower and we do that over and over until you pretty much throw up.”

The team will begin practicing on the water a couple weeks before spring break.

Rowing team headed south

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The women’s rowing team will head to Florida on Thursday to begin its training in preparation for its final season at Temple University.

For the first time since the semester ended, the team of 60 will look to regain its mental focus on rowing.

“We are hoping to log some miles,” coach Rebecca Smith-Grzybowski said. “Just to get on the water. It will be a change of scenery, change of pace and getting the team back together. It’s just going to be a really good time to get away. No one has school to worry about, we just get to be together and train hard and start to set some goals for the upcoming season and row as much as we possibly can.”

The team will spend just about 10 days in Florida and return to Philadelphia on January 18th.

Tennis stays busy off the court with volunteering

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Although the men’s and women’s tennis teams are not playing on the court, they found a way to team up off the court.

This past Saturday the Owls partnered up with SquashSmarts, a non-profit academic and athletic mentoring program, which is geared towards helping children attain success. Temple volunteered in helping fifth – 12th grade students in different ways including academics/enrichment, squash/fitness, or general service.

SquashSmarts has two different locations in Philadelphia; the Lenfest Center (North Philadelphia) and Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center (West Philadelphia) where students attend practices three days each week focusing on SquashSmarts’ Five Pillars: (1) Academic Support, (2) Squash Instruction, (3) Fitness and Nutrition, (4) Personal Achievement, and (5) Leadership. Students also participate in competitive squash opportunities, community service projects, cultural outings, and special events.

Men prepare for ITAs

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The men’s tennis team is set to begin competition in the 2013 USTA/ITA Atlantic Regional Championship on Thursday, October 17th at Virginia Tech.

Captain Kristian Marquart is the only Owl in the main singles draw. The junior received a bye in the round of 32 and will face the winner of Delaware’s Troy Beneck and Aaron Capitel from George Mason in the round 16.

In the qualifying singles draw, sophomores Santiago Canete and Nicolas Paulus earned a bye in the round of 32 and will take to the court in the round of 16. Canete face off against the winner of Penn State’s Ramy Labna vs. Daniel Gray of UMBC ‘s match. Paulus will go head to head to against either David Kohan from Penn State or Evan Ward of Morgan State.

Hicham Belkssir, Maros Januvka, Vineet Naran, Sam Rundle and Hernan Vasconez will all begin their competition in the round of 32. Belkssir will take to the court against Saint Joseph’s Dan Barrus. Januvka will play Mateo Cevallos of Longwood, while Naran will square off against Eliott Labatie from UMBC. Rundle will take on Chris Young of Penn State and Vasconez will face Richmond’s Noah Fenton in the opening round.

Four pairs of Temple Owls will represent the cherry and white in doubles action. In the opening round, Rundle and Naran will face the duo of Mehdi Mekaoui and Harry Walshe from Duquesne. Belkssir and Marquart will team up against Old Dominion’s Jonas Kuwet and Zvonimir Podvinski. The duo of Canete and Paulus will take on the tandem of Biyik Akinshemayisn and Labatie of UMBC. Januka and Vasconez will face another pair from UMBC, Kamal Patel and Kevin Hsieh.

The USTA/ITA Regional Championships has attracted some of the top men’s and women’s players in the country. Well over 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior and Community Colleges compete at one of the 87 USTA/ITA Regional Championships held across the country.