For the UCLA women’s rowing team, inconsistency can sometimes be a good thing.
With a 60-member team, largely comprised of walk-ons, the lineups for the various boats are constantly changing according to factors that will improve speed and efficiency in a race.
“We ask the same of everybody … no matter what seat you’re in,” coach Amy Fuller Kearney said. “But sometimes different combinations work a little better and that’s not necessarily stagnant. It’s always changing a little bit.”
This process of switching up the orders of seats within the boats, and the rowers between different boats, is one that takes up much of the year, with decisions often being made at the last minute. Experience and leadership are especially important factors as the Bruins head to Oak Ridge, Tenn., this weekend for the NCAA finals.
“We were fairly sure we had the right lineup coming into the NCAAs,” Fuller Kearney said. “But now I feel like at this point, (senior) Jessica Fritz is rowing with a little more of a dynamic stroke at seventh seat. … I like her leadership to really help drive the boat.”
Rowers in the seventh seat typically have impeccable technique and are responsible for much of the rhythm. Positioned near the back of the boat, lighter-weight rowers are ideal in this seat, making the boat sit higher.
By switching Fritz’s position with junior Patricia Dudziec, who was moved to the bow position, Fuller Kearney wanted to strike a balance between strength and experience near the back, and technical aspects in the bow.
“Dudziec has done an awesome job the last two years,” Fuller Kearney said. “She’s got such technical prowess, is so good on her stroke and can really lengthen out the bow seat, which is a really hard stroke to row.”
Senior stroke Vanessa Teff is one of the few varsity eight rowers to remain in the same seat for an extended amount of time, holding her seat since last year. Her position in the very back of the boat is responsible for setting the rhythm for the seven other rowers.
For the varsity eight team, this process of deciding who goes where that spans several months, has involved the same individuals.
“A lot of the girls, even within the varsity eight, have kind of been the same,” Teff said. “We get switched around a little bit but it’s the same eight girls (in the boat). I think that helps us to do so well.”