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hulls with tiny grooves like phonograph
records to permit a smoother
flow of water. Others have experimented
with expensive super-slippery
polymer coatings. Most major
manufacturers don't feel it's worth
the trouble or expense to develop
any of these surfaces for full-scale
manufacturing. Some have been
banned.
William Titus, president and
owner of Pocock Racing
Shells Inc. in Everett, Washington,
believes there's a
sensible limit to what a boat
maker should even attempt. The philosophy
of his 83-year-old company
is to build fast, durable shells without
any gimmickry.
He dismisses as so much hype
much of what is passed off as scientific
research in the field, and admits
that the practice of designing racing
shells still includes a fair amount of
guesswork.
"Some makers say their hulls are
faster than anyone else's, but a lot of
this is just talk," Titus says. "There's
so much we don't know about the
way these hulls interact with the
water, and we're not going to know
anytime soon because it's so expensive
to conduct the research."
There's also the concern that too
much interference from research and
development departments could corrupt
the sport. "You want this to be
a triumph of rowers, not chemical
companies," Titus says. "It shouldn't
be a technology contest."
So skill and strength are still the
most important factors in the sport,
prompting schools to step up their
efforts to attract the top talent. Once
rare in rowing, recruiting is now a
common practice among the colleges
eager for national recognition.
Traditionally, most Ivy League
rowers start rowing only in their
freshman year of college. Some
drifted into boathouses after experimenting
with other sports. "We get
some guys with a lot of raw athletic
talent, but who haven't found a sport
they really love yet," Kucik says. But
a growing number are now entering
college with a fair amount of experience,
some already at the'international
level.
This pool of talented rowers is
SPORTS
irresistible for some college recruiters.
Why start from scratch when you
can put together a crew with the likes
of Xeno Mϋller? This Swiss recruit
gave afterburner power to Brown's
1993 eight-man varsity boat, which
blew through one of the most successful
collegiate rowing seasons in
history. With Mϋller, the Bruins won
the national collegiate championships
in Cincinnati, the Eastern Sprints,
the Intercollegiate Rowing Association
race and the
British Royal Hen- •— ~~
ley Regatta.
Having trained
all over Europe,
Mϋller was re-
cruited by Brown after
competing in the
junior world championships
in Hungary.
Brown officials are
not shy about their
aggressive approach.
"We do recruit
overseas," says
Chris Humm, sports
information director
at Brown. "It's
proven quite successful."
While the Mailers
of the world are
rare, the mechanisms
are in place to
produce more of
them. In the United
States, as crew programs
proliferate at
public high schools,
universities will see
more and more talent
entering their
boathouses already
well-schooled in the
basics of the sport.
From there, it's a
matter of molding,
training and pushing
the physical limits of
the body and the
boat.
As rowing's top
schools grow even
more competitive,
most coaches and
athletes agree that
as long as the playing
field remains
CORNELL MAGAZINE
20
level the sport will stay healthy. While
Cornell's Kucik laments the loss of
some of the sport's antique charm,
he admits he enjoys the challenge of
coaching record-speed boats.
"It certainly makes you work
harder as a coach," he says. "If the
boat is capable of going faster, the
coaching has to be there to get those
speeds."
Rowers are fairly tolerant of technological
change as long as it doesn't
Scoreboard
Men's Baseball
(overall record, 9-21)*
Cornell 5, Dartmouth 4
Cornell 4, Dartmouth 3
Cornell 7 Harvard 4
Cornell 3 Harvard 2
Cornell 6, Le Moyne 0
Le Moyne 4, Cornell 2
Brown 8, Cornell 0
Cornell 3, Brown 1
Yale 9, Cornell 8
Yale 8, Cornell 5
Pennslyvania 14, Cornell 0
Pennslyvania 12, Cornell 2
Pennslyvania 2, Cornell 0
Pennslyvania 3, Cornell 1
Cornell 6, Penn State 0
Cornell 19, Penn State 7
Columbia 10, Cornell 5
Columbia 8, Cornell 2
Columbia 7, Cornell 1
Columbia 6, Cornell 3
Cornell 10, Le Moyne 9
Cornell 2, Princeton 1
Princeton 3, Cornell 1
Men's Crew (3-3)*
Yale 5:43.4, Cornell 5:51.3
Dartmouth 5:44.2, Cornell 5:51.3
Cornell 5:57.27, Rutgers 6:06.7
Cornell 5:37.4, Syracuse 5:47.2
Cornell 5:37.4, Navy 5:43.9
Princeton 5:47.04, Cornell 5:49.59
Women's Crew (3-5)*
Yale 6:24.5, Cornell 6:29.5
Cornell 6:29.5, Syracuse 6:37.4
Radcliffe 6:24.14,
Cornell 6:27.24
Princeton 6:18.14,
Cornell 6:27.24
Cornell 6:49.1,
Pennsylvania 6:49.9
Cornell 6:49.1, Rutgers 6:57.ί
Brown 6:38.4, Cornell 6:52.1
Dartmouth 5:38.7,
Cornell 5:43.2
Men's Golf (1-0)*
Cornell at Yale 21st
Ivy Tournament 8th
Princeton Invitational 18th
Colgate Invitational 2nd
Men's Lacrosse (1-9)*
Pennsylvania 10, Cornell 9
Syracuse 22, Cornell 5
Cornell 16, Colgate 4
Dartmouth 12, Cornell 11
Hobart 11, Cornell 9
Princeton 19, Cornell 7
Brown 16, Cornell 7
Women's Lacrosse (4-9)*
Brown 11, Cornell 10
Cornell 13, Bucknell 10
Yale 10, Cornell 7
New Hampshire 11, Cornell 7
Colgate 13, Cornell 12
Dartmouth 18, Cornell 7
Cornell 11, Vermont 8
Harvard 10, Cornell 5
Boston College 11, Cornell 9
Princeton 18, Cornell 6
Cornell 15, Drexel 13
Women's Softball (10-28)
Central Connecticut 10,
Cornell 0
Central Connecticut 6,
Cornell 1
Hartford 9, Cornell 4
Hartford 7, Cornell 1
Yale 9, Cornell 0
Yale 4, Cornell 1
Pennsylvania 4, Cornell 1
Pennsylvania 5, Cornell 4
Army 3, Cornell 2
Army 2, Cornell 1