Kansas Rowing to Conclude Fall Season at Head of the Hooch
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas rowing team will get its last official test of the fall season when the Jayhawks travel to the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tenn. An all-day event on Nov. 1-2, The Head of the Hooch is one of the largest regattas in the country with over 2,000 boats racing in two days.
On Saturday, KU has two boats entered each of the following events among many others, the Women’s Championship Eight, the Women’s Collegiate Novice Eight event and the Women’s Championship Four. Kansas head coach Rob Catloth is excited about the upcoming trip.
“It’s become one of the largest by participation regattas in the United States,” said Catloth. “They call it ‘the last of the great fall regattas.’ It’s really good competition and just a great exciting race to attend.”
This will mark the first road regatta for many of the student-athletes on the team, but Catloth has faith in his novice rowers.
“I think they’re excited, but how they’ll handle it is to be determined,” said Catloth. “We feel like we have them prepared. This situation though will be a lot bigger than our home race. They’ll have to go out and compete well.”
The two-day competition will mark the conclusion of the fall slate on the 2014-15 schedule for the Jayhawks with the spring season beginning March 14 at the Louisville Invitational in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Following the weekend, the team gets into intense “training mode” with more work on its own river, combined with a training trip.
Catloth is hoping he can learn a little more about his team this weekend but knows the season is still young with a lot of work ahead.
“In the fall, teams are working on different things as some focus on technique or distance,” Catloth explained. “In some ways it’s a little hard to judge your team because so many other teams are doing their own thing and focusing on what their team needs. In the spring everybody is doing the same thing because you’re all training to sprint. We want to go out and have a good time against good teams but we’re just looking to go out and continue to compete at a higher level.”
The Head of the Hooch will kick off early Saturday morning with races well into the evening. It’ll then continue on Sunday morning and wrap-up early afternoon.
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