Ivy League athletes attempt to qualify for 1996 Olympics

While the Ivy League is known more for its prowess in academics than in athletics, many current students, graduates and coaches from the Ancient Eight have their eyes set on amateur athletics' most prestigious competition -- the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Some of the athletes -- such as those competing in rowing and judo -- already know that they are headed to the Olympics, while others, including fencers, wrestlers and track stars, still have to qualify. Crew: Ivy League Dominance Of the 44 men and women that make up the United States Olympic rowing team, almost half come from Ivy League schools. And all eight universities have at least one representative on the team. Two Penn graduates qualified for the Olympics in rowing -- 1989 graduate Mike Peterson and 1990 graduate Jeff Pfaendtner. Peterson qualified in the pair without coxswain race, finishing first in a field of six. His partner for the event is Adam Holland, a 1994 Harvard University graduate. Pfaendtner, whose boat also took top honors in a six-boat race, qualified for the lightweight four without coxswain. Dartmouth College also has two representatives on the Olympic rowing team -- 1992 graduate Anne Kakela and 1994 graduate Ted Murphy. Murphy began rowing his freshman year at Dartmouth -- at the urging of Big Green crew coach Scott Armstrong. "I can remember picking him out of the lunch line during freshmen orientation week," Armstrong said. Murphy said he had hoped to play basketball for Dartmouth. When that did not work out, and the opportunity to row came up, he took advantage of it. "I started that fall and never looked back," Murphy said. He has been on the national team since the summer after his junior year in college. He therefore had to train for both the Dartmouth and U.S. teams. But he said that while at Dartmouth, he focused on his collegiate rowing. And he began preparation for the national team after the school year ended. "But, of course, being on the national team was always in the back of my mind," Murphy added. Murphy will be racing in the Summer Games in the men's eight-man boat, where he will be joined by several other Ivy League athletes. Jamie Colvin, a 1995 Brown University graduate, and Porter Collins, a junior at Brown who has taken the year off to train, will be rowing in the same boat as Murphy, along with 1988 Princeton University graduate Doug Burden. Burden competed on both the 1988 and 1992 U.S. teams. In the 1988 Games, his men's eight boat won a bronze medal in Seoul, South Korea. And in the 1992 Games, his straight four-man boat captured second in Barcelona, Spain. "If his boat wins a medal this time, he'll tie a record for most consecutive Olympic victories," Princeton men's crew coach Curtis Jordan said. Rounding out the Ivy League contingent on the men's eight is coxswain Steve Segaloff, a 1992 Cornell University graduate. Also on the rowing team from Cornell are Tom Murray, a 1991 graduate rowing in the men's four without coxswain -- and 1989 graduate Andrea Thies, who will compete in the women's quad. Harvard has several representatives in the women's competitions, including the McCagg twins -- Betsy and Mary, who both graduated in 1989. The McCaggs rowed on the national team's women's eight that captured the gold in last summer's World Championships. The McCaggs will be rowing in the women's eight this summer along with Kakela of Dartmouth. Lindsay Burns, a 1987 Harvard graduate, and 1991 Harvard graduate Cecile Tucker qualified for the women's lightweight double and women's quad, respectively. Brian Jamieson, a 1991 Yale University graduate, will compete in the men's quad and 1990 Columbia University graduate Tom Auth will represent the U.S. in the lightweight double.

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