Kirch coaches national team

Penn women's crew coach Barb Kirch heads to Austria with the U.S. Junior National team. Residents of High Rise North may have noticed a different group of students in the apartment building this summer. Instead of waking every morning and heading to class or summer jobs like most residents, these female students would get in a van and travel to the Schuylkill River for an intense workout. These athletes were working hard to become part of the United States Junior National women's rowing team, which, for the third straight year, is being coached by Penn women's crew coach Barb Kirch. A group of 40 girls under the age of 19 originally reported to Penn in hopes of making the national team. After weeks of training, the team competed at the U.S. Junior National Trials on Carnegie Lake in Princeton, N.J., on July 12. Among the athletes who had been training under Kirch, 14 will be the American representatives at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Ottensheim, Austria next week. The team qualified two boats, an eight and a four, and will be sending two alternate rowers. Although Kirch worked with 40 of the best young rowers in the nations, only these two boats were able to qualify for the World Championships. "They had to meet a time standard," said Penn assistant women's crew coach Susan Hermann, who was also an assistant with the U.S. Junior team. "They couldn't just win the race." Although only a few rowers qualified to go to Austria, the other athletes who competed at the U.S. trials also had their season extended. Most of the other rowers competed at the CanAmMex Regatta in Cincinnati. The CanAmMex is a competition which features top rowers from Canada, the United States and Mexico. Despite not qualifying for the World team, most members of the original 40-member group gained valuable experience. The rowers were the best rowers in their age group in the nation, and a large percentage of them will be rowing for college teams in the fall. Two of them -- Catherine Magee and Lauren Plackter -- will be right back on the Schuylkill this season, as they will join Kirch -- who will begin her second year at Penn -- on the Quakers rowing team. While training took up a large portion of the summer, the athletes were able to step away from the boat for some fun once in while. "They went to the shore on a few of their days off. They went to the mall," Hermann said. "They would do anything they could to get away from the river." The rowers may not have spent all their time on the river, but it is on the river where they can do the most damage. And it is on the water in Austria where they hope to show this to the rest of the world.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.