Mercyhurst women rowers trained in wrestling to improve performance

Erie, Pa. - When the Mercyhurst women's rowing team started its winter training nine weeks ago, the team had something new in mind. Winter training traditionally consists of sore muscles, long hours, excruciating cross-training, and more sore muscles. But until now, it had never consisted of wrestling.

Anne Dinshah, Mercyhurst's assistant rowing coach, led the team through nine weeks of physical and mental training in wrestling, a sport in which none of the athletes had ever participated. Every Monday morning the rowers accomplished a physical wrestling skill then discussed the mental goal and how to relate it to rowing. The rest of each week they did typical winter training such as running, weightlifting, and core conditioning, all of which are good for training as both rowers and wrestlers. They also utilized their more sport-specific rowing machines.

"Wrestling is excellent cross training for rowing," Dinshah said. "A seven-minute match is similar in duration to 2,000 meters in the boat. Both sports are great full-bodied challenges that demand intensity and perseverance throughout the entire competition. Your body screams at you the entire time and all your mind hears is to go even harder."

Dinshah taught the women the fundamentals of wrestling that she perfected with Mercyhurst assistant wrestling coach Paul Bergman. Things such as single and double-leg take downs, sprawling, escapes, and even how to pull off a successful half-nelson are few of the many concepts the rowers learned.

"Our winter training is about becoming strong as individuals," Dinshah said. "When we come together in the spring it's about synergy in the boat. Since we can wrestle, we know we'll be great on the water."

On Monday, Feb. 11, the rowers proved they were strong as individuals, showcasing all they learned in an intersquad exhibition match on the center mat in the Mercyhurst Athletic Center. The crowd gathered to watch ten women put down their oars and pick up each other in five intense matches.

The first two competitors to take the mat were senior captain Melanie Peters, of the green team, and All-American coxswain Michele Handzel, of the white team. Underdog Handzel proved coxswains have physical explosiveness and mental fortitude by holding lightweight rower Peters to only an 11-8 lead at the end of the second period. Peters found the strength that will power her boat to the finish line this spring by utilizing a mere 24 seconds to execute the only pin of the evening at 5:24. The fall gave the green team an early 6-0 lead.

Match two featured rowers Abbey Celarek of the green team and Briana Burdick of the white team. They exchanged hard-fought takedowns and escapes in the first period before ferocious Celarek threw in a takedown and backpoints to jump ahead 8-3. Burdick's escape ended the first period at 8-4. The second period began with Celarek earning another takedown; tenacious Burdick escaped and attacked only to have the buzzer beat her out of a takedown. Celarek proceeded to earn a 17-8 major decision bumping the green team's lead up to 10 points.

Junior Ali Bogart was the first to put points on the board for the white team with a 7-0 decision over novice rower Cara Adamus of the green team. Despite not scoring, Adamus showed enormous grit and gumption in fighting off the potential Bogart pin for the full seven minutes. "There are obvious differences between varsity and novice in experience," Bogart said. "This is my third year of winter training at Mercyhurst and I've been a rower for eight years. `Blue' (Adamus) has been in a boat three times. However, mental training clearly helps everyone. She was able to keep me from pinning her no matter how hard I tried. I was controlling the match, but she exhibited great strength mentally in never giving up. I believe this is the mentality necessary for our strong crew to get to the NCAA Championships."

With the score at 10-3 in favor of the green team, close friends and roommates Alicia Peterson and Annie Schiller took the mat for match four. The match began with tremendous fervor: all the action, excitement, and acceleration one would see at the start of a championship rowing race. Peterson led 6-5 before Schiller took her down, landing her on her shoulder. Schiller won by injury default and earned six points for the white team.

Beth Brun and Courtney Clark would determine the winning team, as the score going into the final match was 10-9 in green's favor. Clark narrowly commanded the first period 3-2. Brun's lone takedown of the second period and Clark's escape knotted them at 4-4 going into the final two minutes. Brun then earned two points for a takedown and three back points. A 9-4 decision by Brun awarded the 13-9 victory to the green team.

"We have a great respect for the sport of wrestling and I'm proud of what we've accomplished," Dinshah said. "Tonight was the culmination of our winter wrestling efforts. The athletes definitely rose to the challenge of the exhibition match and gave our all tonight, just like we will every race this spring."

Editor's Note: Anne Dinshah competed at the 2007 U.S. Beach National Wrestling Championships in Rochester, N.Y.