COOPER RIVER, N.J. — Bates College had its best showing ever in the NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Championships, claiming second place in both the team standings and in the Grand Final in convincing fashion on Saturday. Both of Bates’ two boats fared the best they ever had in this, the Bobcats’ third (and third straight) appearance at NCAAs. It is also the best showing by a team ever at an NCAA championship.

The Bobcats’ first varsity boat placed second in the Grand Final to rival Williams, which claimed its fourth straight NCAA title, 6:28.04 to 6:30.77. Although Williams was in first place at each of the 500-meter splits, Bates had the lead down the stretch before the Ephs made a final push across the finish line. Over the second half of the race, Bates I surged past rival Trinity I, ultimately defeating the third-place Bantams (6:36.03) by more than five seconds. Rounding out the field were Ithaca I (6:39.16), Williams II (6:42.00) and Puget Sound I (6:47.47). Bates’ previous best finish in the Grand Final was third place in 2007.

Just before the Bobcats’ performance in the Grand Final, the Bates II boat went a long way to ensuring a place ahead of all teams but Williams, outrowing Trinity II in the final 500 meters to claim an impressive third-place finish in the Petite Final. Bates II finished the course in 6:53.73, impressively close behind the No. 1 boats of Smith (6:47.12) and St. Lawrence (6:51.75), and more than three seconds and half a boat length ahead of rival Trinity II (6:57.17). The Bates second boat’s performance far outdid last year’s entry, when it placed second in the Third Final.

Four Bates seniors plan to walk at Commencement back on campus in Lewiston tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.: captain and three-time All-American Nicole Ritchie (East Dummerston, Vt.), captain Caitlin Murphy (Duxbury, Mass.), Emily Chandler (North Yarmouth, Maine) and Laura Hubbell (Yarmouth, Maine).

Friday Recap

Bates I guaranteed itself a spot in the Grand Final on Friday morning in the opening heats of the NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Championship, as the Bobcats’ first varsity eight easily won the second of three preliminary heats.

Bates I finished the 2,000-meter course in 7:06.90, more than 13 seconds ahead of the second-place boat, Puget Sound I. Bates II, by chance, was in the same race and finished fourth in 7:20.44, just a hair behind Trinity II (7:20.23) for a spot in the Grand Qualifier.

Bates II was one of seven boats competing in the Petite Qualifier at 2:30 p.m., where the top three finishers advance to the Petite Final. Bates’ second boat won that race, rowing the course in 6:53.27, more than three seconds faster than runner-up Ithaca II (6:56.47). The win put Bates II in the petite qualifier Saturday at 11:15 a.m.

Bates I was one of three boats guaranteed a spot in the Grand Final. Familiar rivals Williams I and Trinity I were the other boats that qualified for the Grand Final with preliminary heat race wins.

See the Bates at NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships preview story.

The Bobcats are led by senior three-time All-American and captain Nicole Ritchie (East Dummerston, Vt.), sophomore All-American Rebecca Waldo (Dracut, Mass.) and senior captain Caitlin Murphy (Duxbury, Mass.). Also on the first varsity eight boat are senior stroke Emily Chandler (North Yarmouth, Maine), first-year Haley Sive (Glenville, N.Y.), sophomore Rebecca Waldo (Dracut, Mass.), sophomore Emma White (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), senior Laura Hubbell (Yarmouth, Maine), junior Danica Doroski (Wayne, Pa.) in the bow and sophomore Nora Collins (Kensington, Md.) at coxswain.

The Bates second varsity eight at New Englands consisted of sophomore stroke Kirsten Laaspere (Londonderry, N.H.), sophomore Ellen Patterson (St. Louis Park, Minn.), junior Josie Cutts (Kittery Point, Maine), first-year Elizabeth Sonshine (Short Hills, N.J.), first-year Allison Di Salvo (Lowell, Mass.), sophomore Phoebe Reed (Brooklyn, N.Y.), junior Alison Frye (Duxbury, Mass.), sophomore Davina Dukuly (Lowell, Mass.) in the bow and sophomore Tracy Glazier (Weston, Mass.) at coxswain.

Saturday’s Results (PDF)

While Sylvan Ellefson ’09 hasn’t banished sweets or Commons crispitos from his diet, he has honed an understanding of what his body needs to perform at peak level.

“I was definitely not conscious of eating a balanced diet my first year here,” says Ellefson, a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo., who won All-America honors at last year’s NCAA Skiing Championships. “But in the past two years I’ve really realized what it means.”

With the Bobcats hosting the 2009 NCAA Championships, March 11–14, and with Bates in the midst of its yearlong focus on food, Ellefson and his teammates have ample reason to make Bates Dining Services an honorary member of their team.

“Commons does a great job of providing us with the food we need for how we train,” Ellefson says.

For example, when the Nordic team travels during carnival season, their van carries Commons-provided snacks like granola, breads, fruits and yogurt for immediate post-race nutrition. “Your body recovers more quickly if you get food right after a race,” explains Nordic teammate Sam Evans-Brown ’09.

When it comes to establishing healthy food routines, the teammates support each other, says head coach Becky Flynn Woods ’89. “It’s about getting into the right habit. For example, the skiers racing later in the day will take time in the morning to prepare food, like PB&Js, for everyone to eat right after the races.”

Nordic skier and teammate Nicole Ritchie ’09, twice an All-American rower as well as a skier, has become conscious of her food choices for another reason. “A friend is doing a thesis that focuses on corn syrup,” she says. “I’ve been reading over her shoulder. The amount of energy going into producing corn syrup is pretty disgusting.”

All-American Nordic skier Sylvan Ellefson '09 wears a St. Christopher medal for a bit of good luck to complement a rigorous training regimen.

While Sylvan Ellefson ’09 hasn’t banished sweets or Commons crispitos from his diet, he’s honed an understanding of what his body needs to perform at peak level.

“I was definitely not conscious of eating a balanced diet my first year here,” says Ellefson, a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo., who won All-America honors at last year’s NCAA Skiing Championships. “But in the past two years I’ve really realized what it means.”

Now, he and his teammates consider Bates Dining Services to be part of their team. “Commons does a great job of providing us with the food we need for how we train,” Ellefson says.

For example, when the Nordic team travels during carnival season, their van carries Commons-provided food like granola, breads, fruits, and yogurt. Not for the skiers’ major meals — they get meal money for that — but for quick post-race nutrition. “Your body recovers more quickly if you get food right after a race,” explains Sam Evans-Brown ’09, Ellefson’s teammate.

When it comes to establishing healthy food routines, the teammates support each other, says head coach Becky Flynn Woods ’89. “It’s about getting into the right habit. For example, the skiers racing later in the day will take time in the morning to prepare food, like PB&Js, for everyone to eat right after the races.”

These days, the Nordic team’s training is especially motivated, what with Bates hosting this season’s NCAA Championships, March 11–14. For Ellefson, a Colorado-raised skier not recruited by any Division I schools out West, his competitive cup runneth over. “I’m proud to race as a Bobcat,” he says. “I love it in Maine.”

An alpine enthusiast growing up, Ellefson and his Vail Mountain School soccer buddies took up cross-country skiing to stay in shape during the winter. As a high school sophomore, he won skimeister as the best performer in Nordic and alpine events. By then, he knew his forte was Nordic so he dropped alpine, comparing it to choosing soccer over baseball when, as a little kid, he “couldn’t hit the ball off the tee.” But as a relative latecomer to Nordic skiing, Ellefson came East for college when Division I schools passed him up.

Highly competitive by nature, Ellefson describes his mother, Tashina, as a “tremendous” athlete. His late father, Lyndon, who helped found the sport of skyrunning — high-altitude, long-distance running — died in 1998 when, on a training run near Cervinia, Italy, he fell into a hidden snow crevasse, dropping 75 feet to his death.

Sylvan Ellefson is well-aware of his father’s reputation as a highly motivated competitor who pushed himself hard. “I feel that if I can do something really well, I can carry on his legacy,” he says. “In my case that’s Nordic skiing.” Looking ahead to his post-Bates racing career, he wants to “get to that level,” referencing the accomplishments of Nordic alums like Justin Freeman ’98, a 2006 U.S. Olympian, “and then do better.”

Ellefson’s specialty is freestyle, like skating on skis, and he earned trips to the NCAA Championships in both 2006 and 2007. Last year was a breakthrough season, as he won freestyle races at the season-ending carnivals at Williams and Middlebury, the first-ever wins for a Bates Nordic skier on the Eastern Collegiate Skiing Association circuit. At the 2008 NCAA Championships, Ellefson finished fourth in the 10K freestyle, one of only three Americans, and the only Division III skier, in the top 10.

While Ellefson targets another top-five finish, teammate Evans-Brown, a Spanish major from Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H., is so eager to qualify for his first NCAAs that he spent last summer in Argentina, living with a government official who’s a cross-country enthusiast, so he could train on snow. “I had easy access to skiing and was well-fed,” he says. “Lots of meat, for breakfast, lunch, snacks.”

There, he earned a reputation as “the kid who always eats,” and Evans-Brown estimates that he and Ellefson will take in 6,000 to 9,000 calories a day while training hard. That’s more than triple the typical daily diet of 2,500 calories — if not quite the famous 12,000-a-day regimen of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

While the Nordic team tends to frequent Italian restaurants on the road for a good balance between protein and carbs, “what you eat right before a race is not so important, I think,” Evans-Brown says. What’s critical is “fueling yourself well while you’re training.”

At a recent campus meal, Ellefson and Evans-Brown are joined by Nicole Ritchie ’09 of East Dummerston, Vt. Twice an All-American rower as well as a skier, she has begun to avoid processed food. “A friend is doing a thesis that focuses on corn syrup,” she says. “I’ve been reading over her shoulder. The amount of energy going into producing corn syrup is pretty disgusting.”

In the new dining Commons, Ritchie gravitates toward local products: apple cider from Greenwood Orchards, chocolate milk from Oakhurst Dairy, and hamburgers from grass-fed, Cold Spring Ranch beef (see page 16) for her training fuels. She also frequents the vegan bar.

“Making your own food choices takes a lot of different economic and environmental issues into your hands,” says Ritchie. “It’s really cool that Commons supports us in making these decisions.”

By Andy Walter, photograph By Phyllis Graber Jensen