Name: Andi Krawcke

Sport: Crew

School: Skyline

Key Terms:

Regatta: A sporting event consisting of multiple boats from different teams.

Quad: a boat with four people and eight oars

Crab: Term used when the rowers blades (end of the oar) get “caught” in the water which can be easy to recover from or can eject the rower from the boat.

V1 boat: the fastest of the team

When did you start playing? Why?

I started rowing my freshman year. My mom made me, my aunt rowed, and I hadn’t really played a sport, I played soccer but I was really bad at it.

Why did you continue? What do you like about it?

I didn’t really realize it at the time. We call it the run: everybody takes a good stroke at the exact same time, everybody is putting down a lot of pressure, blades are off the water, and it kind of feels like you’re flying. It is striving for that and you pretty much get one of those maybe once a month but it’s such a good feeling.

What is your weekly commitment?

We practice everyday, monday through friday, and saturdays. On Monday through Friday we practice 3:50 to 6:30 and on saturdays usually 9:00-11:30. Regattas it depends, they are usually all day or they can be overnight so they go on for two days. Nationals are three to four days depending on where it is.

When did you realize you really liked crew?

My Sophomore year mostly, I was with my friend Jupe [Julia Showich], who actually quit after our junior year but during our sophomore year we would race together and it was the boat I was always happy in and we never really had a bad day.  She looked kind of weird when she rowed, like she didn’t have the perfect technique, but we always worked really well together and we always moved really fast.

What is your most memorable moment?

Probably when we were at Nationals at New Jersey. It was just rowing out there, the weather was actually really nice which is really really weird for a regatta where you usually get really crappy weather. I was in the varsity quad and I knew we were all trying and we all wanted to do well. We ended up getting fifth overall, which we weren’t super happy with, we wanted to medal but it was a pretty great experience.

What is your worst moment in your rowing career?

I mean it is hard putting up with everybody everyday, especially when you are put into a boat with people who may have less experience than you. I definitely think the worst experience is was at one of our regattas this season actually. We were just having a bad row and it was just not a great time. It was offset, we were crabbing all the time, it was just really bad. The V2 beat us [the V1] by two seconds so we redid that whole line up and it got a better after that. Two seconds can be the difference between winning and losing. The V2 should never be that close to the V1 unless they are both really good.

What do you want to do in the future with this sport?

I definitely want to row in college, preferably the entire time. I’d like to go to [Michigan] State or Grand Valley. State doesn’t offer scholarships to freshmen in college but they usually offer it your sophomore year and I am hoping to get some scholarships through them. I’d like to keep rowing in my adult years by finding a club or something or by getting my own single.