Spring sports: end of a rowing era | Sporting Life

Joel Furtek ’90

Steve Gladstone is retiring from Yale after 13 years and three national championships. Show full picture

Zamani feelings

The women’s foursome won silver at the national championship. Show full picture

rowing
When the Yale eighth crossed the finish line in New London on June 10, nearly 12 seconds ahead of Harvard, it marked the end of one of the greatest collegiate coaching careers of all time, regardless of sport. After more than 50 years coaching collegiate teams, the incomparable Steve Gladstone has stepped down as leader of the Bulldog heavyweights.

Yale was the final stop in a coaching career marked by 14 IRA national championships while also holding the all-time lead. When Gladstone took the helm in 2010, Yale had not won an Eastern Sprint and associated Ivy League title since 1982 and had only three wins against Harvard in the 25 years prior to that. Now the Bulldogs have seven straight series in the Eastern Sprints and six in the Yale-Harvard Regatta.

Once dubbed “the most interesting man alive” by Yale sports publicists, Gladstone began his career at Princeton before serving at Harvard, Brown and Cal. But that only tells part of the story: He was also Cal’s athletic director, coached US Olympic teams, and worked as an on-air commentator for Olympic rowing coverage.

“There’s an element of melancholy and sadness,” Gladstone says as he reflects on his retirement. “But the transcendent feeling is gratitude. Gratitude for being able to do what I’ve been doing at a very, very high level at many institutions. It is an enormous gratitude to a higher power. Thank you to all the people who have come into my life in this process.” That list, as Gladstone detailed, is filled not only with the athletes he has coached for over five decades, but also with a family that has an “obsessed People” and all the others who made his career possible – including Yale team physician Elizabeth Gardner ’01, operations coordinator Joel Furtek ’90 and assistant athletic director Ann-Marie Guglieri.

That season, Yale’s top boat failed to win a medal at the IRA regatta, although the second team took silver. But Gladstone says trying to be successful is just as important as winning. “It’s not just about lifting a trophy,” he says. Striving to be the best inevitably comes with its ups and downs, and it’s the ability to persevere through those ups and downs that really defines us.”

Now in his 80s, Gladstone may be retiring as a full-time coach, but he’s not really slowing down. “Breaks don’t work that well for me,” he says. “I know myself well enough to know that I don’t play golf.” In fact, he will coach the US national team’s eight for the World Cup in September. “I want to be in a position where, at the end of the day, I can say, ‘That was something valuable for some people,'” he says. Given the lives he’s touched on for over half a century, that doesn’t sound like anything new – just the next chapter in a historical legacy.

The women’s rowing team also enjoyed another successful season, with a fifth-place finish in the NCAAs, consistent with last year’s mark and marking the first two consecutive top-five finishes for the program since the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The varsity fours took silver and won their Ivy title, while the varsity eights won for the tenth consecutive year in their 40th Case Cup meeting with the Harvard women’s team, still calling themselves Radcliffe — an unprecedented streak in a rivalry the Bulldogs are now leading, 25-14-1.

Sam Rubin ’95

Jenna Collignon ’25 had a breakthrough season on the women’s lacrosse team. Show full picture

lacrosse
Encouragingly and frustratingly, the women’s lacrosse spring season was much the same as last year. Her final record was 11–6, the same as in 2022 – marking the program’s best two-year run since 2007–2008. But the end result was heartbreaking again as the Bulldogs lost for the second straight Ivy League championship game. They stayed just under the limit for a trip to the NCAA tournament.

“It’s definitely frustrating to be so close and not make it in the end,” said Jenna Collignon ’25, who had a groundbreaking season, leading the team in goals and points after just three games in her freshman year . “We made program history by advancing to the championship game over the past two years. Now we just have to finish it.”

The season got off to a flying start for the Bulldogs, sprinting to a 9-2 record, their best since 2002, and soon they looked like the team to beat in the Ivy Championship fight. Highlights included a win over long-time favorites Princeton – their first since 2007 – and a 15-14 comeback win at Duke in which Collignon scored seven goals. Yale rose to 13th place in the national ranking. Collignon was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List, an honor bestowed on the best players in college lacrosse.

But in April, the Bulldogs lost three crucial Ivy games, ceding first place to Penn. After defeating Princeton again in the league semifinals, they were given another chance when they faced Penn for the championship and an automatic NCAA bid. However, the thrilling game ended on 14 points and ended in a brutal sudden death overtime in which Penn secured the win with an early goal.

Ranked 29th on the NCAA RPI pre-selection list, the Bulldogs were once again just on the edge of the 29-man field. Collignon is confident the Bulldogs will make a breakthrough soon. “The fact that we know we’re capable of getting there is reassuring in itself, but we’re all committed to making it a reality next season.”

In what was always a highly competitive Ivy field, the men’s team found themselves mid-table in the Ivy League after the regular season. A few standout wins propelled them into the NCAA tournament field for a seventh straight year, where they lost to Georgetown in the first round. Matt Brandau ’23 was named New England Player of the Year and received multiple All-American honors.