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| Summer Edition | |
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| Summer Edition | |
BY A. DUNLAP-SMITH
Swimming
Spending as much time in the pool as she has this summer, Olympic gold medalist Cristina Teuscher, CC'00, is one Columbian who can't complain of the heat. Teuscher's latest athletic exploit was accomplished in a relay on the second day of the three-day Senior Metropolitan Championships, July 17-19, at the Apex at Lehman College in the Bronx. She and three of her teammates on the Badger Swim Club of Larchmont, N.Y., broke the meet record in the 200-meter freestyle relay, touching the wall in 1 minute, 52.49 seconds. The record-setting win helped the Badgers stay atop the 20-team field at the championships.
Earlier this summer Teuscher, who will be next season's tri-captain of the Columbia women's swim team, won five events to help her team, the Badger Swim Club of Larchmont, Conn., take the Quebec Cup in Montreal's Olympic pool on July 2-4. It was the first time in five years the Badgers won the Quebec Cup and the third time in the club's history.
Teuscher, of New Rochelle, N.Y., was the meet's top points earner. She was first in the 200 meter breaststroke, the 800 m. freestyle, the 200 m. individual medley and the 400 m. freestyle relay.
Teuscher was also named a captain of the U.S. national swimming and diving team that is participating in the Pan-Pacific Games this summer. She will be a senior this fall in Columbia College.
Fencing
Several Columbians were named to United States fencing team that will compete in the 1999 Pan American Games on July 25-Aug. 7 in Winnipeg, Canada, the U.S. Fencing Association announced recently.
They are Dan Kellner, CC '98, Susan Jennings, CC'00, and Lion fencing coach George Kolombatovich.
Kellner, a member of the U.S. team that came in fifth in the 1998 World Championships, will fence on the foil squad. Jennings has been named to the women's foil squad. Kolombatovich will serve as the team captain. Kolombatovich was also the team captain that competed in the World University Games in Palma del Majorca, Spain, in early July. And he will again be U.S. fencing team captain at the World Championships to be held in Seoul, South Korea, on November 1-7.
In earlier fencing news, Erinn Smart, a Barnard student entering her junior year, won the bronze medal at the World Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina, held during the weekend of May 21. Smart, who fences women's foil for Columbia, is the first American woman to take a medal in the senior competition of the World Cup this year. Also, her bronze is only the 14th medal ever won by an American athlete, male or female, at a senior World Cup.
On her way to win the bronze, Smart upset defending world women's foil champion Sabine Bau of Germany, 15-14, in the round of 16. She was defeated in the semifinals by Monica Webber (Germany), 15-4, the eventual gold medalist.
Rowing
Columbia varsity women's crew coach Mike Zimmer led an eight-oared boat, rowing for the New York Athletic Club, to victory at U.S. Rowing's National Championship in Indianapolis on June 27. It was NYAC's first national championship in the sport's premier event since 1935.
The crew, composed of both heavy- and lightweight oarsmen most of whom row or have rowed for Columbia, captured the championship by being the first American boat across the finish of the 2000-meter course, just one second ahead of the Penn Athletic Club. NYAC was second overall, however, losing by three seconds to the national team of Argentina.
The Lions in the NYAC boat were Jim Murphy, CC'00, a junior co-captain of the heavyweight team last season, and the lightweights Jason Valenstein, CC'01, Dave Mack and Tim Baer, both CC'98.
Baer, co-captain of Columbia's '98 varsity lightweight crew that ended its season ranked second in the nation and went on to row at the Henley Royal Regatta in England, was a double winner for NYAC at these national championships. The day before the eight-oared event, he and a partner finished first among American boats and third overall in the lightweight pairs category.
New Hires in Columbia Athletics
Kim Rockey is the new assistant coach of the Columbia women's basketball team. Rockey will join head coach Jay Butler's staff in place of Martina Jerant, who after three years is leaving coaching.
Rockey comes to Columbia with 15 years of college coaching experience. Her last six years were spent as head coach of the women's basketball program at Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind.
Rockey is a 1982 graduate of Taylor University and earned a Master's degree in physical education/athletic training from the University of Indiana in 1984.
Although already a familiar face around the Dodge Fitness Center, Tom Sheehan has a new post. He was promoted to full-time assistant coach for strength and conditioning, the program run for the past three years by Thomas McKinney.
Sheehan, a 1990 graduate of the University of Rochester with a degree in psychology, came to Columbia in 1991. He was a graduate assistant on the Lion football team, coaching defensive backs under his former college coach Ray Tellier until 1994.
Sheehan then moved to strength and conditioning and worked toward his Master's in applied physiology from Columbia, which he now has.