THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT 1986 was to keep an elite club program going in the face of The challenge for Nash at Penn A.C. formidable subsidized competition from athletes at the USRA National Camp. Each year, the Camp got first pick of the country’s best oarsmen. In 1986, Krmpotich and Still made the Camp Eight, but Lyons from the ‘85 Coxless-Pair was active-duty military, and the Navy wouldn’t let him travel with the Camp to competition within the Soviet Bloc. Espeseth from the ‘84 Coxed-Pair was also eventually released by the Camp. Riley: “Swinford and I were training together and planning on rowing the pair- without in 1986. Espe got cut from the camp, and Lyons had the military issue, so TAN suggested the four-without.”6476 Nash: “When Espe was cut early from the Camp in Indianapolis in ‘86, I was delighted for the opportunity. I knew he was a hard driver, as are most Wisconsin Badgers. I had watched his 1984 Olympic Coxed-Pair races, and I knew he could be a great weapon for our plan and perhaps a good coxless-four stroke, as I also knew he could steer. “But Espe would have to beat out five other ports who also wanted their chance at the one seat left. Ted Swinford was already in the crew as he was our cleanest craftsman and was an excellent choice for a long port bow arc. And he never made mistakes. “Espe beat them all, and the deal was done. His experience was invaluable to my younger men, and Riley could match his length out of the 3-seat. “Espe loved to stroke, so we felt like we found the answer to our puzzle. “Since Dan Lyons was a natural blender, he was instantly put into the tandem 2-seat, and we closed the club’s boat selection.” 6476 Riley, personal correspondence, 2010 Espeseth: “The saga of ‘86 for the four, all the stuff that we went through to get there, if I ever sat down with somebody and told them everything, they would say this is just unbelievable. It was pretty amazing how things came together, how all of us kind of got the rugs pulled out from underneath us and how Ted kind of pulled it all back together for us, too. “I can still remember it like it was yesterday, the whole entire year.”6477 Nottingham At the 1986 World Championships at the British National Watersports Centre in Holme Pierrepont, 8k south of Nottingham, England, Penn A.C. was up against the two- time defending World Champion from RC Hansa Dortmund/RC Witten in West Germany. Espeseth: “In ‘86, the biggest disadvantage we had was that we had not raced internationally. We had never raced that particular boat until we got to the World Championships. But also the biggest advantage we had was we had never raced internationally, so nobody knew anything about us. Nobody knew how to judge us. “Coaches normally dictate racing strategy, telling you what to do and when you’re going to do it. Ted sat down with all four of us, and we decided amongst all of us, all five, the racing strategy we were going to use in the heat, in the semi-final and in the final, and basically we knew what we were going to do every single stroke of the regatta. “We all had a voice. We all talked about things. We all talked about the other boats and what we had to do and what we wanted to do, what our strengths were and what our weaknesses were. “We all knew we were fast off the line. I honestly believe that if the West Germans 6477 Espeseth, personal correspondence, 2011 1791
