Women's crew captain holds team together

In the sport of rowing, the boat can only move as fast as the weakest person allows it to go. Leading by example, Katy Ostertag, captain of the rowing team, has made sure the weakest person is as strong as possible.\nWith Ostertag as captain, the second-year team has made consistent strides in each of the four races this fall. The varsity eight has won two of the first four races with Ostertag in the bow position. She has also been part of the victorious varsity four, mixed four and mixed two boats. She was named to the all-Big Ten team at the end of last season.\nOstertag, 22, began her rowing career three years ago as a junior, rowing one year for the club team before it attained varsity status. She had not heard about the sport until she saw her first crew on the Wabash River.\nFollowing encouragement from her father and a member of the IU men's team, she climbed in a boat her junior year.\n"The first time I was in a boat I decided I loved it," Ostertag said.\nThe Portage, Ind., native was a four-year letter winner as a swimmer and ran track at Portage High School. Ostertag was captain of the swimming team her senior year and won the team's Mental Attitude Award. Her positive attitude has surfaced in her collegiate career.\nThe rowing team voted her co-captain at the beginning of the 2000 fall season, and she has taken on the responsibility with enthusiasm. \nOstertag said fitness has become a way of life for her, and she prefers to lead by example when training.\n"I expect the girls to do what I do, and there is nothing I won't do,"Ostertag said. "If my coach told me to lay down in traffic I would. If it will make me faster, I will do it."\nEmily Rumschlag, a sophomore on the varsity eight team, said Ostertag is a positive role model for the team.\n"She always pushes herself very hard, even when it isn't mandatory and the coaches don't demand it," Rumschlag said. "She will help us push ourselves to become bigger and stronger each day."\nOstertag has shown her strength and versatility as a rower throughout the year. She has concentrated on the varsity eight sweep races but has found success with the varsity four as well. She has won medals with the men in the mixed four and finished first in the mixed two race with her coach Mark Wilson last weekend.\n"Katy is one of those athletes that trains 100 percent, 100 percent of the time," Wilson said. "It was an honor to row with her."\nOstertag said she is excited about her team's chances to place well this weekend in the Head of the Elk Regatta and the spring sprint races. \nWith crew being a young sport at IU, her expectations are realistic. Ostertag said she would really like the team to turn some heads among the stronger rowing teams who might not know about IU rowing. She said she wants the team to improve by two or three spots in the Big Ten this spring, and to make a much stronger finish than 1999's last-place finish in the conference. \n"Each week I want our technique to be there," Ostertag said. "I want our power to be there, and I want us to work together as a team."\nFor Ostertag, rowing has become a part of life. She said she can't remember what college life was like before IU rowing. She said rowing and training are only a part of being a captain, and she prides herself on trying to know the names of the rowers on both varsity and novice teams.\n"I think a leader is someone who can talk to everybody," she said. "I want to be a motivator and someone they can come to."\nOstertag admits she sometimes wishes she would have taken up crew earlier in her collegiate career, but she said she is happy with the improvements she has made as a rower and believes everything happens for a reason. \nShe fell in love with the sport when she first hit the water and admits rowing might even have taken swimming's place in her heart.\n"Eight girls together, with a coxswain steering this huge boat," Ostertag said. "And the power behind that, it is amazing to me"