Team signs 5 recruits for 2005

Five prospects have signed NCAA national letters of intent to wear the cream and crimson next season for the IU rowing team. \nThe aspiring Hoosiers are being called the rowing program's best group of recruits and are expected to have an immediate impact on the team, said IU coach Steve Peterson. The five student-athletes average 6-feet tall and will be eligible to compete as freshmen in the 2005-06 academic year. \n"I could not have wished for a better core group of athletes to build around," Peterson said in a statement.\nThe group includes Hannah Elsy, of Twickenham, England, about 10 miles southwest of London; Ashley Johnson of Alpharetta, Ga.; Valerie Mercer of Jacksonville, Fla.; Emily Clarke of Bloomington, Ind.; and Bridgett Bartholomew of Marina Del Ray, Calif.\nAt the top of the class is Elsy, a British Junior National Team rower. At 6-foot-2 and 165 pounds with a staggering time of 7 minutes and 15 seconds in the 2,000-meter ergometer, or rowing machine, event, Elsy introduces to the IU boathouse international racing experience plus an association with the honored heritage of a collegiate sport begun in her country in 1815. \nJohnson, at 5-foot-11, and Mercer, at 6-foot, also represent the tough, athletic rowers with solid ergometer times that IU seeks to help make the program more competitive in the Big Ten. \nAnother promising member of the quintet is Clarke, a strong swimmer from Bloomington North High School. Swimmers typically make excellent rowers, and steering these rowers to victory will be the 5-foot-1 coxswain Bartholomew.\nThe five signings will help the rowing team maintain the momentum it gathered in the fall, when IU beat Notre Dame while pulling to a third-place finish at the Head of the Elk race on the St. Joseph River in Elkhart, Ind. \nA direct result of the hiring of two full-time assistant coaches devoted to recruiting, the novice class is a sign of the future of IU rowing.\n"There is no doubt that we are going to be the most up-and-coming team, not only in the Big Ten, but in the nation," Peterson said.