Seven elite Penn State crew team members competed last Saturday at Boston University for the World Indoor Rowing Championships.

At this competition, men and women from all over the world came to race against the clock in this 20 kilometer, or about 12.4 mile, erg race. Competing on ergs, machines that mimic the motion of rowing on water, rowers raced towards a simple goal.

"This is the place to pull the best time you possibly can," Penn State junior rower Natalie Dell said.

Dell placed 19th out of 333 rowers in the women's division. She improved her time by more than six seconds from last year's competition when she finished 48th in her division. Sophomore Tracy Norman attended the competition for the first time and took 81st place in the same event. Also rowing and taking 127th place was freshman Janelle Tarter.

Rowing for the men's crew team was senior Elliot Heffner, who placed 73rd out of 127, along with sophomore Jonathan Golembiewski, who placed 99th in the Heavyweight Men's Division. Sophomore Mike Wanich was the crew team's only Lightweight Men's Division rower, and he placed 51st out of 112.

In the competition, almost all of the seven beat their previous personal records, while going up against varsity rowers. Impressively, none of the seven Penn State members that attended had any experience rowing before entering the collegiate level.

"To see this caliber of athletes was mind-blowing and pretty overwhelming," Wanich said.

Alongside the rowers was Ann Morrissey, the coxswain captain, who was there to race and help out her teammates any way possible. Along with Morrissey, Heffner was the other coxswain, and, after helping each of the rowers, the two rowers then had to compete themselves.

The average race took about six to nine minutes to complete. There were about 60 ergs on the "huge" arena floor lined up with motivated rowers pulling their hearts out. Along with their coxswain, the rowers were also supported by their teammates.

"All of us were more excited about each other, than we were for ourselves," Dell said.

This showed the unity and respect between each of the members on the crew team. Many said that the greatest thing to see while they were racing was their friends cheering for them on the sidelines.

"They attended this competition not only to gain experience in an international scene, but to be recognized at a national level as individuals," said John Biddle, head coach of the club crew team.

"It also shows you what you need to work for," Dell said, "and seeing rowers under 18 years old pull times faster then a collegiate level rower was incredible."

The team will be spending spring break in South Carolina, practicing for the first time on the water since Thanksgiving. This one-week training camp will have the members practicing two to three times a day on and off the water.

Since the team cannot practice on the water during the winter, it stays in shape with the help of rowing simulated ergs, as it did in the competition last weekend.

Putting this training to use, on April 4 the team will compete in the Bucknell Match Race, its first outdoor season race.