He saw the signs. The blurred vision, the strung-out euphoria and rush of blood to the head that made him feel like an overpowered freak.

Martin Etem, the Syracuse men’s crew team’s second-year Varsity Eights rower, wanted it. After all, signs of a rower’s ‘high’ meant he was doing something right, that he had learned. That he was pushing and pulling on the lime-green grips of his oar blade like a lifeline – till the point of mind-numbing bliss.

‘You have got to get there,’ Etem said. ‘Hopefully you can just reach that point where something so simple as moving back and forth can get you the feeling that makes you go harder.’

It’s something Etem reached and wants to experience again this weekend when SU’s Varsity Eights opens its spring season at the San Diego Crew Classic 35th Regatta. The crew will compete for the Men’s Collegiate Varsity Invitational A Copley Cup in California, while the Syracuse’s women’s rowing team travels to Derby, Conn., to face Cornell and top-ranked Yale on the Housatonic River.

In an out-of-body state of euphoria – much like a runner’s high – a rower’s experience can cause someone to forget the last moments of a race, senior captain Ryan Armstrong said. But Etem remembered everything.

As the Syracuse sun set over Onondaga Lake last week, Etem recalls pulling past the SU Novice Eights boat in a challenge race during practice, one that he remembers [ITALICS] definitely [/ITALICS] winning.

He couldn’t forget. Not the freshmen aboard the Novice Eights who were pushing as hard as they could, forcing Etem and the rest of his boat to push harder. Not memories of his sophomore year that pushed him to become better, faster and stronger, giving him that extra pull to help his crew win the race.

Etem’s relaxed and loose state of mind didn’t come naturally, he wanted to prove himself and prove his power. But his presence on an undefeated and senior-dominated Varsity Eights boat last year instilled fear of being the weakest link.

‘If something went offset it’s always my fault, it’s got to be me because (the seniors) have been doing this for so long,’ Etem said he used to believe.

Armstrong, who was the only sophomore on the Varsity Eights the year before Etem, has since seen the evolution of Etem, from a sophomore under the weight of high expectations to a junior confident enough to speak on behalf of his team.

In fact, Etem’s record on an ergometer, a rowing machine that measures an athlete’s power and fitness, has proved him to be the crew’s strongest rower. And his accomplishment has motivated his teammates, young and old, to press harder as well, Armstrong said.

But there is no ego in Etem or on SU head coach Dave Reischman’s crew, where everybody learns and draws from one another, Armstrong said.

‘It’s the trickle down effect,’ Etem said. ‘(The Novice Eights) went out there hard, and when you see that you know you feed off of it.’

Though Etem’s new strength and leadership has created a more relaxed and looser environment, the transition wasn’t surprising to the coach, Reischman said. Etem, after all, defines an athlete – the qualities and reason why he was asked to join the Varsity boat as a sophomore last year.

‘(Etem’s) just one of those kids you enjoy coaching,’ Reischman said. ‘He’s got a great attitude, and for being our most physically gifted guy and strongest, he sets an example.’

Always consistent, with a work ethic as strong as his rowing, Etem will lead a Varisty Eights team from coast to coast, to his home state of California to face 11 of the nation’s top teams.

In retrospect, the Long Beach native will measure how far he’s come this weekend. From the memories of his senior year three years ago, when he rowed for the first time of his life, to his return to the Crown Point Shores Park at Mission Bay. So far, Etem has a grasp of his own strength and expectations.

‘I expect the sun, the weather and In-N-Out burgers,’ Etem said, laughing with a sense of nirvana and confidence in his smile.

‘We’re going to be there to steal (wins), you know. I think that’s our whole mentality, to be sneaky, and race like we’ve never raced before.’

edpaik@syr.edu

Published on April 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm