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May 11, 2006

The Washington men's and women's rowing teams begin postseason competition this weekend when they travel to Sacramento, Calif. for the Pac-10 Rowing Championships. The conference regatta is scheduled for Sunday, May 14 at Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova.

Junior Aljosa Corovic (Belgrade, Serbia) rows in Washington's seventh-ranked men's varsity eight crew. He spent a few minutes with GoHuskies.com, talking about the season and describing his thoughts on the upcoming Pac-10 Championships.

GoHuskies.com: What are your thoughts on how last Saturday's Windermere Cup regatta went?

Aljosa Corovic: "It was really a boost for us. Our season hasn't been as good as we were hoping it would be. The Russian team caught us by surprise. They came in with their Olympic team, so it was really amazing for us to be in the race with them. For more than half the race, we were surprised that they weren't up more on us. We gave it our best. We had a close race and even though we lost, it was a small margin, so we were very happy about it. The first part of the season was kind of disappointing, so I think this came at the right time for us."

GoHuskies.com: How would you rank your Windermere Cup effort against other races this season?

AC: "I would say that it was our best race of the year. It was very good."

GoHuskies.com: How do you feel entering the Pac-10 Championships?

AC: "Now we have some more confidence. Our main rivals are going to be Cal and Stanford, to whom we lost to in the second 1,000 of the race, whereas we just had a race where we had a faster second 1,000 than the Russian Olympic Team. That gives us a lot of confidence going into this race against those two teams."

GoHuskies.com: Is it difficult to have high-level races two weeks in a row?

AC: "Collegiate rowing is a short season, so we're trained to have a race every weekend. So even weekends that we don't have races, we do racing pieces. And those are maybe harder than the races because there are more of them. So I think that as long as it is once a week, we are prepared for that. Now, for Pac-10s, we're going to have a semi-final, which will be tough, but it will be in the morning and the finals are in the afternoon, so we are prepared for that."

GoHuskies.com: Are you looking ahead at all to the IRA national championships, or are you totally focused on this weekend?

AC: "They have a lot to do with each other because historically the team that has won the Pac-10s beat the other team at the nationals too. So there are three weeks to work in between, but it does set the grounds for the national championships. The team that wins will be more confident going into nationals. So even though we're just looking at the Pac-10s race, we're not looking at the East Coast teams right now, it's setting the grounds for the national championships."

GoHuskies.com: Historically it has been UW and Cal vying for the Pac-10 Championship. Now Stanford is in the mix. How does that impact the race?

AC: "I definitely think it will be more interesting. Coming from Europe, we don't have dual races, so it's always six across. So it's weird for me that it's only two boats racing here. I think it's definitely more interesting with more boats and it will look more like world class rowing. Then again, Stanford was in the mix last year, but they weren't as good in the second half of the season. To sum it up, it's definitely going to be more interesting with three strong boats and it will push all the teams to work harder."

GoHuskies.com: What is your academic major?

AC: "I just got accepted to the Business school, in the Finance option, last week, so now I'm figuring out graduation plans. It will take me another four or five quarters after this to graduate, so then I'll hopefully find a job."

GoHuskies.com: What kind of profession are you interested in?

AC: "I just had a project for the business communications class where I had to interview someone in my potential career field. I went and interviewed Charles Fix who works at Washington Mutual as trader. He was a rower here and graduated in 1989. So I had a chance to sit down with him and see what he does and it was very interesting. Something like that would be interesting to start in, but after gaining some experience, I would really like to start something on my own."

GoHuskies.com: When you are finished with school, would you like to stay in the United States or go back home to Serbia?

AC: "I really like Seattle. I have gotten tied down to it and I plan on staying here. I might try to go to New York for professional reasons, but I think Seattle is really the perfect place for me."

GoHuskies.com: How often have you been able to visit home since beginning at UW?

AC: "Every year less and less. The first year I went for two months, second year I went for a month, this year I'll have to do summer school, so I'll only get a week or two. So it's tough, but I'm slowing getting used to cutting down."

GoHuskies.com: Is there anyone in Seattle that you are able to speak your native language with?

AC: "I am able to speak with my roommates. With Ante (Kusurin) and Dusan (Nikolic) who graduated last year. Another roommate of mine is from Serbia and he's a tennis player, Alex Slovic. There's a lot of people you find randomly at school."