Very sporting day at Mathews yesterday … for those not there, we started the day with very strong winds and swells/whitecaps rolling from Mobjack Bay up the East River. The organizers started by canceling novice, 2X, and 1X events and cautioned teams about putting novices in junior events given the challenging conditions. We started the day by entering the women’s 1V 4+ which won their race … we ended the day with a mixed 1V 8+ which also won.
Over the course of the day the organizers were able to add back in some novice 8 and 2X events, although we did lose some entries and had to shuffle some rowers around, everyone had a chance to go out and compete at least once.
The final ribbon tally:
| Race Category | Ribbon Awarded |
| Women’s 1V 4+ | 1st place |
| Women’s 1st 4X | 1st place |
| Men’s junior 8 | 2nd place |
| Women’s senior 2X | 2nd place |
| Women’s junior 2X | 2nd place |
| Men’s senior 2X | 2nd place |
| Women’s junior 4+ | 3rd place |
| Women’s 2nd 4X | 3rd place |
| Women’s junior 8 | 3rd place |
| Mixed novice 8 | 3rd place |
Special shout-out to Kurt Finkenstaedt who coxed the mixed novice 8 to an impressive 3rd place finish. The coaches worked recently to introduce two of our novice rowers to coxing with the goal of competing novice entries at Mathews. Helina was our other cox candidate for the women’s novice 4+, but that event was canceled.
Looking Ahead
On Monday, we’ll have to wash all the equipment because it spent time in salt water. The hope is that we’ll be able to do this quickly and get out for a shortened practice.
This Saturday is the VASRA Championship (often referred to as States). This is a qualifying event for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Championship (aka Nationals).
Our Championship entries are below. Rowers not listed in competitive seats will serve as alternates for the regatta that weekend. The coaching focus for practice will be on the competing lineups, so alternates may not get to row unless there is illness or injury of a primary rower.
| M-JR-1x | Steven Mullane |
| M-2x | Christopher Witkowski, Warner Gates |
| W-2x | Hannah Labor, Mackenzie Wiley |
| W-JR-2x | Brooke Carmody, Tucker Rawlings-Kintzing |
| W-LT-2x | Giselle Moya, Vivian Tran |
| W-1-4x | Erin Dubas, Isabelle Schrock, India Verardi, Pasha McGuigan |
| M-LT-4x | Markus Ferrell, Noah Taylor, Sam Ferrell, Vincent Gioseffi |
| M-JR-4 | Parker Leonard (cox), Julian Cruz, Robert Sidney, Kurt Finkenstaedt, Brandon Tran |
| W-JR-4 | Caroline Reze (cox), Noorah Aldaghlas, Ryan Aust, Margaret Turner, Julienne Chollette |
See you tomorrow …
Coach Mike
