Justice Rowing Community — It seems like we barely started the rowing season, and now are at the end, except for our Year End Awards Potluck Picnic on June 2! Details below on the picnic and how you can continue to support your rowers and the club moving forward.
Week Behind
Justice entered three crews for the 2024 Stotesbury Regatta. For all of the crews, the first test was the Friday time trial.
The senior girls double of Indigo Brookes-Weiss and Ashley Forrest had a strong piece down the 1500 meter Schuylkill River course but missed qualifying for the semifinals finishing 22nd in a time of 6:27.8. Nevertheless, for a double that had just been put together that week, the speed was impressive.
The junior girls quad of Anna Lyons, Brooke Ehmann-Jones, Gretchen Hardy, and Chloe Bernasconi started 24th and rowed an aggressive and sharp 36 strokes per minute, making up 35 seconds on Hackensack, the crew in front of them in their lane. Unfortunately, Hackensack refused to yield as per regatta rules. This severely impacted our closing sprint and crew cohesion in the final 250 meters, resulting in a loss of at least 3-5 seconds in speed. The official results listed the boat as 1.98 seconds from qualifying in a time of 5:44 and putting the crew in 13th place with 12 to qualify. Without the impedance, the coaching staff believes the crew would have finished 10th, and in the semifinals, a very significant improvement of at least 25 seconds from last year. This all-sophomore boat bodes very well for the future in this event.
The boys junior double of Sam Schneider and Stephen Blackadar rowed beautifully in their time trial, even getting noticed by the commentators as having ‘great timing’ and finishing 17th in a time of 5:25.6. That time qualified them for the semifinals and moved them on to a late Friday afternoon Semifinal heat. The boat drew the always challenging lane 6, getting off strong but finishing 6th in a very tough field in a time of 6:03.7. Nevertheless, their effort represented the increased expectations of the program, as did all of the crews helping to set the stage for next year’s campaign.
Our alternate rowers, Silvia Smith and David White kept themselves ready in case of illness or injury and were instrumental in helping to facilitate logistics and crew support. A special shout out to Indigo and Sam who organized a very complex trailer loading on Saturday. The Stotesbury regatta is the largest high school regatta in the world, and worth all of the work required to put the crews in a position to win.
We know where we stand after this year’s superlative commitment to a significant improvement in rowing skills and overall fitness. To get where we want to go, we will need to keep chipping away on developing both of those channels to excellence, which we will do. Next year, let’s put some crews on that medal platform!
[See the highlights at our photo/video slideshow]
Coaches Dan and Kitty
From the Boosters:
Several major events to close out our season. Please sign up and help celebrate your rowers!
1974 Stuart Class Reunion, Saturday, June 1: Join us to help grill, bake, and serve to support the Stuart Class of 1972 reunion. This will be a major fundraising effort to help replace our aging launch motors and renovate several of our launches. Sign up!
End of Year Picnic/Awards/Boosters Annual Meeting and Board Elections, June 2. Please sign up to bring a dish or two and come celebrate your rowers and a tremendous season! Sign Up Today!
The roster of Board Officers for next year are:
Matt Hardy, President
Stephanie Friel, Vice-President
Adrianna Nino, Secretary
John Blackadar, Jr., Treasurer
Other non-officer (and still incredibly essential) positions will be Tatiana Richey, Bookkeeper; and Kelly Hardy, Registrar.
Final Car wash: Our last carwash is scheduled for Sunday, June 9, 12:30-5. We plan to include a detailing service offered by a former JHS rower! Sign up to help out. Thanks to parent volunteer Melanie for organizing!
Summer Rowing:
See the attached information from the Resilient Rowing program. More at our Camps tab (let us know if you have updated links and information!)
David Trissel
President
Justice High School Rowing Boosters
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