Below is the Men's Novice 4 race. Special kudos to Brendan who successfully "threaded the needle" at the 1:20 mark to keep the boat safe as both NoCo and FC encroached into our lane.
Below is the Men's Varsity 7 race (actually, only a MV7 for the first half dozen strokes, then back to a MV8.) Here are Coach O'Briens observations:
"MV8: Mixed results. I can hardly believe how much these guys have improved, I am exceedingly proud of them. Awesome out of the start and breakdown zone, them Jaime (7) jumped out of his seat. I thought it was all over, and then, god bless him, Jaime holds himself up with one hand, gets his seat back under him, and they are back in it. While Jaime was struggling, all I could do was stare in disbelief as the rest of the guys kept PERFECT time and power on the boat with full strokes, like nothing happened. Wow. They can be really, really good: I want to work with them on stroke length, and pace, they can row at a higher count for race pace. I also want to do some posture and hesitation drills to get them sitting up straighter instead of trying to pull around the oar. "
At any rate, the top Granby 8, in a new Wintech, has us breathing down their necks for two races now. Good job, guys.
Below is the Women's Varsity 4 race, beating NoCo and CH, but still off NA's pace. Bill Evans, the senior Cox HS coach and one of my mentors, told me we can row more "through the pin" so we might adjust the seat tracks a bit and add risers to the aft end of each seat. Coach O'Brien added that we have good synchronization and a natural good cadence, so that if we can get the oar through a true full stroke, we will be competitive. Getting better, but the Independent School Champs are coming up fast in less than 5 weeks.
Below is one of the Women's Novice 4 heat races. A win for the first time down the lake for Yuna and Yunji, but still lots of work to do with timing and pulling together. Let's plan on shuffling the two women's novice 4 crews for the next regatta.
Below is the Women's 2nd Varsity 4 heat race. Another win for this crew, but I notice our "B" entry in the following heat finished their race 18.2 seconds faster rowing the arguably slower VeniVidiVici hull. Here is Coach O'Brien's note on our "B" crew: "They were in first place past mid-course. They were way to the left on the course, and ran out of gas......With any endurance, the other boats wouldn't have been able to catch them." It's obvious to me that our "A" and "B" W2ndV4 crews will go head to head over the next few practices to establish the faster crew. Remember, for the EVSRA championships in four weeks we can only enter one crew in each event and double rowing is not allowed.
Lastly, The Women's Varsity 8 video was cut short by a low battery. The only item of note is that Caitlin and Courtney didn't understand the new rule at the start: after polling (now called the "announcement" of crews), hands are NOT recognized. The starter will start the race if he or she decides the boats are aligned. Coxes and rowers need to be ready to go at a moment's notice. No amount of hand waving will cause the starter to delay the start. Here're the applicable rule revisions:
2-305 Start
(a) After the Judge at Start signals that alignment has been achieved, the Starter shall announce the name of each crew.
(b) If alignment is lost during the announcement of the crews the Starter may suspend the process and resume when the previous condition is restored. If there is a significant delay, the Starter may repeat the entire procedure.
(c) Once the announcement of the names of the crews begins, the Starter shall disregard any crew signaling that it is not ready under this procedure regardless of when such signal is given.
The results include the unfortunate waking of the M2ndV4 by the ref's launch.
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