After a too short few weeks of on-the-water practice we participated in the EVSRA season opener regatta on Lake Whitehurst at Botanical Garden. Pics above courtesy of Mrs. Walker. The results are below with comments following. Color coding is the same as last year: blue for first, red for second, yellow for third, green is also ran.
Obviously not a great day. But, there are some positive comments. While it is not usual to compare times between events, with the relatively benign conditions and the fixed course length some comparison can be made. On the guys side in the fours we are off the pace of the top schools but well positioned against the other programs that row only in the spring. Note that we are behind Collegiate and Christchurch, but ahead of Academy and Cape Henry. Academy may row their MLt4 as a varsity and that crew will be one to contend with. It's interesting that even our M2V4 with a rookie coxswain beat the NA top MV4's time.
It is significant that our guys finished ahead of Maury, a program that shares our boathouse and rows year-round. We should be getting stronger as the season progresses and I can only expect better results.
On the girls side in the fours I can only relate Coach O'Brien's comment (who was acting as a ref in the following launch.) Our technique off the line and for the first part of the race is as good as any crew out there but we lack endurance. If races were but 300 meters long we would probably win most of them. As it is, as fatigue sets in our technique starts to fall apart. With more endurance training we can correct that deficit. As it is, we're 30 seconds off Adademy's pace and 15 seconds off Collegiate's pace. Cape Henry did not enter this event but will probably do so in later regattas. Broadwater is still an unknown.
The WV8 event has better news. While we finished behind Academy's time we are well ahead of Collegiate's pace. With the use of Turner, Broadwater's light eight, I suspect we'll have better results. Again, though, endurance will be an issue.
Our mixed events gave some of our novices a chance to get their feet wet and experience competition. I have strong hopes for both our MN8 and WN4 crews is the next regatta. I should also give kudos to Grace in coxing her first two races. In her first time out, on a body of water she has never seen with a crew she has never rowed with, she did exactly what I would ask of any coxswain: she kept her crew safe and steered the boat to a finish ahead of another crew. Well done.
Below are videos of the M2V4 and MV4 events, the ones in which we placed 3rd and 2nd, respectively. I'll be editing the other races for land training this week. There are many lessons to be learned about technique for both rowers and coxswains.
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