2013 Big Mathews

    We participated in the "Big" Mathews regatta on May 4th, a long, windy and overcast day.  This was another learning experience for our program. There were eighteen schools (many we haven't seen this season), 44.5 events, and racing in up to eight lanes. Our results were mixed, but according to the regatta organizers, our "efficiency points" (of 17.9%) were better than those of Kempsville, JEB Stuart, Hickory, Granby, and Gar-Field. The local schools that were more "efficient" than us were Cox, Maury, 1st Colonial, and Princess Anne (who hit 37.6%)   Of course, everybody was far off the pace of the elite Robinson High School from northern Virginia with a 91.3% efficiency (100% on the men's side and 82.7% on the women's side.) The 100% rating means they won every event they entered.

With the breezy conditions and the floating starts, comparing the times from event to event are pretty irrelevant, but I do need to give kudos to the Mens Novice four crew for finishing third in their heat of six (and yes, the finish times were not recorded...), to Natalie who braved the horrendous conditions to row the single, and to our four senior coxswains (I suppose five if we count Meredith!) who raised the fun quotient at least 75 points by finishing 2nd in the coxswain's race at the end of the day.

Below are the results as I got them and the video that was recorded. Additional stills will be added over the next few days.

 

   The Mens' novice 4 crew finished third in their heat. There is still some tension evident in the oarsmen, but Pilar does a good job of helping to keep the boat relaxed and confident. The regatta organizers were thinking of running the top three finishers in each MN4 event in another "final" race at the end of the day, but later reversed that decision.

   Our Mens' varsity 4 finished 2nd ahead of Gloucester, Forest Park, Hickory and River City. A good row by this crew and a good coxing job by Brendan.

    In the W2V4 race Megan and Anna pulled double duty, having just come out of the WV4 1500 m race. The waves had built up to nearly un-rowable conditions and the crew was in Four Mile Run, after an unfortunate incident with Nike.

    Lastly, perhaps the highlight of the day, the coxswain's race: