Saturday, May 18, 2013

2013 Virginia Scholastic Rowing Championships



Forty five schools, 220 crews and approximately 1300 rowers gathered for the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Championships at Occoquan, Virginia on Saturday May 11. The morning consisted of preliminary heats with qualifying crews competing in final races in the afternoon (64 of the crews failed to advance.)  We sent three crews to this regatta and two advanced to the afternoon racing. (Last year neither of our two crews managed to advance out of the heats.)  With only three rowers and a coxswain returning from the previous year, this regatta was a good opportunity for the sophomores and juniors to see what States are about and to mentally prepare for next year. For our seniors it was a great trip to put a cap on their high school rowing experience.  We saw lots of very talented teams and learned that to be successful at this level we need to raise the bar on our fitness, training and endurance.
 

The results are available here: here. Since we had never raced against most of the 45 schools participating, I'm comparing our finishes against those of a known quantity -- Norfolk Academy. Note that in event 11 our MV4 crew was placed in the same heat as Norfolk Academy's varsity four and we finished about 35 seconds behind them with a 13% lag behind the 1st place time. Our WV4 crew in event 14 was placed in the fastest of the three heats and performed better, finishing 15 seconds behind NA's time (in the following event) and with less than a 9% lag behind the 1st place time.  Our WJV4 crew in event 32 finished 22 seconds behind NA's winning time but with the smallest percentage lag of only 6%. All-in-all, I'm pleased. If we continue to work on both technique and endurance we can continue to make significant gains across the board. Will reported that in his event the WJV4 crew was in third after about 500 meters but fell back to sixth by the finish. I  don't have any pics, and the videos did not come out due to errors on my part, but please send me any shots you may have taken and I'll add them to this post. I managed to lose the videos of Brendan's races and below are the only frames I got from the the other camera -- shots of Will and Hana turning the GoPro on and off. Maybe we we need a dedicated videographer!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

2013 Independent Schools Championship
















After a long day at Mathews on Saturday the 4th, we competed in the Independent Schools Regatta on Sunday the 5th. The weather was still as dreary as the day before and the breeze was still up. This would be the last regatta of the season for most of the crews. Like last year, we finished second to Norfolk Academy in most events. We did place ahead of Norfolk Collegiate, Broadwater and Cape Henry in the final team efficiency scoring.



Below are the videos shot this regatta.

In the MN4 we had a horrible time with the wind swirling in lane 1 and were way off point at the start. Pilar straightened the boat out and we spent most of the race making up lost ground. If the course were longer we may have reeled in NA, but as it was, we finished 2nd, a harbinger of the way the day would play out.


Our MV4 crew was in a five-lane event and were comfortably in second place (a half a boat length up) with about 150 meters to go when the Norfolk Collegiate guys put together a tremendous sprint and walked right past us to finish a couple of seconds ahead. A hard lesson to learn, but it was eye-opening how an efficient sprint can make the difference.





In the MV8 event we again finished second to NA but extracted a bit of revenge on Collegiate by walking past them in a strong sprint to the finish. I guess turn-about is fair play.


Lastly, the coxswain's race. I believe a new Bousquet-created trophy is in the works...



The coxswain's race coxswain:






Sunday, May 12, 2013

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: