Sunday, April 26, 2015

EVSRA Championship Regatta


Sixteen schools competing; WN8 crew win bronze medal by 0.3 seconds over Granby's crew. Final results are below.


MV4: 7th (best finish in five years in this event.)
WV4: 8th (second best finish in five years in this event.)
MN4: 6th (second best finish in four years in this event.)
WN8: 3rd (bronze medalists & best finish ever in this event)
Mxd4: 1st (blue ribbons).

I'll be adding pics and video over the next day or two. Send me any pictures you may have.



Schools competing:
  • Bishop Sullivan Catholic
  • Cape Henry
  • Christchurch
  • Cox
  • First Colonial
  • Gloucester
  • Granby
  • Great Bridge
  • Hickory
  • James River
  • Kempsville
  • Maury
  • Norfolk Academy
  • Norfolk Collegiate
  • Princess Anne
  • Williamsburg



Sunday, April 19, 2015

Spring Fling II Regatta


    We returned to racing after spring break at the Norfolk Botanical Garden venue on the 18th of April. Overall we had more success this regatta with crews taking a first, two seconds and a third. See the results below color coded with blue for first place, red for second place, and yellow for third place.




    Our WV4 crew had a bad start and ended up stopping after clashing oars with First Colonial. The video doesn't show any obvious mistakes - perhaps a combination of the wind blowing from the right and just a strong pull from Liz in the bow sent the boat to port. At any rate they finished fourth in their heat, but with a better time than both Cox and Hickory in heat A, and with a time over 14 seconds lower than their best time all season. Who knows what the time might have been without the mishap?


We added an entry at the coach's meeting. I threw together a W2V4 crew with Erynn, Anna K., Anna B. and Helen, a group that has never rowed together as a crew. Even though they finished poorly, they still had a lower time than our WV4 crew in the previous regatta. This was Erynn's first time in the stroke seat this season. Thanks, girls, for accepting the challenge at the last minute.






    For the first time this season we entered two MN4 crews. Both finished out of the top 3 in their heats. Our "A" entry finished ahead of NA's MN4. No other independent school fielded a MN4 entry which bodes well for the independent school championship in a couple of weeks. Our "B" entry finished behind three large public school crews but had a time only 11 seconds greater than our men's varsity four which rowed later in the day. The shot below was taken during the race of our "A" entry. I note difficult problems with set, something that I expect the straws will help correct. I should also note that we combined the two fours into a MN8 crew later in the regatta that finished 2nd behind NA but ahead of Maury. Well done guys..  



    In event #20 our WN8 crew took first in their heat, ahead of Maury and NA's B boat. I didn't get a GoPro video, but did catch the open water finish from the recovery dock. I also know there was a massive crab with about 200m to the finish and Jess had to stop the boat and get the crew restarted. Even with the stopping and restarting (probably affecting time by adding 10 seconds or more, this crew finished with lots of open water between them and Maury in 2nd place. They easily beat NA's "B" boat but also finished with a lower time that NA's "A" boat in the other heat. Still some work to do to catch the public schools, but a good performance none-the-less. Well done, girls!

    
    In event #21 our MN8 crew took second in their heat, ahead of Maury but behind NA's crew. Our crew dropped 27 seconds from their time in the previous regatta and are definitely getting better. The video belows shows some sloppy rowing, again with height and set issues, but hopefully the straws will sort out the handle height problem. I also note that the call to "way enough" was three seconds before the bow crossed the finish line. Coxswains need to watch the finish line flag and listen for the horn. Many races are decided on times less than a second.













I'll be adding videos and pictures with some commentary throughout the day. Please send me any pictures you have (including prom pics!)