Colonial Erg Sprints 2020

The William and Mary Club Rowing program hosted the Colonial Erg Sprints on Sunday 23 February at the College's student recreation center. Zack Bromley participated and took 1st place in the Men's junior heavyweight event pulling a P.R. of 7:05.5, beating fourteen rowers from James River Crew, Williamsburg Boat Club, and Cox High School. Zack had an impressive final sprint pace of 1:40/500m , grunting past the second place finisher from JRC by half a second. Zach's average pace was 1:46.2/500m. Quite a performance!

Thanks to Coach Turner who coxed Zack during the event, and no Zack, Coach Turner cannot be a coxswain when we get in the boats!

This event wraps up the erg season and CHS has impressive results: 

    Great Bridge Erg Pull:  1st Place

    HRRC Erg Pull:  1st Place

    Colonial Erg Sprints:  1st Place

We'll start on-the-water practices on Wednesday. Don't forget the parent meeting tonight at 7:00 in the forum.

HRRC Erg pull 2020

    Catholic High School was the host for the 22nd annual Hampton Roads Erg Pull Indoor Rowing Challenge held on Saturday February 15th. One hundred fifty-eight rowers completed in 16 individual events. Among the participants were nine CHS students.  A highlight was a win in the Men's Junior event by Charlie T. with a personal record of 6:30.4 for the 2000 meter distance. 

    Other P.R.s were recorded by Matt R. (7:25.8) also in the Men's Junior event, Christian G. (7:40.1) in the Men's Junior Lightweight event, and Richelle F. (8:30.7) in the Women's Junior Lightweight event. 

    Notable is the fact that both Matt and Richelle are novices and finished ahead of most of the competitors in their respective events (Matt finished 8th out of 22 entries in the Men's Junior event and Richelle finished 5th out of 22 entries in the Women's Junior Lightweight event.) Christian finished 10th out of 34 entries in the Men's Junior Lightweight event.

This event also saw four of our coxswains pull to help appreciate what they ask of their crews on that final sprint to the finish. The coxswains pulled 1000 meters and definitely showed their grit. Congrats to Olivia H. (4th), Maria R. (6th), Mia F. (9th) and Nina L. (13th) for finishing their event.

  There was also a fun event for middle school students (only 500 meters) and Patrick G. (Christian's brother) finished 3rd. 

Thanks to all who participated, to the parents and the Crusader Club who helped with concessions, and to Michael Le who took the photographs.  

Parent meeting postponed until the 25th

I am postponing the parent informational meeting until next week on the 25th. Still 7:00; still in the Forum.

Erg Pull registration is open

Please register for the erg pull. As of Tuesday morning we only have three students who are on the rowing team registered. Don't let First Colonial, Cox, Hickory or Granby show us up.

You'll need a Regatta Central account (it's free to get one) but to compete you'll need to pay the $16.00 registration fee. The team does get a kick-back from HRRC (last year it was $500.)

Younger brothers and sisters can pull for free but still need to enter (500 m for middle school students; 250 meters for elementary school students.)

Since we don't have school Monday, this will be one of the last three days available to make a qualifying time for the team (I'll be available next Tuesday and Wednesday after school but team cuts will be made Wednesday night.)

There is a coxswain's event (only 1000 meters) and events for parents as well (the full 2000m). This year there will be some adaptive events for rowers who are physically or mentally challenged.

If not pulling, you can support the effort by assisting with concessions or the bake sale.

Counting down - A Day of and for Grace

What happens when you set the distance to 380,000 meters and start pulling? With a 500 meter pace of 1:45 or so, the projected finish time is a little over 22 hours....

Anyone in the area is encouraged to drop by the ODU Women's Rowing Center at Lakewood Park and cheer on the rowers and they complete their "Day of and for Grace." The final meters should be pulled sometime tomorrow morning or mid-day. Stay tuned for an update!


The Go Fund Me drive to support the Crusaders of the College of the Holy Cross in memory of Grace has exceeded the initial $25K goal but more contributions are welcome!

The erg life

Two items of note, one of joy and one of sadness. First the joy: Charlie participated in the Erg Sprints this weekend at T.C. Williams high school in northern Virginia. This indoor race is the largest in the mid-Atlantic region, this year attracting 1391 entries from 126 clubs.

Charlie T. participated in both the 20 minute row and in the 2000m meter sprint and finished well in both. In the 20 minute row, starting at 8:30 in the morning, Charlie finished 4th out of 53 entries with a distance of 5681 meters and an average 500m split time of 1:45. Later in the afternoon the 2000 meter sprint race was run. Charlie finished 3rd of the 41 entries with a personal record of 6:32.9. Well done Charlie!

Interestingly, Charlie's Dad rowed at TC Williams "back in the day," and Charlie attracted some attention wearing an old school warm-up as he showed off his medal.

Catholic High has done very well at this indoor race in the past. In 2017 Reilly Schindler won the Lightweight women's 2000m race topping a field of 38 with a time of 7:50.6. It was this performance that helped Reilly win a 4-year scholarship for rowing at St Mary's college in California. 

Reilly has now transitioned as a tri-athlete for team USA with the support of the St Mary's rowing program.

Now the sad news: 

On January 15th, 20 year-old Grace Rett, a rower for the College of the Holy Cross Crusaders, was killed in a automobile accident   while the team was in Florida for winter training. 

Grace was also a remarkable athlete, having just recently in December set the world record for the longest continual row indoors. 

To honor Grace's memory, the ODU Women's rowing program will have an event at the ODU rowing center on February 7th and 8th where an erg will continuously spin for 37 hours by hosting a “day of and for Grace.” The goal is to cover 383000m, the distance that Grace rowed during her recent world record.

The ODU Rowing team has opened the undertaking to any and all students and athletic staff members to help keep the machine spinning. Rowers will trade off as they need to - no one person will attempt to duplicate Grace's individual effort. 

More information is forthcoming. I plan on dropping by Friday evening and Saturday morning. If anyone wants to attend, please contact me and I'll coordinate with Coach Garbutt at ODU.

Here is more about Grace to help understand the "Day of and for Grace."

“She had a work ethic second to none and inspired others to ‘love the fight’,” her family wrote. Grace Rett immersed herself into the Holy Cross community. She was an active participant in campus ministry and attended Athlete Bible Study weekly. She also worked in the Office of Admissions where she loved to give tours of the “beautiful campus” and “share her love of the college” and worked in the Sports Media Department where she operated the live stream camera, the obituary reads. Selected to be a Monserrat leader, Rett mentored freshman, was a member of the Liturgical Choir, spent time as an RA and most recently joined the club basketball team.

Inside the Hart Center at the Luth Athletic Complex, flowers were left at Concept2 indoor rower in memory of Rett. She had recently set a new world record for the longest continual row in the individual heavyweight women 19 and younger category; She rowed the equivalent of almost 9 full marathons in just two and a half days.“Grace made the very most of her 20 years on this earth and was beyond proud to go from being an OLV Angel to a Marianapolis Golden Knight to a Holy Cross Crusader,” her obituary said. “She worked hard and took advantage of every opportunity afforded to her.”