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!
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...
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:
The EVSRA Championship was held 27 April 2013. We entered crews in the MV4, M2V4, WV4, WV8, MN4, and Mixed4 events. We had a rough day, with no crew managing to get out of the heats to the grand finals. There were many bright points, however.
As evidenced in the edited score sheet below, our MV4 crew dropped time each race down the course (heat time 5:23.0, repechage time 5:19.3, petite final time 5:15.2.) In the petites, they finally drew even with our nemesis of the season, Norfolk Academy, finishing a scant 0.1 seconds behind. I also note that the times of both of our independent schools rivals seem to be stuck: NA 5:14/5:12/5:15 and Norfolk Collegiate 5:06/5:07/5:06. This indicates to me that we still have room for significant improvement at that they may have plateaued. I'm looking forward to the ISRs in a week.
In the M2V4 event we only raced once, finishing at 5:50.2. Coach O'Brien's observations from the ref launch are that this crew could be a solid unit with more work. I need to remind myself that we had a novice in the stroke seat and that none of the four will be graduating seniors so the future looks bright.
Our MN4 crew finished third in their heat ahead of both Cape Henry and Norfolk Collegiate, but behind Norfolk Academy. Next weekend will be interesting with another four-way private school battle.
On the girls' side, our WV8 also dropped times each time down the course with a heat time of 5:25.4 and a petite final time of 5:22.0. They won the petites, finishing ahead of James River, a significant accomplish against a large school (2000 students) that rows year-round. I also note that the Cox High School crew did not finish ahead of us in this, the marquee women's event -- they too failed to qualify for the grand finals and then missed the start for the petites. Our crew did what was required: get to the start on time and finish ahead of all the competitors in the race. I'll quote directly from Coach O'Brien: My notes--"Awesome". The technique things we have been working on with this group are there, but they rowed tremendously as a team. Meredith pulls like all get out and I think helped the bow four contribute more to the boat. Anna pulls like crazy but occasionally rushed the catch, she overall was tremendous. Cara much improved with length of stroke, hand position and balance. Megan solid and could get slightly longer stroke. Nealy had good full stroke, probably could apply more power. Airielle, Amanda and Becky had much better synch with the boat and I'd like to see more power and natural body swing from them. I am proud of what this boat has become as a unit. I'll add "well done." Neither CH nor NC entered a crew in this event so it seems to be shaping up as another mano-a-mano event against NA for the ISRs.
Our WV4 crew also dropped times each time down the course with a heat time of 6:50.5 and a petite final time of 6:33.3. We were in good company in this event since Great Bridge, arguably the premier program in the EVSRA (winning this year's overall trophy for the 13th consecutive year,) also failed to qualify a WV4 crew into the grand finals. GB also failed to defeat us in the petites, having to scratch their WV4 entry in the petites. NC and NA will be schools to contend with at the ISRs but with double rowing allowed we will probably enter both a WV4 and a W2V4 (and perhaps even a WLt4) so I'm still opimistic.
In the W1x event Natalie put up a strong fight. Here are Coach O'Brien's notes to me: Great stroke, she was gaining on the Cox rower up through mid course. I was convinced she would win the event. Her form was tremendous, much better stroke length, good balance and crisp release. I was surprised after I got off the water to hear she ran out of gas and dropped back. She can be one of the best in our region if she gets endurance. Very pleased with her progress. Conditioning has to be a year round process. I keep reminding myself that Natalie has just learned to scull and has only been in the boat about twenty times and that this was only her second race, with a time of over 27 seconds faster than her previous race. In fact her finishing time was lower than NA's winning M1x entry in the Spring Fling regatta of April 13th. I hope to enter both sculling events in the ISRs.
Lastly in the mixed four event we entered a boat of novices that competed against varsity level crews from the other schools. This was Nick's first race as a coxswain and he did fine. I appreciate Nathan pulling double duty as the stroke of this boat. I do expect to enter the WN4 event next week, with probably Hana taking the bow.
Here are the results. Color coding: Green rows separate events; yellow rows separate the progression in each event. Same colored cells are the same crew.
I'll be uploading videos over the next few days. Below are the videos of the MV4 in their heat race and in the petite finals.
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!
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