The St. Paul's girls were not off the medals dock very long before they dashed back to the small beach in the park on Lake Quinsigamond, where the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Championships were wrapping up with the boy's eights final.
The small team from Concord, NH, was having a great day at the championships. The girls won the varsity eight and took silver in the second and third eights. But the boy's were coming down the course in contention to medal chasing eventual winner Kent, and the girls team wanted to support them.
The St. Paul's boys took varsity eight took the silver, and when the team cheering ended and everyone went back to resume packing up and loading the trailer for the trip back home, no one thought to check the points total for the girls overall trophy. Phillips Exeter finished second in the varsity girls eight, but won the second and third boat final - and everyone from St. Paul's thought Exeter had it won.
By the time the coaches decided to have a look, they learned that the girls had, in fact, won - by a single point.
"Someone said I think we might have won the team trophy, and we went back to the dock to check the points, and, low and behold, we did," said coach Michael Spencer. "We won by one point over Exeter. But by that time, everyone had left, the ceremony was over, and no one had come to get us."
That didn’t deter the team. They collected the E. Arthur Gilcreast Award, walked back onto the dock and had a ceremony of their own.
It was the end of a very good day for St. Paul's and the rest of the teams that had competed Saturday in the NEIRA Championships. Connecticut-based Kent School won the boys varsity eight and the overall point's trophy; Belmont Hill won the boy's fours team trophy; and Noble & Greenough School won the girl's fours trophy.
"I was very blown away by our team," Spencer said. "I knew that they had some great speed, and it's really an incredible group, led by some great seniors. There are nine seniors on the team, four of them in the first boat. All three of those boats that medaled yesterday had some great senior leadership, and they have been working hard all spring.
"We only have 10 weeks to prepare our crews, we don't have a fall program like some of the other schools, and so I am thrilled about how they performed, particularly my first girls. They just took it to another level yesterday. I knew they had that speed in them, but to see that performance in the grand final was really remarkable. I'm really proud of them."
"And I'm proud of that third boat. Our other coach, Deb Vo, just developed that crew, and for them to do what they did yesterday was huge, and enabled us to win the team trophy by one point."
Boy's Eights
Kent boys coach Eric Houston said he had begun making plans to enter an eight in the Henley Royal Regatta based on how his team has been racing this season, but he was waiting to make the trip official until after Kent School raced in the championships.
The season has had it highs and lows, and while he was certain the group could rise to the challenge, he was holding out to see what would happen on Lake Quinsigamond. "Lake Quinsigamond can be a heartbreaker," Houston said. "Everybody brings their best, and you may go in thinking that you have a very good shot at medaling, and maybe even winning, and then somebody else comes in and puts something together that can that only be found on this particular day. I've been on the other side of this many times and walked away heartbroken."
Consider the trip booked.
The Connecticut-based prep school won the boy's varsity eight, and the team took the overall boy's eight points trophy home with them as well. "It was a good day for Kent," Houston said. "To have all three boats medal and take the team trophy means an awful lot to me. There is a lot of tradition and history with Kent School rowing."
Fours Championships
In the first finals of the afternoon, the Noble & Greenough School made their mark among the girl's fours, taking medals in three of four races - gold in the fourth four, silver in the second four, and gold in the varsity four. "This was the kind of race every oarsman or oarswoman dreams they might one day be a part of," said coach Blair Crawford.
"It was an epic stroke-for-stroke battle against awesome competitors, where you’ve given it your all, and still find yourself down with 10 strokes to go and you have to decide if you can go 10 more and raise it again. "This was a special crew, that is part of a special team, and all the coaches, parents and alumni couldn't be prouder of them," Crawford said.
In the boys' fours, Belmont Hill School nearly swept the day, winning the first three finals and finishing second in the grand.
"I can't recall racing in the boy's fours lower boats that was more competitive than yesterday's," said coach Chris Richards. "The combined margin of victory of our second varsity, third varsity, and fourth varsity over second place was 3.3 seconds.
"Deerfield's crews set the standard that we aspire to these days, so we anticipated that the competition with them was going to be fierce, and it was. Kudos, especially to their 1V4, which to my eye, was as impressive as any crew at the regatta.
"Nobles also had a really great day across the board. NEIRAs never seems to disappoint in terms of fantastic racing, and yesterday was no exception," Richards said.
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