Photos courtesy of and thanks to Clete Graham of The Schuylkill Navy.

The NK Boathouse Row Speed Order was held in fair conditions with light to medium wind and temperature in the mid 40's in Philly on this past Saturday, November 17th. The purpose of the event was to provide a race to replace the cancelled national team November Speed Order to "give aspiring athletes the opportunity to measure up one more time before going into Winter training," said NK's Frank Biller.

"The Schuylkill Navy and the three clubs offering elite programs, Undine, Penn A.C. and Vesper, have a long standing tradition of supporting the sport, including the top level or those on the way there," he said. "Along with the corporate sponsors, Nielsen-Kellerman, Mariner Insurance and Boathouse Sports, all of them regard Boathouse Row as their 'home ground,' where we try to support and grow the sport."

To the same end, the sponsors ponied up prizes for the top three places in each division as well; first place won a $500 check, second place a NK XL1 SpeedCoach, and third place a Boathouse Sports Jacket. There was no cash for the W2x and M2x events.

Some comments on results from race observers:

In the LW1x, Libby Peters dominated the event; a couple likely contenders did not race the event either due to illness or racing in another event.

In the LM1x, favorite Ivan Baldytchev won event, closely followed by Richard Montgomery who made his apirations clear for 2008.

In the W1x, a very convincing win by Julia Nichols over Meghan Sarbanis 26 seconds back, with Catherin Infantino 3rd

In the M1x, the top three finishers, winner Andrew Liverman, followed by Ben Churchill and Josh Brown, pulled away from the field in a class on their own, followed by a series of former greats and future prospects.

In the M2-, the Caspersen Training Center under Ted Nash took first and second, with a Colgate University pair taking 3rd. There were no prizes to Schuylkill Navy crews, absence of any Penn AC pairs (they all sculled for some reason).

Overall, Vesper was most successful club, winning four out of eight events; Vesper also won the most prizes (6) with Undine (3) and PennAC (3) following respectively. See full results and more photos on the Schuylkill Navy web site.