Thursday marked semifinal day for 16 events at the 2014 USRowing Club National Championships including the junior women’s A eight, where the Southeast Junior Development Camp made up a third of the field.
With the top two boats from each of the three semifinals advancing, Southeast Juniors had six opportunities to move on to the race for medals.
Steve Fluhr, one of Southeast Juniors’ coaches, described the camp as an opportunity for athletes who “are looking to learn and get better, but also want to be challenged by working with other, more talented kids.”
The camp draws 48 junior women rowers and eight coxswains from around the country including athletes from California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Georgia. For three weeks, the athletes train at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn., which Fluhr said, “is a wonderful set-up because we have the dorms, the boathouse, and dining hall all within 100 yards of each other. We’re on the water three times a day and get on the ergs every other day.”
Fluhr said that the athletes who attend the development camp are either a notch below the U.S. high performance or development group, or they are too old for the junior program.
“We have six or seven kids who have graduated and some were with us last year, too, but they are going on to college next year,” Fluhr said. “It’s a good group. It’s great for the kids to mix it up and for the younger kids to see where they can go with rowing.”
The camp helps prepare the athletes for their upcoming seasons, as well as their future rowing careers. Fluhr said the camp is a chance for the rowers “to see that coaches aren’t just someone on the other end of an email or phone; they come in and are attentive on the launch. For some of them, it just opens up their eyes that there is something they can do after junior rowing.”
In total, Southeast Juniors qualified three boats for finals including the junior women’s A eight, junior women’s B four with coxswain, and junior women’s A single sculls.
Vesper Boat Club has the most entries for the Friday finals with 19 boats set to race. Vesper won the overall team title at the 2013 USRowing Club National Championships and is one step closer to possibly claiming the 2014 title this year.
Racing at the 2014 USRowing Club National Championships continues tomorrow with finals in 37 events beginning at 9:00 a.m. Racing in the remaining 32 events gets started Friday afternoon with time trials in those events with more than 18 entries.
For photos, results and press coverage of the event, click here . Follow the USRowing Club National Championships on Twitter and Instagram with hashtag #clubnats14.
In addition to racing, USRowing also will host its 11th-Annual College Fair on Sunday beginning at 1:30 p.m. The fair will have more than 50 colleges represented, with coaches on-site to discuss various aspects of rowing in college. Athletes wishing to participate in the college fair must be seniors for the 2014-2015 school year and be competing at the 2014 USRowing Club National Championships. Those who would like to attend can register here.
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