BETHEL, Ohio - Making its debut at the 2015 USRowing Club Nationals, the Colgan Cup was hoisted in the air over Harsha Lake as Vesper won the total team points award with 423 points, 14 gold medals and a total of 32 medals overall.
To Vesper Program Director Sean Clarke, making Philly the Colgan Cup's first home just feels right.
"The Colgan family is a Vesper family," said Clarke. "My locker is next to four of them. They are some of the biggest Vesper supporters and U.S. National team supporters. They do a really good job of just supporting rowing. Naming the trophy after them and having the first trophy come back to Philadelphia and Vesper Boat Club in particular is a huge honor."
Winning the team points trophy for the fourth year in a row, Clarke is especially proud of the team effort it took this year to make that dream a reality.
"We start off with the intention of doing this at the beginning of every year and it takes a monumental amount of effort every year…We have 50 athletes that we enter in this race and between 50 entries for the men and the women this means everyone has to race three or four times. It puts a strain on everyone but they all buy in and it is a championship effort."
A coach, a referee and a lifelong rower, Charles P. Colgan embodied the spirit of rowing and was instrumental in the development of junior, masters and adaptive rowing.
The new trophy is as unique and as interesting as the man it honors. Ten years in the making, the Colgan Cup comes from the Silver Vaults in central London. The largest collection of silver in the world, the Silver Vaults has 30 underground boutiques, which are locked behind three different vaulted doors.
Vesper was also able to secure the Marion D. Ventura Women's All-Point Award with 206 points and five gold medals.
"This year with the women's team we knew that it would take each and every one of us to do what we need to do," said senior eight coxswain Kate Condon. "We have been really excited that we have such a well rounded team that we were able to pull together to win the women's trophy because it is something we have been pressing for all year long. It feels great to have that redemption."
New York Athletic Club head coach Nick Dawe spent his childhood racing on Harsha Lake as a member of the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club. To return home to Cincinnati and claim the Sulger-Barnes Men's All-Points Award was something he will never forget.
"I am just really proud of all these guys for working hard all week in a really competitive field this year, much harder than last year," said Dawe. "This week was what summer racing is all about: getting faster, getting stronger and just having a blast. I truly could not have been able to accomplish anything this week with out my staff and I am truly grateful."
Before the presentation of the awards, the announcement was made that Lake Harsha will play host to the 2016 USRowing Club National Championships.
"To have the opportunity to once again host the USRowing Club Nationals is an honor and we are excited to get to do it again," said President of the Clermont Visitors Bureau Mark Calitri. "To see the park full of rowers and to have all of the excitement on the water was an incredible experience."
Before any awards were given or announcements made 34 champions were crowned during Sunday's racing.
The maroon and white started the morning strong as the women's senior eight posted a time of 6:36.292 for the first gold medal of the morning ahead of Thompson Boat Center (TBC Racing) and the Badger Development Camp.
"We really hadn't had a lot of practice in that lineup but we knew that we just wanted to go and charge every 500 meters and continue to step up on the other boats," said Condon. "That is exactly what we did and it was great."
In one of the most highly anticipated races of the morning, the men's U19 eight came down to the wire as TBC Racing was able to hold off local favorite Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club as it came down to a sprint in the last 15 strokes of the race. TBC posted a slight margin of 0.457 seconds to secure gold.
"Our plan was to stay calm and confident and run our race that we have worked toward," said TBC senior Nick Anderson "Three of us were in the eight that won silver last year so we have had a year to be thinking about this race and getting it this year. It was great, glad to have gold."
That win margin was nothing compared to the performance from Sarasota Crew's Monica Whitehouse as she dug deep and gave one of the most impressive sprints of the week to finish 0.045 seconds ahead of Bair Island Aquatic Center's Aisha Chow.
Later in the morning in the women's U17 eight final, Saugatuck would keep Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club from the podium after an exciting sprint to finish 0.024 seconds ahead in one of the last races of day.
The day closed with the 12th annual college fair as over 400 athletes as rising seniors and collegiate coaches had the opportunity to interact as young rowers learned what it would take to compete at the next level.
"Having the college fair here is huge," said University of Louisville women's rowing head coach Derek Copeland. "It gives these kids a chance to throw their hat in the ring. It separates them from every rower in the country. They must be serious about it if they're spending the last month since Youth Nationals training."