"He didn't have to invite everyone!" quipped an official after getting the call-up last week to enter the official's pool for the Saratoga Invitational Regatta April 24-25.
But apparently regatta director Chris Chase's e-mail address list is long. He reached out to scholastic crews in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and beyond to welcome them to the state boat launch on Saratoga Lake, New York for the annual early-season event. The race has gone from a nine-team house party to a 40-team blow-out bash in the last four years, but somehow the transition has been relatively comfortable.
The regatta, which used to operate with one US Rowing official, now has 5-6 folks in Navy blue out there all day, even with the shortage of officials in the northeast. The Saratoga parents are some of the best-trained volunteers in the business, so marshals, dockmasters, aligners... they all knew their stuff. Let's face it, this all makes for a pleasant regatta experience.
The weather cooperated this time around, which was a delight for early April in upstate NY. Saturday was warm, sunny and water was reasonably tame. Sunday was overcast and had some occasional whips of wind down or across the course, but nothing that affected racing as it did last year. That said, this is an all-comers feel-good race which includes several events as deep as 5V. Many of the local crews haven't been on the water more than two weeks, and they struggled with the stakeboats.
The initial concept for the race was to hold 2k racing on Saturday to prepare for Youth Nationals. But the regatta had to rearrange the schedule about two weeks before the race-there simply wasn't enough daylight on Saturday to get all the boats down the course. In the end, Chase settled on the 1Vs, men's and women's, light and heavy, to go 2k. A quick stakeboat move during a break, and it was 1500s for the rest of Saturday. No one seemed to mind-the race had over 700 entries and everyone just wanted to be in the water.
Rowing 2k
So those who did get a chance to go the extra 500 meters were certainly feeling the pain. Who knew that extra couple minutes could release so much lactate and mess with a kid's stroke anyway?
On the women's side, new club Connecticut Boat Club (CBC, not to be confused with the Boston club that shares the initials) dominated the races, including Saturday's 2k.
(Some background information is in order here: This is the club that was Maritime Rowing Club in the fall and won all major head races, including Head of the Charles. As of November 16, they moved to what turned out to be a temporary affiliation with SoNo Athletic Club. Now, as CBC with a roster of 43 talented girls from Norwalk, CT area, they are continuing on their way-the drama of these many changes behind them.
Except for the many different-colored spandex gear and uni's these girls must have, they have emerged from the transitions in the same top form that landed them on the podium in the fall. The consistent presence of Liz Trond and their ubiquitous lime green hats ("the sisterhood of the traveling green hats" says these teens) has held them together. "I feel like I work for the parents in a way," says Trond; "they have supported me working with their kids even with all this. They have really been amazing during the past few weeks," she continues, talking about the girls and the parents.
A complicated issue for team, as there was a chance their sudden unexpected lack of affiliation would render them ineligible for Youth Nationals. An approved petition to US Rowing made them officially CBC and a force to be reckoned with in June.)
Back to the racing! CBC took the 2000 meter women's race by several lengths. They had won San Diego Crew Classic just three weeks previously, and with the tumultuous weeks between, it is clear these kids have their heads on straight. Perennial powerhouse Mount St Joseph's from outside Philadelphia (2nd), CRI from Boston (3rd), as well as local favorites Saratoga (4th) will be looking at that race on tape and scratching their heads...."how can we gain that much more speed by the end of the season?"
On the boys side it was one of the dominating crews from Chaminade (Mineola, NY) who captured the 2k race with good tactics and plenty of power. Saratoga had the lead for the first 1000 going at a high, aggressive rate. Chaminade had settled a bit, but ramped it up in the end and took Saratoga in their heat. A crew from Mercer ended up with the second-best time of the day from another heat, Saratoga third.
Lightweights had a runaway victory with the Mount St. Joe's women, taking the field by more than 10 seconds in their flgith with a time that beat the other flights by 20 seconds. Community Rowing came in strong behind them-they will be working to make up that 10 seconds when they get back to Boston.
The men's CRI team crossed the line 15 seconds before their nearest competitor, solidifying the CRI team as a quality lightweight program. Wayland Weston and Manhassett rounded out the top three among the light men.
Team Trophies and on to 1.5 k
Saratoga created two perpetual trophies in response to the growth of this regatta. There is nothing better to validate an event than a team-sized award to travel to boathouse trophy cabinets across the northeast. The beauties created for the Saratoga Invite, however, will only go across Fish Creek. Saratoga won in both the women's and men's categories with the volume and skill of their entries. Kudos to everyone at Saratoga Rowing Association for not only bringing their "A" game to volunteering and race organization, but to quality on the water as well. All levels, including the "are they in the same race?" victory by the Saratoga girl's frosh 8 to conclude racing Sunday, showed attention to their rowing across-the-board.
A nod to their guests in second place is in order as well:
A team that arrived in Saratoga with an impressive posse of 96 athletes came in second on the men's side. Greenwich Crew, coached by Chris Ives (boys) and Marko Serafimovski (girls) were pleased with their results.
"We had some depleted line-ups due to illness and travel, but we really developed some momentum from this regatta," says Chris Ives. (Note: a couple kids from the club couldn't leave a class trip in Greece due to flight travel limitations in Europe).
"There is more focus this season...they are really dedicated to performing," says Ives. He feels his leaders from the club - Matt Lonski, who won the 1x Sunday morning, Greg Riddell (a team captain with Lonski), Alex Buck, Palmer Foote and Sam Hagan - have been valued examples (and a quad + sub) for the rest of the boys on the team.
Similarly, Serafimovski's women performed despite any significant time spent together in line-ups or specific boats. Kristen Lunder came in third in the single, and the lightweight women had strong showings in every event they entered.
Greenwich's numbers at the regatta, as well as the quality of their rowing, put them near the top in the overall Invitational standings. The philosophy of the coaching staff, as well as Junior Program Director Mike Wienwke, was to enter the kids in as many races as they could without hot seating.
"I wanted to put them in as many combinations and boats as possible to get some feedback from the athletes," said Ives. The goal, he suggests, is to discover when line-ups are working or not to make adjustments before championships roll around.
The second place on the women's side went to Connecticut Boat Club. "CBC would have won an efficiency award if we had one," says Chris Chase. They won almost every event they entered, including decisive victories in 1V and 2V eights and fours. The CBC girls will be going back to train from Norwalk River Rowing Club's docks, with rented equipment from Fairfield University, to get their heads and bodies into the games ahead: Northeast Regionals and ultimately Youth Nationals.
The 1.5 k racing as racing closed on Saturday as well as all day Sunday, was a great platform for coaches to get race-quality training for the varsities, get experience in multiple line-ups at all levels, and literally test the waters as rowers for novices. Racing went as deep as 5V, so huge teams could provide race opportunities for all.
As racing closed on Sunday, Chief Referee Jim Flanders spoke into to officials radios: (paraphrase here!) "This is Jim and we are following the last race of the day down the course at 4:36....note that we are on time." He also commented, once the radio went silent: "We were one minute ahead on Saturday." There you go.
A few closing notes, comments, etc:
*Marshall Cassidy, a legendary race horse announcer from NYRA, provided commentary for the 2k racing on Saturday. He will be returning as commentator for the Scholastic Nationals held in Saratoga at the end of May. He is known for his comments like: "they are ahead by a furlong," or "by a neck." Great fun for spectators!
*Bloopers category: officials and launch drivers had to stifle their giggles when a 3-seat caught a crab and rolled back with her feet in the air, foot stretchers still attached to her feet but not the boat.
*Predator category: Many folks at the starting line had their eyes on an enormous snapping turtle, unafraid, in the first 100 meters of the course. Perhaps waiting for an ejector crab to provide a bite to eat?
*What? An official observed four Saratoga girls rowers performing the gruesome task of moving a porta-potty. (What did they do to get that gig?) As they inched across the terrain, one said: "OOOH, a bug!"
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