2,800 junior rowers from 183 different rowing organizations around the US descended on Sarasota this weekend to determine the first post-pandemic national champions (with asterisks, as at all other championships this year). Coming on the heels of 18 months of loss and frustration, it was impossible to miss the energy and excitement on display.
It wasn't just relief on show, however, as athletes and crews displayed some of the "caveman" mentalities and new skills they'd picked up from creative approaches to training and rowing during the lockdown; indeed, more than one coach in attendance thought this might be the fastest Nationals they'd ever seen.
With 35 events at the U17 and U19 levels racing over four days, it would be nearly impossible to do justice to all of the epic racing that took place; a few highlights will have to do.
Sculling Events
In the Youth Men's Single, Isaiah Harrison, who has mostly made his name on the erg up to now, emerged as a force in the boat for the first time, taking his first "wet" U19 national title by open water.
"The plan today was to up the pressure," said Harrison after the race. Harrison had paced his earlier racing at Nationals conservatively, since he would be racing Nationals back-to-back with U23 trials the following week.
"Throughout the week, I was just trying to roll with the races. I had to make finals in a way so that I wouldn't be destroyed for the next few days, for trials. Today, the goal was to start off the line fast, build up a bubble in front of people, and once I had that bubble, just maintain an easy smooth pace to stay in front, a really simple race plan."
"When COVID hit, and when we figured out the entire summer was going to be cancelled, the goal at that point shifted to this regatta. The goal changed from nationals and worlds last year to nationals and worlds this year. That gave me another year to prepare and get ready, and that's helped. I don't know what last year might've looked like, but this year so far is looking great."
Harrison probably spoke for many athletes when he described his training experience over the past year. "The erg became my best friend and worst enemy. There was a lot of erging in that time, any chance I had to get on the water in the single. It was really great to get back to racing, this is the first big race we've had since then."
Oak Neck's Ella Barry won the Youth Women's Single by almost 10 seconds, and credited her environment with allowing her to prepare for her racing here.
"I have the best coach, Amadeusz," said Barry. "Even during quarantine he kept us on track, he held zoom every single day for two hours, he would sit there, give us our workout, and watch us row. It was a little hard to motivate, but it was great having the team on that zoom, and then the first opportunity he got us out on the water rowing in our singles, and just kept it going through the summer, so I've never really stopped rowing."
Barry said that the uncertainty during the past year didn't affect her goals at all. "Winning Nationals was the goal, that's what I had in mind, shooting for one outcome."
Like Harrison, Barry will also race in the U23 Trials.
The quads provided some of the biggest drama of the entire regatta, with Marin taking their first-ever win in the Youth Men's Quad by .007 (yes, that's seven one-thousands of a second) ahead of Malvern Prep. Marin was in the lead late in the race, then seemed to catch a good-size digger with about 300 meters left to go, only to regroup and hang on for the win by the smallest of margins.
More than one coach in attendance expressed the thought that, just maybe, measuring margins down to the 1/1000s in junior rowing was doing the kids a disservice. Or, as one observer put it, "that result really does make the case for ties in rowing."
The Marin crew was stroked by Keith Ryan, whose mom Missy (Schwen) Ryan won two Olympic medals in the women's pair for the US in 1996 and 2000. How great would it be to get tips on the middle 1000m from your mom?
Y-Quad Cities have been a force in the Women's Youth sculling events for years, and this year they notched their first two-fer, finishing first and second in the Women's Youth Quad event ("Quad Cities" indeed, wow).
"This was the first time in our history that we've had a completely new group of kids in our top boat," said Y-Quad Cities head coach Pete Sharis. "We've always had one or two returning athletes in our girls group."
Sharis was also excited to have his second quad in the mix for the first time. "We've never had a second quad in because our Midwest region only allows one quad, so the open entry gave us that option. Honestly, our coaches didn't expect [to finish 1-2], but the girls believed, they just kept getting faster and faster, and having the 'A' boat to go against in practice raised up their level."
Sharis said that his team wasn't immune to the events of the past year by any stretch. "It's certainly been a challenge, our kids went 18 months between major regattas," he said. "Since we're a sculling only program, maybe we were able to handle it better than some other programs, because we basically had our whole team in singles the entire year."
Sweep Events
Huge races in the eights highlighted the sweep events, with Philadelphia's St. Joe's Prep capping an undefeated season on the boys side, and Greenwich capturing the girls title.
"It's a feeling you can't really describe," said St. Joe's stroke Chris Weiss. "When we crossed the finish line at the Stotesbury, we knew we had something special. We've had something special all year, but this feeling is unmatched."
"This was a fantastic win, but we didn't win it just today, we've been doing this work for the past 18 months since we got shut down," added teammate Pat O'Connell. "I'm just proud that the boys came out to do that work all that time and execute today to earn that victory."
For Prep coach John Fife, this win had been in the works for a long time. "It's incredible. I knew this was a special group four years ago. There are six seniors and two sophomores, but they are really mature. In the semifinal where everyone was gunning for us, they rowed the most mature race I have seen from a junior crew in a long time."
"Two years ago, when we lost to Shiplake at Henley, this group really invested, we were invested in being the best. The pandemic only made them stronger. They trained really hard right through, nothing got in their way. To see it all come to an undefeated year here is incredible."
Their counterparts on the girls side, Greenwich, had similar sentiments.
"Ever since they cancelled Nationals two years ago, a picture of Nathan Benderson has been the lock screen on my phone," said Meredith Blanchard. "Our team, we had a very interesting schedule this winter, just to be safe during the pandemic, erging in the dark, at night, literally and figuratively a dark time, but we came out of it really ready to attack racing."
"We don't take any strokes for granted any more, especially when we realized that rowing could be cancelled at the drop of a virus."
"None of us had any idea that this would happen, or what it would look like, and we were so lucky today that we got to race so many other great teams, I have so much respect for them," added teammate Caroline Schmitz.
Greenwich Girls coach Heidi Hunsberger credited the team environment for their performance this week.
"The girls did an amazing job. They took great care of themselves this week, and they had great races at the right time. All of the competition was really tight, and we feel very grateful to come away with the win."
"When we first shut down, the kids rallied together, but they did a really good job even though they had to be in pods. They did a good job of maintaining a team. We were eager to schedule races with our competitors, and they were eager back, so that helped a lot too."
For Hunsberger, the greatest gains came during the team's bleakest moments. "Honestly, it was the winter. We trained outside in a parking lot all winter, and it was like 20 degrees, and they really built themselves over the winter. They got a really good base of work, even if it was finishing outside at 8 o'clock at night, they did a really good job of coming and getting the work done, focusing on rowing. They were proud to row together. We focus a lot on depth on the boys and girls side, we want to be the fastest boathouse in the country."
Greenwich captured titles in four events at the regatta, both on the boys and girls sides, and Greenwich boys coach Cary Wasserman attributed the team's overall success to their whole-team approach.
"We've got a great group of kids, they're super resilient and they work incredibly hard, and they are all great people, and we're incredibly proud of them. Losing 2020 was incredibly hurtful for the athletes, especially the 2020 grads, the coaches, the parents, everybody. We named a new eight after our class of 2020, and the U17 Boys won a gold medal in that yesterday in honor of them. The Seniors have worked extra hard this year to overcome the loss of the entire year, and I think that some of the grueling late night workouts has given them a little extra pizzaz to want to show a really good body of work throughout the season culminating here."
Fastest Nationals Ever?
More than one coach remarked that the regatta was not only bigger, but that it was a much faster event than it has been in years past.
"The level of competition is higher than it's ever been, and more consistent," said Sarasota head coach Casey Galvanek. "I would say, given the conditions, especially with COVID. I see a bunch of teams here that I've never seen here in sculling events, competing with and beating the teams you historically see."
"In almost every boat class I have seen better racing and more parity than ever. I think this is probably the best nationals that I've been to, the most competitive and balanced."
"I think quality of athlete, and quality of training, whether that is time in small boats, because we couldn't be in big boats, certainly impressed me," added Connecticut Boat Club's Liz Trond. "There are no unfit athletes here."
Y-Quad Cities' Sharis saw the regatta as a culmination of heightened training, creativity, and simple pent-up desire. "I think it's definitely a combination of all of the above. For each program it's probably a different combination of those things."
For a lot of coaches, the creativity that they and their colleagues brought to training in the past year seemed to be paying dividends. "I would say creativity made a difference, for sure," said CBC's Trond. "Whether it's land workouts, running more, better base fitness, better communication between coaches and athletes, or athlete to athlete, you really had to communicate. For us, it was certainly small boat training."
"Now that everyone has bought those singles, they're going to utilize them," said Galvanek. "It's been a very positive year for the youth, more skilled rowing, athletes are more comfortable in boats they maybe have not been out in before, and you see the results. I think it will stick, people are starting to see the improvements, I think people will start to think, 'how can we tie these changes into our program.'"
How USRowing Made It Happen
"It's a huge regatta," said USRowing events manager James Rawson. "From the get-go, we went in not knowing if it was going to happen, even as late as the end of March. We got a lot of input from coaches, from referees, from the LOC here in Sarasota, trying to put something together as quickly as possible. It is our biggest nationals ever. It's not the normal way we've done it, not using qualifiers, and having everyone and anyone participate."
"We asked, how big is this thing going to be? What are the COVID protocols going to be? A lot of new layers that we normally don't have to deal with."
"It was great," said Connecticut's Liz Trond. "I had a few reservations along the way of a regatta this size, but as things started to improve, certainly in Connecticut but also across the country, from the minute we set foot here it didn't seem like it was too big, we always felt like it was safe."
For Rawson and USRowing, it remains to be seen if this is a repeatable event. "We are looking if there's potential for growth in the future, but also learn and see what our maximum capacities are. It's too early to see what we might change, but our plan is to go back and ask people, 'what did you like, what did you not like,' and figure out where this will go in the future."
Notes from the course:
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