Juniors dominated the proceedings by a longshot at the USRowing Atlantic City Indoor Rowing Championships on Saturday, with Brooke Seebeck of Oak Neck Rowing winning the Women's U19 event, and Harry Halper, a local from neighboring Brigantine, winning the Men's U19 event rowing for Lawrenceville Academy.
But it was a trifecta by Katherine Feret of TriStar Rowing that grabbed the headlines as Feret a) won the 15 and under event while posting b) a new 12-and-under World Record, and then won the Kids 500 meter event.
Feret beat her goal on the day to pull it off.
"My goal was to beat 7:25," Feret said. As for her next goals, she was looking to top her own performance. "I want to break more world records."
On Sunday, Andrew Benko set a new World Record in the Men's 55-59 category, which he adds to his WR in the 50-54 category.
"I have the 50-54 record, so I've been targeting this one for the past couple of years as I'm getting a little bit older," Benko said. "I knew what pace I had to hold and knew if I stayed around that, a little bit high, I could kick it in towards the end and manage to get it. Pretty straight forward strategy.
On Saturday, Halper's piece seems to have found him very much in 'the zone,' as he described it as 'surreal experience,' not something that comes to mind for everyone when talking about an erg piece.
"I felt really confident going into it, and for the first 1100 meters, it just felt like a very surreal experience," said Halper, who will be going to Columbia University. "I don't know how to explain it, I didn't really feel anything; I was just looking at my monitor, and I felt really constant with my splits. Then at about 900 meters to go, I started to feel it, and I was just going for it."
Halper rowed in the midst of teammates and family, which he said helped him through.
"It was awesome. Having my friend Charlie (Vachris, who placed third) right next to me and my father right behind me cheering me on. It was an awesome experience."
Halper was happy to have had a good showing close to home.
"I row here in the summer, and since I go to boarding school I'm not with everyone I grew up with, so it was great to come back and represent Lawrenceville in my hometown (and see) all my friends from middle school."
Halper took inspiration from being on the spot at a big event as well as seeing himself in the lead up on the video board.
"Everyone's into it, and everyone's focused, just wanting to do the best they possibly can," he said. "And I feel like there's no turning back. Once you're here, you're fully committed. It lifts your performance a little. And then seeing the names of the guys who placed near me underneath mine (on the video board), it was very motivating; it was really awesome."
Brooke Seebeck got over some initial nerves precipitated by a 'no music' rule, but quickly found a pace that put her in a position to pull into the lead in the last couple minutes of the race.
"I was a little nervous in the beginning when they said we couldn't use any music," Seebeck admitted. "So I started off very nervous, but I wanted to settle after 100 meters or so, because something I struggled with on my workouts was going out too fast and then dying off. That was really my only strategy going, to keep it consistent, and then sprint."
The draw put Seebeck right next to second-place finisher Courtney French from Twin Cities, and a couple ergs away from third-place finisher Taya Anderson from Holy Spirit, and she shadowed them for most of the piece, staying within 10 meters or so of their lead.
"I wanted to stay as close to them as I could; if I were to see they were something like 20 meters ahead, I would have brought it down, but I was comfortable within the 10-13 meter range."
With a couple minutes to go, Seebeck made her move.
"Around the 600 meter mark, when I saw that I was gaining on her I thought well, I have gas left in the tank, which hasn't happened to me recently. So I just wanted to go for it; and if I was going too hard, I would just settle a little bit.
Seebeck also took inspiration from the racing surroundings, especially after competing against others remotely in recent years.
"The in person setting really helped me today," she said. "Last year we were on computers, so that made it really difficult. I kinda like scoping out the competition before, letting myself get familiar with everyone to keep from getting too nervous. It really helps me to see who I was actually racing."
Darling Does the Triathlon
Tom Darling took a ride on almost as many kinds of machines as the valet parkers over at the Trop, competing in the triathlon that includes the Ski Erg, the rowing (real?) erg, and the Bike Erg.
Darling sees the combo event, which is is 500 meters on the Ski Erg, 500 meters on the rowing machine, and 1000 meters on the Bike Erg, as a way to bring athletes from other disciplines into the rowing sphere.
"I just about coughed my lung out, but I really like the idea of bringing in people who cross country ski and cycle to rowing," he said. "This is the way to do it because they might find 'Hey, I'm pretty good at the erg,' and they'll start rowing. So I wanted to be in the event to help promote it."
Darling also likes the idea of using the Ski Erg in the offseason as a cross-training tool for rowers.
"It's the opposite motion of rowing, and our sport suffers from overuse syndrome, so if you do the ski erg in the offseason, you're going to help decrease the amount of injuries in the season. I think it's a great machine."
On the order of the events, Darling lets slip that the rowing erg is still the machine to beat.
"I think the order is good; the rowing machine is obviously the hardest because it's full body, although with the Ski Erg motion rowers aren't tremendously used to it - but it's cardiovascular, your heart is the muscle you are working, so if your heart's in good shape, you should do pretty well on the Ski Erg. I think it's great; it would be great to have Ski Ergs, having rowing machines, and have bikes, and have everybody do it - and somebody who rows might find out they're really good at the Ski Erg."
The setup on the machines is interesting; the three monitors (ski, erg, bike) are connected, so you have a running time, and can't start the next leg until you hit zero on the previous one - so there is no trying to let the previous machine run out while you jump to the next one; you need to finish decisively.
Notes from the Erg Floor
See replays of the racing here.
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