The New Trier boys and Winter Park girls won the final two events of the two day SRAA Championships over the weekend of May 27th. Held in Oak Ridge this year, the Scholastic Championships crowned 28 winners, and you can catch up on the full tally of winners and medalists on the results page and in the medals gallery.
row2k spoke up with the coaches of the victorious Varsity Eights on how each crew came together and about the next event on each crew's schedule: Winter Park will head back to Henley, where last year they became the first US crew to make the final of the event for youth women’s eights, while New Trier is off to Youth Nationals this week to race against the top clubs and the Stotesbury winner, St Joe’s Prep.
Winter Park Girls Make it Two in a Row
Winter Park won with a mix of experience and the moxie that comes from nearly two full seasons of winning. Apart from the final on the Henley Sunday last year, where they lost a close contest to the top Australian girls crew, Coach Mike Vertullo’s varsity has had their bow in front, to include comfortable wins in both the heat and semi at SRAAs.
This was Winter Park's second SRAA win in a row in the Varsity eight; while these are just the first two times the school has won the event, the only history that matters in the moment is recent history.
"We have five girls in the crew who were in the eight last year," said Vertullo. "And one was from the light eight that won SRAAs last year, and then three came out of the freshman eight, including the coxswain.
"Going in, I knew we were putting up better splits that last year, so I felt pretty comfortable with their abilities. They struggled a little bit in the heat, and also in the semi but they finally put one together in the final."
He agreed that it was a pretty complete race by the crew:
"They got off to a great start and we've had really good base speed all year. So they just kept it at 36-37 all the way."
The chance to race a national field, and win again, is good preparation for the crews ultimate goal, racing their way back through the Henley draw as far as they can this year.
"Being down here in Florida, we don't really get to see anybody," noted Vertullo, "and we didn't really have any crossover whatsoever this year. We just go out each day and try to hit or hit the splits we're looking for.
"They've been doing that, so we feel pretty good going into Henley. Obviously this year could be much deeper with that the [US] clubs that are going over. I saw Headington won their their nationals this weekend over in England, so they're back on top, and I've been hearing good things from Melbourne, over in Australia. So a much deeper field this year."
Behind Winter Park this year, New Trier took the SRAA silver and Whitman won a welcome bronze over the three Stotesbury medalists--Mt St Joe's, Holy Spirit, and Jackson-Reed--who finished in that same order at SRAAs. Whitman had missed the final at Stotes by less than two-tenths of a second before coming back in Oak Ridge to make the podium.
Winter Park's Second Eight also won, with New Trier second in that final as well. Mt St Joe's rounded out the medals in the Girl's Second Eight.
New Trier Boys Return to the Top Spot
New Trier claimed the gold in the Boys Varsity Eight for the first time since 2016. They came in as the Midwest Scholastic Champs this year, and finished the job in the final by outpacing Belen Jesuit, in second, and Loyola Academy in third. Stotes medalists Gonzaga and La Salle took fourth and fifth, with St. Ignatius Cleveland in 6th.
"Over the winter, we knew we were strong," said head coach Nathaniel Kelp-Lenane. "We just had incredible erg depth. They could row a 2k like nobody's business. But we've had that in the past and it never panned out on the water.
"This year, we went to Saratoga Invitational at the end of April, and we were able to almost beat Greenwich in a 1500 meter race. We were about half a length down. Then over the 2000 meters, we were able to tag them and we were just a couple seconds off of RowAmerica Rye at that time.
"We felt that was pretty good, considering that we've only been on the water a couple months. So I knew they're were fast at that point."
New Trier's second eight won as well, over Gonzaga and McCallie, with Bethesda Chevy-Chase just two-tenth of a second out of the medals.
"To see both the V8 and 2V8 find a great piece on the course amongst really fast and competitive crews was really fun to watch," said Kelp-Lenane. "Each crew was confident in their speed and trusted each other to push in that middle 500m to find the lead in a tight field.
"I am so proud of these boys achieving a goal that we knew was within our reach. I look forward to bringing these crews to Youth Nationals."
Youth Nationals starts in Sarasota on Thursday, June 8th, with finals scheduled for Sunday the 11th.
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