May means medals, and hardware was on the menu pretty much everywhere row2k went this weekend, even with the true blitz of championships still on the horizon.

Let the Recapping commence, and nothing sums up this time of year better than, you guessed it:

Coxswain Tosses

When the kids who have been racing past the finish line dock Flick after Flick all spring long finally get a chance to stop and do some celebrating, the coxswain tosses get pretty epic, as we saw with the LaSalle guys:

Mount St Joe's got a few good throws in, too--like this one--during their many medal dock stop during Cities, and we can't wait to see some more coxies go airborne in the weeks ahead.

Heavy Lifts

We also saw lots of trophy hoisting--and while maybe no one was more excited than the Whitman Women's Varsity coxswain we featured on the home page earlier this week--we have to give some props to the Holy Cross JV cox for lifting this behemoth for the camera:

Medal Dock Hearts

Maybe thanks to the 'hearting' that the Rutgers women did on the medal dock in last week's Recap, it looks like 'hearts' have become a thing, both on the start line as featured above, and when folks get their hardware:

That right, flexing is not just for the guys:

And when you win the Varsity Four for the first time in nearly a decade, like this Walter Johnson four did, it is kind of a big deal...and, of course, we saw plenty of flexes from guys crews all weekend, too, including this one from the BCC JV Men's eight.

Start Line Life

You see a lot of shenanigans when you are shooting from the start line, but this week included a bow seat who blew a kiss to her stakeboating mom:

and a heaps of posing, pointing, thumbs-up-ing, and bicep displays:

Plus, we did find that one guy who didn't realize his uni was on backwards until he tried to pull it up at the start line...whoops.

Which brings us to the fact that it was not all smooth sailing this week--is it ever?

Quad Chaos at Cities

They survived, as you can see a few photos later and, to be honest, we are not sure how they got into trouble, because they looked okay here, just before everything went sideways for a second, but things happen--as we all know, rowing is not as easy as the kids make it look.

And Lost Oars at Natoma

You can see the whole race-stopping sequence, which included turning around and retrieving the oar from the ref launch, starting here.

How 'Bout Them Twins?

Turns out, there are twins all over, from:

Twins We Missed Last Week

UCLA's Max and Nick Ryan, hiding in the middle of the Bruin 1V at WIRAs a week ago:

To Twins Who Medaled

The Twins in the Madison Crew 3V, who started all this Twin watching a few row2k Recaps ago, earned themselves some silvers in the 7 and 4 seats on Day 1 of the Virginia State Rowing Championships:

To, Well, Even More Twins

And these guys, in the Montclair Lightweight Four, are just the identical set on the team--coach tells us there are three sets altogether on the roster.

A Pretty Good Boatman Prank

Who says boatmen don't have a sense of humor?

Doug's photo after upon discovery

Steve's photo at the time of the crime

Yep, that's a Princeton sticker on the USC trailer. Unfortunately it took an axle repair in Ohio (on which he was assisted by Ohio St boatman Joe Pipia) before Doug noticed the sticker, which was tagged by Princeton boatman Steve Hubjer when the USC trailer was in Princeton for the Ivy Invite. One comment by a reader on their FB exchange: "This warms my heart. One big family."

Two Seat Earned a Hat

Coach Steedman gave this 2 seat his hat on medal dock for a job well done:

You can see the before, coach-with-hat, and after, coach-without-hat, photos here and here.

Clearly 'Good With It'

The chuckwagon scene maybe fully over-the-top these days at the high school races, but these two seem okay with it:

Shoulder Ink of the Week

This was the the NCS 2nd Varsity 8 who, spoiler alert, did empty the tank and won at WMIRA.

We saw plenty of ink again this week--to include a few coxswains who had written start times and lane assignments on their arm, like this guy from Battlefield High and one of the Titan Crew coxswains from Alexandria City HS--and we do have to give an honorable mention to the woman from McLean with the need for speed who had "Kachow" on her shoulder.

We Gotta Ask...

Does this Los Gatos quad require 1.21 gigawatts of power to operate? And what happens if they hit 88 mph?

Either way, a pretty good boat name--we will have to add it to the list the next time we do another Best Boat Names photo gallery... and maybe this guy, and his free-speed goggles, should have been in that boat:

Graduation Is Definitely Nigh

Which also means--row2k PSA!--that Mother's Day is almost here, too...DO NOT FORGET.

And, lastly, here it is:

The Picture We Wished We'd Gotten

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jackson-Reed Crew (@jacksonreedcrew)

All we got was the flag, walking away...maybe next time!