Just in time for the boys of Green Lake Crew, a junior rowing club in Seattle area coached by Ed Maxwell, to start the post-lunch racing, the sun and the wind arrived on the course, one welcome, the other not. While the wind was a peril to any lightweight crews facing larger opponents (more on that later), the sun removed the dullish cast on the day.
The Green Lake boat rowed against Lady Rohesia Boat Club, an entirely unknown crew. Their coxswain, 16-year old Phoebe Marks-Nicholes had coxed here before as a 14-year old for Green Lake but they were eliminated in the first round. She had some experience with the water and racing conditions, but let's face it...she is young. Their win today established them a genuine Henley racers, despite the fact their opponents in the Thames could be as old as their parents, with racing and training experience as long as Green Lake crews' time on earth.
The crew had a fairly average year in the Northwest region, but had committed to row at Henley in September; they were already scheduled to travel before their May regional championships.
"I compare this to French class going to Paris for a trip," says Maxwell, coach of the crew. "It is less about speed and more about the experience," he explains. As a result of that no-stress approach, the Green Lake squad have risen to the occasion and improved with every row. Maxwell feels it is unlikely such a young crew will win in the Thames Challenge, but they are maximizing their time here, training at Shiplake, racing at Reading, and preparing at Henley.
This is the first time a Green Lake crew has made it to race on Friday, so the crew is very excited. "We were fired up at the start [vs. Lady Rohesia], we wanted to do well..." Stroke Mac Curley explains about starting against an unknown crew. "We try to react when the crew puts in a push…and lead boats as much as we can," he says; but adds, "it is nothing like at home."
"We really had to push in the beginning..." say Matt Medalia, 5-seat, but trails off because they were able to key off the other crew and stay ahead at their chosen pace, still a couple beats lower than their opposition to win by a length and a half. Medalia is heading of to row at University of Washington in the fall. Looking forward to more racing tomorrow.
The Trinity Hartford entry lost in the their round Temple, but a graduate, John Graves, made it through his round of the Diamonds Challenge Cup earlier in the day.
One of Harvard's entries in the Visitors Cup contains four athletes from this season's varsity heavyweight eight. Stroke Andy Holmes and 3-seat Charlie Risbey were the stern pair of the crew this spring with Josh Hicks and team captain, James O'Connor behind them. Bill Manning, who watches the crews near the Upper Thames Rowing Club, says they will really start racing tomorrow. Today they took an immediate lead and were able to row as they wished, working out the course and getting together as a four, as this was the first time they had raced their line-up.
Andy Holmes, who is Scottish, is lucky to have his family watch him race here. They are rarely able to watch him during Harvard's regular season. Holmes had raced in the Ladies Plate last year. Risbey, from Melbourne, Australia, raced in the Temple last year. Their opposition, University College, Dublin, pressed them in the beginning, but Harvard was able to row through them and take command of the race and win by two and a half lengths.
"Our opposition is unknown to us, but it is important to approach every race as if it will be all out," says Holmes. When asked how it is to continue rowing into the summer, he explains, "Every chance we get to race as Harvard (as opposed to U23, or club) is very special experience."
California Rowing Club raced just after Harvard in a match of the Prince of Wales Challenge for quads against local favorite Leander Club. They had a powerful start and had the lead from the beginning, although they were warned for steering a few times. Matt Brown, John Madura, Alan Kush and Ricky Holak are in the top 8 at the "Project 4x" Camp held at CRC earlier in the year. The top quad won the trials and went to Worlds, this second quad went to trials Holland Becker, then here. Although they are not certain of their plans for the quadrennial preparing for the next Olympics (Madura joked that he is stopping rowing tomorrow, thankfully he was kidding because he looked good on the water today. He is also a PhD student so he is pretty busy...)
Mercyhurst College's entry in the Visitor's Challenge lost against Taurus and Star Club composite boat, row2k will catch up with them tomorrow.
Merrimack Rowing Club is a small club traditionally a fitness/recreational sculling center in the UMass Lowell boathouse. In the last three years, however, a few recent graduates from rowing programs got together and have been very successful in Club Nationals, winning gold in the straight 4 and bronze in the coxed four, says diminutive coxswain Sarah Ivey. (I noticed that the 96-lb Ivey had to carry a heavy bag of sand with her).
In today's race of the Britannia Challenge Cup, Tim Cotreau, John Dwyer, Rich Connell, and Mike Poreba (with Ivey coxing) against City of Bristol Rowing Club, Merrimac took a deciding lead and were able to row on to win "easily" by more than 5 lengths.
One of the most exciting races at any Henley is a close PE race. This later afternoon on the Thames, Boston College High School had one of the races against Kings College School. Although they led from the start (they did have a couple wobbles just at the start) they got a one-length lead on the Wimbledon crew early. At about a mile, Kings College School came within a half-length, but lost ratio and stability, only to give it back up to BCHS, but kept pressing into the American crew. As the crews past the enclosures, Boston College pulled it together and moved away, winning with by 3/4's a length, and celebrating that victory. They face Scotch College School tomorrow, who will test them for all they are worth.
As racing closed today, Union Boat Club entry in the Britannia Challenge raced against Belfast Boat Club. Belfast took an early lead on the race, but by the barrier, they were only ahead by a canvas. At the next marker, Union Boat Club had taken the lead, and never really lost control of the race. They won by three lengths. We will catch up with the crew and Coach Henry Palmer tomorrow.
More from John Graves tomorrow--row2k spoke to him late in the day.
A few notes:
*In the race report from an early afternoon race, the weather was described as "glorious" which is a far cry better than "dull" as it was described yesterday
*There is a rower in the Silver Goblets race for pairs whose name is "I.Say" in the program, which although is not pronounced as it is spelled, I say...
*Today was a much better day for US Crews, with eleven wins and four losses.
*Mitsubishi Rowing Club, Japan continues to be the most-warned boat for steering.
More from Friday racing! Happy Independence Day! We have fireworks here Saturday, but I am pretty sure they are not for America's independence.
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