In the Youth Singles races, a healthy dose of home river advantage carried the day as two local scullers--Emma Kirk at bow #3 and Simeon John from way back at bow #38--came through to claim the titles in the Youth Singles.
The U17 medal in the women's race went to a Charles River sculler as well, CRI's Maria Prodan, who took third overall, racing both for her club and to represent her native county Ukraine, just as she did at U19 Worlds this past summer.
Canadian Myles Quintyn was the lone out-of-towner to claim an HOCR gold in the Youth Singles, winning the men's U17 title and taking fifth overall.
Youth Women's 1x - CBC's Emma Kirk
For her first HOCR win, Kirk had to row down last year's champ, Olivia Petri, who won the the whole race a year ago as a U17 athlete and started first at the head of the field.
Kirk said she could feel Petri's puddles by the time she was coming out of the Eliot turn, and that's when she knew she had gained enough distance to win. She credited the strength of her piece to attacking the first mile.
"You have to go out hard," said Kirk. "It is a 5k but you just have to just trust yourself in that first part, to Riverside. You just have to go for it, because if you don't go for it, you're not going to do it.
"That's just the most important thing. Don't be scared. I think about it as, make to Riverside. Now, make to the Powerhouse. Now, make it to Weeks. Now, make it to Anderson.
"Breaking it up and just going for it," she said, was the key to pacing the race just right, and that aggressiveness has become a hallmark of her sculling.
After the race, her dad, Andrew Kirk, a longtime CBC sculler, told a story about how she once passed him doing a piece with the junior squad while he was doing steady state. She looked over and shouted, "Walking!" as she went by. Afterwards, her coach, surprised by that she was yelling at a masters sculler on the river asked if she knew the guy. "Oh yeah," she said, that's my dad."
That racing instinct and her strategy to race as hard as she could to Riverside to open the race paid off as she closed on Petri coming past her home club supporters at CBC.
"Rowing in someone's puddles is annoying," Kirk admitted, "but feeling her right there I thought, you just have to push harder. You can feel her, so you can't give it up now."
Kirk's local knowledge also helped her execute the race.
"I'm just ready for every turn," Kirk said about what her day-in, day-out training on the Charles gives her as an edge. "Like Weeks, it's sharp and going into that bridge knowing that I'm going to have to take a really sharp turn, right now, is such an advantage.
"Not really having to worry about the course, because I know like the back of my hand is another thing. I can put more of that energy into my rate and my technique, just because I know it so well, and I know exactly what to expect. I know exactly what's going to happen next."
Youth Men's 1x - CRI's Simeon John
John, the youngest sculler on the podium at Youth Nationals last season, where he took bronze, started back at bow number 38 since he did not race the single at last year's HOCR. His mental map of the Charles helped him work through the field, and the second half of his race gave him the three seconds he needed to edge out Potomac Boat Club's Tony Madigan for the win.
It was also enough to set a new course record, besting Isiah Harrison's 2021 mark by seven seconds.
Afterwards, John admitted that he poured everything he had into the final turns.
"At Elliot Bridge, I started blacking out, and my vision went blurry."
"I just thought, I have to get around the turn," John said. "I was hitting my Youth Nationals A final splits for the last 1k and, by the end, I was just so dead. I was thinking of Tony [Madigan] and Peter [Strecansky] and all the great racers who were in that race. Shout out to them. They were great."
John knew he would have a high bow number since he would be coming into the Youth Single even this year after racing the coxed quad last year, so he made being ready to handle the wakes and passing part of his preparation.
"I got a lot of experience in the weeks leading up to this. I did some races where that I had bow number 15 to 20. In each of those races, my goal was just to pick off as many people as possible. So I got used to it. It was a new strategy, a new skill that I learned this fall, so by now [passing] was normal, and I felt comfortable doing it.
Like Kirk, John used his familiarity of the Charles to his advantage.
"Being local, you have the advantage of knowing the river well and practicing on it every day," John said. "If I talked to Emma, I bet she could blindfold herself and row the entire course.
"Rowing out of CBC and CRI and the local boat clubs it, you know the river so well, since you get to row on it every day. If you have to come in and you only have a week to practice for the race, it's hard to get used to it, if you're not from a very curvy course. It's very special being able to row on this river every day."
Being out on Charles daily, John has developed a reputation as a sculler who is always pulling hard, according to one local coach who has watched him grow up on the river, and that showed in the way he attached the final bend.
"I knew I had to go then, because my splits were not great up until CBC," he said. "I was holding back just a little bit because I didn't want to exhaust myself, but at CBC, I knew I had to go for it.
"I had passed seven boats by CBC, and I could only see the outline of the trees, I was so blacked out. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't steer, I didn't know where the buoys were, and at that point, I thought, I just need to go for it. The last 1k I was at sub 1:50 splits and, and it was just really fun. Then I crossed the finish line, and I thought, it's done. I've done it."
John also talked about the community of the scullers, and how well they know each other.
"I know Tony Madigan now, but I'll probably also know him when I'm eighty and we are still racing each other as masters," John said. "That's the great thing about this community in the single scull."
As things stand, John and Madigan will start at 1 and 2 a year from now, ready to write that next chapter, with just a bit less passing for John to worry about now that he is the Head Of The Charles in the Youth Men's Single.
Youth Women's U19 1x - CRI's Maria Prodan
Prodan, the third local to scoop up a Youth Single medal this year, took the top spot amongst the U17 women. She raced in both the colors of her club, CRI, and of her homeland, Ukraine.
"I was born there, and I support my country by winning," said Prodan, who trains in Boston and races internationally in the summer for Ukraine.
"I cannot be there now. I'm 15, and I cannot be going there. The way I can support them is to represent them at the Head of the Charles and the Worlds and make my country be proud of me and be proud of being Ukrainian."
She said the cheers she heard on the river supported her and Ukraine.
"They told me good job. 'Go Ukrainian girl.' 'Go Ukrainian Maria.'" she said. "It was so cool. I was just thought, thank you!"
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