thanks to Chris Swartz and UA Crew for contributing to this article
On Saturday, October 29, 2011, Upper Arlington Crew hosted the second annual Blake Haxton Fall Invitational Regatta. The Haxton Regatta honors the contributions of a very special young man, Blake Haxton, who contracted Necrotizing Faciitis during his senior year in high school and lost both legs to the disease. Held on the last Saturday in October, it brings many of the most competitive high school and juniors programs in the Midwest together in a unique head racing format.
The event features a 5K buoyed course with a "Henley-style" start, in which crews race the clock in pairings from an aligned start. According to Upper Arlington Head Coach Chris Swartz, this "Henley head race" creates some exciting fixtures. Swartz remembers one fours race that went "stroke for stroke for 5400 meters with [one] boat winning by less than half a second" during the first Haxton, in 2010.
This year's event saw the Cincinnati Juniors sweep the varsity fours and nearly every varsity eights race: CJRC won all three men's varsity eights and the Women's 1st Varsity 8 event, in addition to wins in all four V4 events for both men and women. New Trier broke through in the Women's 2nd Varsity race, and both women's novice eights races, while Westerville topped the 3rd Varsity Eight field on the women's side. St. Louis was the only other program to pick up a win in the eights, taking the Men's 1st Novice 8 race by just 1.1 seconds over a crew from New Trier.
The event honors Blake Haxton, who was a rower on the UA Crew team who lost his legs, and nearly his life, to rare flesh-eating bacteria in 2009, during the spring of his senior year. Throughout his battle, he endured 20 surgeries, rigorous physical therapy and is currently practicing with prosthetics and believes he may be walking again as early as next spring. Blake, who was recently profiled by 10TV News, is a busy junior at The Ohio State University studying finance and economics who now coaches with UA Crew.
Proceeds from the regatta go toward the Haxton Scholarship Fund, the team's financial assistance program which helps those families that might not be able to otherwise afford to join the team and row.
"I am so excited to see all of the proceeds of this year's regatta going toward the Haxton Scholarship Fund," says Haxton. "Being a coach I am reminded everyday of what being a UA rower meant to me and of how much the sport has given me. I am thrilled to know, that thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and supporters, more students will have the opportunity to experience the sport that I love so much."