New York State Championship Regatta

This past weekend, Marist Crew raced at the New York State Championships. Once again, our team was excited to race here because the regatta had been cancelled in 2011. We had heard that William Smith was fast this year and after our photo finish at MAACs, we were hungry for another good race. 

Our heat was the second race on Saturday morning, with fourth and sixth seeded St. Lawrence and Ithaca. We had a pretty big bobble in the middle of our power twenty that threw us off for some strokes. At the 500m, we were battling for 3^rd and 4^th with St. Lawrence and RIT but our coxswain, Zoe, was ready to put some fire into us in order to make sure we finished in the top three and qualified for finals. By 750m, we had pulled away from RIT but were still trying to shake St. Lawrence, with Ithaca in first by a decent amount. By 1500 we had about half a boat length on SLU and worked to catch up with Ithaca in our sprint. We placed 2^nd but all agreed that we knew we could race better the next day.

Because of our second place finish, we were placed in lane 4, with William Smith, Ithaca, Hamilton and St. Lawrence respectively in 1,2,3 & 6. We knew that it would be a tight race between the six crews and that we would have to have a strong race to medal.  Our coach made us look at the picture from MAACs in order to get fired up to race before we launched and we were ready to go. Our start, which is normally our weakness, was one of the best we’ve had and we were right with everyone from the beginning instead of having to come from behind. By the 500m, William Smith had a strong lead and we had moved up on St. Lawrence, Ithaca and Hamilton. We had an incredible middle move and were flying for the rest of the race. Personally, I think it was not only the best race we’ve had as a boat, but also one of the best races I’ve had in my rowing career. I was so focused and just hammered on it the entire time and after the race, my boatmates agreed that they felt the same way. 

Silver medal!

The other boats on the men’s and women’s teams also placed very well. The Men’s V8 and V4 placed second and our freshmen men won gold. Another result that is fantastic is that both of our freshmen boats made the final. Our 1F got gold and our 2F got 4^th. Obviously, the 1F winning is fantastic, but the fact that the 2F for 4^th in a tough field shows just how strong the freshmen class is and how much everyone has improved since the beginning of the year. The 2F is currently composed of all walk ons. I think this is a fantastic sign for the future of the Marist program. 

Varsity 8+ with our medals

Next weekend we will split with the men’s team as they head to Worchester, MA for ECACs and we head to Philadelphia for Dad Vails. It’s scary to realize that this is my last college race ever but I am very excited to see what the team can do.

Marist Crew at Head of the Fish

Fall Race #2: Head of the Fish in Saratoga Springs, NY

Last weekend, our team traveled to Saratoga to race in Head of the Fish. It was our last weekend of fall racing and it was a big one. Our schedule had us at the Fish on Saturday and at the Fall Metro (a new race for our team on a 2k course in New Rochelle) on Sunday. Since all the varsity girls and some of the freshmen were racing multiple events each day, we went into it prepared for a lot of racing in a short amount of time.

Head of the Fish Course (courtesy of Saratoga Rowing Association)

We arrived in Saratoga around 8:30 am to windy and very cold conditions. For the women, the first races of the day were the varsity 8+s. The 1v8 raced the same line-up we had the previous weekend in our still unnamed new boat. The 2v8 raced a line-up they had never rowed before, composed of a senior, two juniors, a sophomore and four freshmen. 

1v8

 

Despite having a strong race in Delaware, our eight did not have a good race at the Fish. The Fish is a little bit shorter course than Delaware (3.7k vs. 4k) and it is a lot straighter. We were also racing in a field of 17 rather than 7. All of these factors meant that we needed to be aggressive right from the beginning and row at 32 spm to be competitive.  We ended up racing at 30 spm, which just wasn’t enough to hang with a stronger field. I think another contributing factor was the fragmented practice we had the Friday before the race.  I think that one of the reasons last spring’s 1v8 raced well (in the few races Mother Nature allowed us to have) is because we had been rowing together for a long time and we worked well with each other. I believe a team builds a certain kind of cohesion after going through years of training. I think our eight is still in the process of figuring each other out, as is expected with a transitioning team. As much as it was upsetting to have a disappointing race, I think it was a good learning experience. Now we know we have to work on keeping higher rates, and we have all of winter training to get stronger, tougher and become more of a team. I am very excited to see what we can do in the spring once we iron out the kinks.

2v8

The fours had much better races in a bigger field (28 boats). My four had the same lineup as Delaware but the 2v4 was composed of the stern 4 of the 1v8 and the 3v4 was composed of the upperclassmen from the 2v8. The 3^rd four had a good race, considering this was another line-up that had never practiced together. The 2v4 felt that they raced better than they had practiced, despite a broken cox box. My co-captain, Maggie, sat in bow seat and “coxed” the race. They placed 7^th, showing that they were not about to let adversity stop them from having a good race. 

My four had a great race. It was probably one of the best races I’ve had in my entire life. From the beginning, everything just seemed to go well. We built confidence early on by passing the boat in front of us and carried that mentality throughout the entire race. We kept the rate at 31 spm and just cranked on it the entire time. I was in flow state almost the entire time, which rarely happens to me in sweep races. I felt totally focused and in control. The only thing that made the race less than perfect was the last ten strokes. We got cut off going into the finish and our coxswain had to hit the rudder hard to avoid ramming them. But other than that it was a fabulous race and we placed 2^nd. 

Silver medals!

 Both freshmen 8+s did a great job too. They raced in their same line-ups from the previous weekend, something that I think contributed to their success. When I was a freshman, we didn’t have enough people to have a set lineup, which doesn’t allow the boat as a whole to learn from mistakes and get better together. These freshmen are also ambitious and competitive, whether they have rowing experience or not. The 1F placed first, snagging the coveted Fish Head trophy (yes, it’s a real fish) and the 2F placed 10^th, beating a bunch of first freshman crews. 

The actual Head of the Fish!

 We got on the bus to find out that Fall Metro had been canceled, due to the freak fall snowstorm. Although it was very disappointing to have yet ANOTHER race canceled (totaling half of our fall season and the fifth canceled race in 2011), I think we ended on a good note. Our eight race might not have been what we wanted, but we came back in the fours to end the day strong. The freshmen had another solid racing experience with great results.We got in a great day of racing before the snowstorm hit and then we got to go home and play in the eight inches of snow that fell while we were away. 

Post Race Snowsurfing

Marist’s coverage of the Head of the Fish can be found here.

Row2k results can be found here. 

Lineups 

1v8 cox: J Guzzardi 8: F. Siclovan 7. M. Kolb 6: T. Fillipini 5: M. Ladouceur 4: T. Mather 3: A. Carafas 2: J. DeLisle 1: K. Butta 2v8 cox: Z. Christopher 8: A. Devorak 7: S. Moriarty 6: K. Wilson 5: S. LaRose 4. M. Banks 3. E. Waskiewicz 2: M. Soprano 1: N. Washburn	1F8 cox: S. Cillo 8: A. Devorak 7: S. Moriarty 6: M. Romer 5: S. LaRose 4: K. Wilson 3: S. Blau 2: T. Mullaney 1: A. Khoury 2F8 cox: K. Perkins 8: B. Logue 7:  L. Hehir 6: K. Melendez 5: N. Culhane 4: K. Orzech 3: M. Perry 2: N. Washburn 1: K. Mahoney
1v4 cox: B. Rodriguez 4: T. Mather 3: A. Carafas 2: J. DeLisle 1: K. Butta	2v4 cox: Zoe Christopher 4: F. Siclovan 3: M. Ladouceur 2: T. Fillipini 1: M. Kolb	3v4 cox: J. Guzzardi 4: M. Banks 3: E. Waskiewicz 2: M. Soprano 1: N. Washburn