Finals Set for Tomorrow

We're waiting for the start of the Division III spare pair race this afternoon at 4:30 PM with Chloe Aronson and Hannah Smith looking to race in the first final of the championships for Trinity. It should be great to watch.

The results from this morning's racing were very exciting with our 2nd eight racing to a very tight 4th place in the heat to winners Williams I, St. Lawrence, and Coast Guard. They then raced in the petite qualifier where they won handily and now have a place in the petite final. It was really inspiring racing from a group of rowers who have come to trust one another implicitly and I'll be really eager to see what they can accomplish in the petite final.

The first eight won their heat by open water over Ithaca and William Smith to advance directly to the grand final where they will race Williams I, University of Puget Sound, Ithaca, Coast Guard, and Williams II. It promises to be a very good race and one that I think the athletes will really remember!

As for the format of the Division III rowing championships I do think that we should be prepared to evolve as the sport grows regionally and nationally especially in comparison to the Division I racing that is at an incredibly high level. However, that is a discussion for another post and another time!

Heats Tomorrow

After a wonderful championship banquet at the Sacramento State University Union Building with some memorable moments from Dana King, we headed back to the hotel for an early night in preparation for the heats tomorrow morning. The preparation phase is over and now it's time to put forth our best performances.

More updates to come tomorrow as the racing begins at 8:45 AM Pacific Time.

Thursday Practice Complete

The team woke up a little bit earlier and went to the course to get further acclimated to the conditions and to continue stretching out after our travels. We were able to successfully bring the boats up to weight with some help from US Coast Guard Head Coach Steve Hargis (many thanks Steve!). The coach's meeting is in about 45 minutes followed by the coxswain's meeting.

Last night we enjoyed some delicious pasta catered by the Olive Garden and a birthday cake for junior Amory Minot. More and more parents are starting to arrive and I hope they'll have the opportunity to meet up with one another by our spectator shade tent (surprisingly that it was first come first serve, but we were able to put our Trinity flag up to claim a prime spot). Our administrators, Athletic Director Rick Hazelton and SWA Robin Sheppard also arrive this afternoon to help support the squad and attend the NCAA Championship Banquet.

The first heat will see our 2V race against Williams I, St.Lawrence I, Coast Guard I, and Ithaca II. The second heat will feature our 1V racing against Ithaca I, William Smith I, Puget Sound II, St.Lawrence II, and Bates II.
Heat winners advance to the grand final, second and third place finishers advance to the grand final qualifier, and the remaining finishers go to the petite final qualifiers on Friday afternoon.

In other sports news, major congratulations to Trinity's 1st NCAA Championship winners, the men's baseball squad that finished the season in dramatic fashion with a bottom of the ninth victory to complete one of the greatest season's in collegiate baseball history (45-1!!!). You can check out their story here http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=3414330

Boat Weights, Practice Rowing, and Upcoming Thursday

About ready to turn in after what seems like a pretty long but productive day. Registration and rerigging went off without a hitch and we weighed both the V1 Gold and V1 Black in...both will require some additional weight to get up to the boat minimum. A fun project for tomorrow in preparation for racing on Friday.

All three crews got out and explored the course between 2 and 3 trips and it was pretty fun to see the different focus points that each team is working upon. Whether it be the Virginia leg drive, Princeton lay back, Yale catches, or Tennessee separation it's fun to watch "different strokes working for different folks".

Schedule for tomorrow will be a quick row in the AM and then coaches and coxswains meeting midday followed by the Championship Banquet at 6:00 PM. Also great to catch up with some coaching colleagues and to hear about some of their challenges and successes. Good night to all.

Exploring the course and Registration

Just finished getting some parts and doing some supply shopping and Pam and I are headed to the course to do some exploring. The athletes are relaxing at the hotel and starting to really absorb the atmosphere of being at the national championships. We'll be heading for the course with them around 2:30 PM. More updates to come!

Long day - finally arrived

Phew - what a day of traveling - it's 4:26 AM eastern time and 1:26 AM Pacific time and we arrived at the hotel about 20 minutes ago. Everything went reasonably smoothly apart from a two hour delay in Hartford due to thunderstorms. I was impressed with how the team handled the long day and even more impressed with their personable nature and confident conversation skills with other passengers.

Relaxed day tomorrow - looking forward to exploring the area!

Sacramento Bound!

Sitting here in the Bradley International Airport food court it's kind of interesting to feel the expectations of the team. It promises to be a pretty long day of travel with a stopover in Nashville, TN and then a fairly long leg into Sacramento that arrives at 10:15 PM.

The progress and continued focus over the past two weeks of training have brought forth a number of technical changes that I personally can't wait to see in action. The fitness levels of the athletes, their attention to detail, and the team cohesion are fascinating to observe and compare to last year. It seems hard to believe that it was only a year ago that we were sitting in this same food court on the way to Oak Ridge, TN.

In other Trinity news, the men's baseball squad played in the first of two potential NCAA Championship baseball games this morning and lost their first game of the season 4-3 to put them to 44-1 on the season. They'll play another game for the championship in about 30 minutes that will decide the national champion. Their progress from last season to now has been unbelievable and shows what hard work, talent, and desire can do in the right combination.

Next post - California!

NCAA Training

Back on the blog after a couple of faithful readers have indicated that the blog is "terrible" and "not updated at all". Who am I to argue? It has been a whirlwind last three weeks with the New England Championships, ECAC National Invitational, and then senior week and graduation. It has been really wonderful to get down to training after so many weeks of consecutive races and it's fun to see the progress that the team is making.

The travel arrangements for the NCAA and Henley have all been finalized and now it's a question of making continual progress physically and technically as we move forward. Many thanks to the parents who have contributed to help all of the athletes make their way overseas.

This morning the varsity had a really encouraging row that exhibited some of the relaxation and ease of movement that had been lacking in the past four weeks. The second varsity should rebound with a sharper row this afternoon.