The day is winding down and I thought it appropriate to finish off with an entry about an incredibly special day. I woke up this morning and went downstairs to the hotel lobby and saw a small group of the rowers from the first varsity eight. They were incredibly alert, relaxed, and having a good time with each other - and that feeling continued all the way to the race course.
Watching the petite final where our 2V finished a hard-earned 3rd place, narrowly being beaten out by St.Lawrence's varsity, I fully expected that the crew would have to race neck and neck all the way down the course in the grand final. What played out was dramatically different as our varsity eight produced their best first 500m of the season and gained a full length on the field by the 750m mark and holding off the field to win the gold by just over 3 seconds.
After the incredibly tight and exciting racing of the New Englands and ECACs the victory in that race was undeniably special but even more so because of the joy that the 2V athletes and all of the parents and friends felt watching that performance. The members of the varsity eight are coxswain Stephanie Apstein, stroke Natalie Jones, seven Carmel Zahran, six Loren Massimino, five Ashley Swiggett, four Deede Dixon, three Ali Schmidt, two Amory Minot, and bow Ellie Wierzbowski. The members of the second eight are coxswain Courteney Coyne, stroke Ali Berluti, seven Amanda Kulik, six Mina Aiken, five Nini Case, four Alex Purdie, three Jamie Callahan, two Sarah Keller, and bow Nadia Zahran. Our spares were Emily Gittleman, Chloe Aronson, and Hannah Smith - all of whom are expected to do great things in the future!
Huge congratulations to all of the competitors at the NCAAs and especially to those Division III competitors who face more challenges in training than many in the rowing world understand. Well rowed and I hope we'll get a chance to do it again next year.
Next up: HENLEY! We depart on the 13th for Henley-on-Thames to continue what has already been a magical season. More details and thoughts to come...and oh yes, the Zinfandel Grill in Folsom was fantastic - many thanks to our parent group for their generosity and support (that never really does justice to what your support actually does to help your daughters and their collegiate rowing experience).
