Through security and about ready to board our flight to San Diego with two eights of athletes ready to race it up for the first time in 2010. The selection process was long and I thought the group handled the pressure well...and while we've been able to get a fair amount of water time the conditions on the river have made gauging speed challenging. We've tried to give the athletes a nice mix of consistency and variety and the mechanics of the stroke have been steadily improving. The varsity will be racing in the Women's Varsity Cal Cup and they are in heat 3 at 8:20 AM on Saturday morning while the second varsity will be racing in the Open 8+ event and will be in heat 1 at 1:30 PM in the afternoon.
It's particularly exciting because the team has a great mix of youth and experience. Six of the nine current varsity eight athletes have been to the NCAAs on multiple occasions while seven of the nine second varsity eight athletes have raced or been spares at the NCAAs. And from a youth standpoint we will have two seniors coxswains and three senior rowers in between the two hulls...
More to come from Baltimore and hopefully I'll be able to upload pictures from my Blackberry.
