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Traveling to competitions usually finds our rowers heading north, south, or west, but this past weekend, they headed east to Strong Island Sprints.  Friday’s blizzard conditions moved the annual Long Island indoor regatta from Saturday to Sunday.  Our middle school, novice, and varsity rowers headed out to Melville, LI Sunday and showed up ready to win.

Varsity coach Mike Eichler had the following comments.

“Following the blizzard of 2013, Row New York had a blizzard of 2Ks, fast and furious at Strong Island Sprints. The varsity and novice squads brought eight rowers each and our middle school squad brought 20 athletes…We rolled from the office four vans deep making sure to drive slow with slick conditions, but that time was made up with some fast times by our rowers…”

Queens middle school coach Harlan Trevithick’s rowers racked up some of those fast times. She returned the following recap of her team’s performance.

“Gabrielle Francis took 1st place out of 24 with a time of 4:00.2 for the 1,000 meter sprint.  An advanced rower, Gabby has been in the Row New York middle school program for approximately a year and a half and proved on Sunday her ability to focus and push herself to new heights.  Congratulations, Gabby!

“In second and third place, respectively, were two beginner rowers, Ginevra Godwin and Karis Pringle. I am very pleased that two rowers who started the sport in our program this fall took advantage of the competitive atmosphere and performed so well!  Ginerva pulled a time of 4:06.3, placing 2nd out of 24, one spot ahead of Karis, who clocked in at 4:10.3.  The advanced rowers better watch out!

“Overall, Queens MS had 14 girls compete and every single rower PRed!”

Breanne Fitzsimmons, Queens novice coach, was also happy with her team’s results. She reported: “Gislaine Garcia pulled an 8:35.9 for total time, a full 40 seconds faster than her previous 2K personal record. Krystal Rendon pulled an 8:46.4, shaving 15 seconds off of her previous PR AND holding well below her average 500 meter split goal of 2:12. Nicole Grice pulled the fastest time for our Queens novices of the day and came in fourth out of 31 in her event with a time of 8:20.3. She also PRed a good 13 seconds faster than her previous time.

“Anthea Daley PRed with a total time of 8:48.6. Maria Altese came in 1st in her heat, and 7th out of 28 overall, in the novice competition with a total time of 8:30.4. Maria also pulled consistently eight seconds faster on her average split than her original goal when starting the piece.

“All of the Queens novice competitors placed in the top half of their events.”

Coach Mike added that his varsity squad is “now looking forward to CRASH-Bs, the World Indoor Rowing Championship, this coming weekend.”

Meanwhile in the Manhattan program, varsity coach Tom Eichler provided this report:

“The event was a great opportunity for the athletes to put the training they have been doing this winter to the test, and see how they stack up against other programs on the erg.

“On the varsity side, seven out of the nine competitors achieved their personal best time for the 2,000 meter erg, which is always the goal, no matter where the athletes placed in the event. Some notable finishes were Wes Gordon placing 4th out of 52 in the men’s freshman event and Philip Ryan placing 12th out of 54 in the men’s lightweight event.

“Those varsity members that did not compete at Strong Islands will compete this coming weekend at the CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston, MA, where they will race 2,000 meters on the erg against individuals from around the world.  After that, we will be moving towards getting back on the water with some cooperation from Mother Nature.

“For the novices and middle schoolers, the event was an opportunity for them to experience what the race day butterflies feel like, and to see how they have progressed since starting this past fall.  All of the participants made big strides, and represented Row New York in an impressive fashion.  For the novices, Julia Saltonstall and Kyle Lui had standout performances, placing 4th out of 28 and 3rd out of 31 in their respective events.  For the middle schoolers, it was Justin Imbert beating 11 competitors to take 1st place in his event, and Amayda Arroyo placing 5th out of 24 in her event. It was great work and a great learning experience for all.

“Job well done to all our rowers!”

Manhattan novice coach Kate Mullan also had good news, saying, “All my athletes did incredibly.  We were so proud of them all.  Most dropped a lot of time, as many as 30 seconds!  The excitement levels for spring rowing and racing has spiked and there is definitely a new sense of ambition and motivation after their first taste of competition.”

Brittany Aiello, our Manhattan middle school coach, said, “I am very proud of all my middle school girls and boys who attended SIS this past weekend. Everyone that went PR’d. My middle school boys took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (even though there were only 13 boys in the race).  The top middle school boy finished with a time of 3:46 (for 1,000 meters).  My top middle school girl finished in a time of 4:17.8 (for 1,000 meters).  My top three girls placed 5th, 6th, and 7th out of 23 girls total.”

Full results are available at this link.

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