The First 250: March 14

BY LUKE REYNOLDS
PHOTO BY LISA WORTHY

Rowers have sprung forward and are back out and about across the world as the spring season and declining Covid rates allow athletes to return to the water and travel to regattas.

In the Central Region, White Rock Lake played host to a duel between the University of Texas of Southern Methodist University this weekend. The defending national championship-winning Longhorns swept all six races at the Dallas venue.

“This was a really good test for us in a number of ways,” Texas head coach Dave O’Neill said. “SMU has a really good team, and we expected a challenge. It was good to see our boats respond and step up.”

Up north, the 2022 Shamrock Row brought together juniors and masters for the annual indoor event.

Nathaniel Sass won the men’s under-19 2,000-meter race with an impressive time of 6:26.2—which averages out to a 1:36.5 split. On the women’s side, Sunshine Frankenstein placed first in the women’s under-19 2k event with a time of 7:47.5. Frankenstein finished a commanding 40 seconds ahead of second place.

Down the eastern seaboard where the temps allow for on-the-water action, the folks at Orlando Area Rowing Society hosted their annual early spring invite with the 2022 OARS Youth Invitational.

In the women’s youth eight, Sarasota bested the home crew by a little over two seconds with a time of 4:38.816. Sarasota’s men also won the men’s youth eight with a ten-second lead over OARS and a time of 4:05.789.

On the West Coast, two big events took place in California. The Southern California League Cal Cup in Long Beach and the 2022 PAC Invite in the San Francisco.

The Southern California League Cal Cup had 12 clubs participating and over 270 entries.

Newport Aquatic Center swept the team points trophy competition winning the men’s, women’s, and overall team points awards with a total score of 492 points. The host crew of Long Beach Junior Crew wasn’t too far off coming in with 446 points.

At the 2022 PAC Invite crews including Artemis, BIAC, Berkeley, EBRC, Serra, Lake Merritt, Los Gatos, Marin, NSBR, North Bay, OARS, Oakland Strokes, Oakland Tech, Pacific, Redwood, River City, and Saint Ignatius all took part in the regatta’s events.

In the mixed masters eight, Bair Island took the cake with a time of 5:49.60 over Lake Merritt’s second-place finish and time of 5:54.00. BIAC had impressive finishes in the women’s master’s quad finishing back-to-back taking both the gold and silver medals off the table.

In the men’s and women’s adaptive singles event, BIAC’s Robert Glass finished first in the event with a time of 12:27.30. On the women’s side, Kerry Kingdon finished with a time of 14:54.12.

Another big weekend of racing takes place next weekend including the first 1st Manny Flick / Horvat Series in Philadelphia, the Polar Bear Regatta in Virginia, and the Spring Regatta in Seattle hosted by Green Lake.

The post The First 250: March 14 appeared first on Rowing News.