USRowing Youth Nationals

The west coast has it going on. Look at the results, particularly the finals of the 8s. In the open events, west coast programs had 4 of 6 lanes. Unlike other regattas, you can't blame that on the draw, because there were reps. Those were the fastest 6 boats, and the west coast won.

In rowing, time on the water usually results in more boat speed. The simple fact is that west coast clubs can row close to year around if they so choose. They get more water time than the rest of the country. In the past, this advantage was negated by better coaching and athletes in the Midwest and east. Even these advantages have disappeared as the coaching on the coast has gotten much better.

Want to know why I think this? Watch the last 250m of any of those races. West coast crews have a sprint, every time. They can lift the rating and the boat speed higher over base than the rest of the country. When a final came down to a sprint, the safe bet was the west coast crew. Great sprints come from boats that have rowed together for a long time.

This doesn't mean that the Midwest and east are no longer competitive. The lightweight 8s, the quad and 4s saw more representation from the rest of the country. But the boat that values water time and teamwork the most, the open 8, saw domination from the coast.

Hit the results again and look at the final picture of the men's quad. .01 second. Half a bowball. Frankly, that's within the margin of error down at the start. Those two boats broke away from the field very quickly and never got more than a few seats apart all the way down the course. Great race. That is the 4th year in a row for Malvern.

There were a lot of great races. The women's open 8 saw Pocock training center lead just about the whole way, but every other boat in the race was in second place at one point in time. It was lunatic. The open men's event saw St. Joe's Prep make a courageous bid for the gold, coming back from 6 seats down to 2 seats up with about 400m to go. But they had exhausted their energy, and St. Ignatius' sprint was too much.

A little note on the weather. East Fork has two prevailing winds. The winter and spring see a wind from the northeast, which is a headwind on the course, slightly from the beach. The summer and fall see 180 degrees opposite, resulting in a tailwind. That course saw Harvard in 1994 pull something near 5:15 for a 2k. Yes, that was a tailwind. The tailwind is fair, pushing all lanes equally. The head wind isn't as fair, because there is a point on the lane 6-7 side of the course that gives about 700m of protection from the wind. You could tell during the racing, as the middle lanes would move out on the field, only to be attacked from those lanes in the middle of the race. I usually have to fall back when announcing from that side so as not to wake those boats. This year, those boats were usually a factor for a medal.

I'm not saying the course is screwed up. That's part of rowing, and there really isn't a better centrally-located racecourse in the country. It's just something to know about the next time anyone reading this is in Cincinnati.

Don't think this is a "real" championship? The numbers were up again this year, with semis in most events. I've always supported this race, because I believe there should be a true national championship in high school rowing. Just getting there is something to be proud of, and people who don't know anything about the sport sit up and take notice at "Yeah, my team came in 8th in the nation last year." That means something.

Ok, I've blabbered on enough about all this, and it's late. Up this post goes, with more to come of the story of the 30 hour return trip, pop up camper stories and the beauty of lightweight rowing.

Categories: Regattas, Rowing, Coaching