Summer Nationals Wraps Up with GRP Dominance
Will and Simon with their first place medals (photo by USRowing)
Summer Nationals has come to a close with huge successes from GRP crews on both the Senior Team and the U23 Team. Before that, though, there was some adversity to overcome. Racing for the Saturday afternoon Semifinals was cancelled due to inclement weather, meaning that for many of the Senior Team races they advanced crews straight to finals based on their Time Trial Results. This was a major disappointment for many at the regatta, but we would like to recognize Emily Froehlich, Erin Boxberger, Lucas Bellows, Luke Rein, and Jack Reid for putting down great pieces in the Time Trial. They did not get another chance to demonstrate the speed they’d been harvesting for the last few months, but we know they would’ve thrown down some serious race pieces in their Semis.
This meant that the only crews who raced Semifinals were our U23 boats, and the rest of the senior team was able to advance straight to their finals through their Time Trial performances. The first crews to advance were the Men’s U23 2xs of Will Legenzowski/Simon Hatcher and Evan Albers/Sal Onbargi. These two took the top two spots in their Semifinal to both advance to the Final. Sadly, the 2x of Caleb Nollenberger/Thomas Monahan did not make an advancing spot. The next crew to advance out of the Semifinal was the Women’s U23 2x of Megan Lee/Catie Castle. These two came in second in what was the closest race of the regatta, with the top three crews in a photo finish within a half second of each other. The Women’s U23 2x of Simone Vorperian/Brooke Alexander did not advance out of their Semifinal. The Women’s U23 4x took first place in their Semifinal to confidently advance to the final, beating the next closest competitor by a confident 4 seconds.
Our Men’s U23 1x, Evan Albers, did not advance from his Semifinal, but put down a respectable race nonetheless. Our Women’s U23 1xs raced for spots in the final, with Charlotte Wiley taking second in her Semifinal, 9 seconds ahead of the third place crew to comfortably advance. Megan Lee missed out on a spot in the final from the same Semifinal as Charlotte.
The last GRP boat that had an opportunity to race on Saturday was the Men’s U23 4x, who took second place in their Semifinal. With these U23s advancing from their Semifinals, and the other GRP Senior crews advancing from the Time Trial, that meant the GRP had 12 boats between the Senior and U23 Teams racing for medals on the Sunday schedule.
On Sunday, these crews squared up with some of the strongest competition the summer racing scene has to offer. A day of choppy water and adverse winds did not make it easy on anyone, but the GRP crews persevered with successes across the board.
The first crews of the day to race were the two Men’s U23 2xs. Will Legenzowski and Simon Hatcher took first in the event with a time of 6:26.480, beating the second place crew by 9 seconds to clinch the win. The double of Evan Albers and Sal Onbargi took fifth place with a time of 6:52.866, throwing down a strong race. They were soon followed by the Women’s U23 2x of Megan Lee and Catie Castle, who took second in the event with a time of 7:34.515. These two had an amazing piece, beating out the third place crew by .9 seconds in a tight finish.
The U23 Women’s 2x takes second place (Photo by USRowing)
The next race was another nail-biter, with the Women’s U23 4x taking third place with a time of 6:55.692. This was not an easily achieved result, either. The first place crew was only 2 seconds ahead of them, with the second through fourth place crews all finishing within .4 seconds of each other. After her 4x race, Charlotte Wiley quickly turned around to race the Women’s U23 1x, where she finished sixth with a time of 8:23.604. The final U23 race of the day was the Men’s U23 4x, who had a difficult piece, finishing sixth with a time of 6:39.831. We could not be more proud of this new group of U23s and their performances at Summer Nationals!
Third place for the U23 Women’s 4x (photo by USRowing)
After the U23 racing ended, the Senior Team ramped up for their final races. With Canadien Henley and World Championships canceled, this suddenly became one of the last racing opportunities the summer might provide.
The first to race was the Men’s 1x of Mark Couwenhoven, who placed fourth in the event with a time of 6:59.605. Amongst a competitive field, Mark managed to keep his head and execute his race plan well, showing off a strong result. The next GRP race was the Composite Women’s 2- of Bridget Schodorf and Allyson Baker. These two pulled off a second place finish with a time of 7:26.008, pushing away from the next crew by 3 seconds to take the medal. The Composite Men’s 2- of Webster Thompson and Nick Ruggerio raced immediately after, taking fifth in the event with a time of 6:56.053 and missing fourth place by 1.2 seconds.
Second place for the Women’s 2- (photo by USRowing)
The final three GRP crews to race were the Women’s 2x, the Men’s 2x, and the Women’s Lightweight 2x, in that order. These three crews truly demonstrated a great racing mentality in all their own ways. The Women’s 2x of Emily Delleman and Jen Forbes took first place in the event, beating out the next crew by 9 seconds to confidently dominate the event with a time of 6:55.505. The next crew to race was the Men’s 2x of Alexander Hedge and Jacob Plihal. In what was a close and competitive race, these two came out on top of the photo finish taking the event by .2 seconds after throwing down an impeccable sprint, finishing with a time of 6:17.792. The final race of the day for the GRP was the Women’s Lightweight 2x of Grace Joyce and Christine Cavallo, who took first place by an enormous margin of 18 seconds with a time of 6:54.725.
All smiles for the Men’s 2x (photo by USRowing)
Had the World Championships not been canceled, all three of these crews would have had the opportunity to represent the United States as the competing boats in their categories. Regardless, we are immensely proud of their performances, and those of all the GRP crews at Summer Nationals. We hope that we can find more racing to do this summer, but for the time being the GRP Rowers will return to Craftsbury to continue their training.
