Oct. 14, 2009

'Head of the Mon'

Hey everyone!

Hope you all are enjoying the crisp-ish fall weather that has been making an appearance every once and a while here in Dayton. While in West Virginia yesterday, we remarked that we experience all four seasons in one day, as we were subject to extreme heat while on the water, then huddling together against biting wind once on shore only minutes later. Oh the wonders of this transitory season.

But on to the good stuff..

UD Crew's fall racing season opened in against West Virginia and George Washington at the `Head of the Mon' this past weekend. We traveled down to Morgantown on Friday morning after a deceptive bootcamp workout that turned out to be Panera breakfast and an arts and crafts session (Sidenote: Moms and dads, add compression socks, which aid in muscle recovery, to our already highly rowing-influenced Christmas lists).

Earlier in the week, Derek warned us that we were going to "love and hate" that Friday workout, and after having us warm up, lunge down a hallway, and jump up the stairs, he led us into a wonderful spread of yogurt, granola, fruit, and Panera breakfast sandwhiches. Fake workout = huge success. We also decorated "I see you" charts to hang in the locker room that have really cool photos and favorite quotes for each of us. They might remind some of the elementary star chart concept, but most of us LOVE them and the Miley Cirus decorative stickers we were provided. Photos to come.

Once finished crafting, we piled into two vans and journeyed south. Heather Hogan, our new academic coordinator who has a rowing background, came on the trip with us and almost seemed surprised when most of us slept nonstop the entire trip. The life of a collegiate rower, right? Upon arrival we checked into the hotel and rigged boats right away for practice. It was so neat to row amongst the breathtaking WV scenery for a few hours. That evening we met up for a Mountaineer/Flyer team dinner at the basketball arena and spent time making conversation with the rowers and coxswains who are now our friends as well as our competition. It's remarkable the connections you can discover over a filling plate of pasta. Though we come from different parts of the country and proudly wear different colors, we still put up with the same rigorous training and wake up before the rest of our campuses because we love the same sport.

A10's competition George Washington also came in from D.C. to race, but we didn't see them until the morning on the river. Eights launched at 9:45 and raced back toward the dock around 10:30 after rowing the 5k upriver. About an hour after the eights got off of the water, fours and pairs went out and raced the same course. After rowing more than 20k in a few hours span, we all welcomed the quite ride back to school and the opportunity to lay low and catch up with schoolwork on Sunday.

Here are the results:

OPEN 8+s
1) West Virginia A - 19:23.0
2) George Washington - 19:30.0
3) Dayton A - 19:32.0
4) West Virginia B - 20:06.0
5) Dayton B - 21:32.0

OPEN 4+s
1) Dayton A - 20:42 (Dorm, Cydne, Lydia, Grace, Erin)
2) George Washington B - 20:55
3) Dayton B - 21:01 (Hocin, Nicole, Michele, Martha, Katherine)
4) West Virginia A - 21:04
5) West Virginia B - 21:23
6) West Virginia C - 21:40
7) George Washington A - 21:55
8) Dayton C - 22:26 (Tencate, Rachael, Brooke, Zborowski, Sierra)
9) Dayton D - 23:58 (Whitman, Walden, Weis, Bielak, Amy Rohlfing)

Thanks, as always, for your support. Keep Grace in your thoughts as she prepares for the Head of the Charles this coming week. She'll be racing a single in Boston at one the largest rowing events in the world a week from today!

Peace, love, and head racing,

UD Crew