Exeter's GV1 Eight Wins Silver at USRowing Youth Nationals
June 18, 2009
GV Crew and Coach Morris proudly sport their silver medals at the Nationals in Ohio
"To stand in Cincinnati, Ohio representing New England was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had!" exclaimed Co-Captain Tamar Nisbett '10 after Exeter's girls 8 received their silver medals.
Over this past weekend, the G8 Crew powered their boat into Exeter athletic history by winning the silver at the 2009 USRowing Youth National Championships, held in Cincinnati on Lake Harsha. The regatta brings together the best of young rowers—more than 1,500 athletes, from 140 programs competing for titles in 18 events.
"This was the most exciting event I've had!" added Grace Cassidy '10. "The level of competition was outstanding. There's a hype in the air at Nationals and we felt it."
The 2,000-meter course is 500 meters longer than Exeter's regular competitions, but that didn't intimidate the girls. Exeter's outstanding finish highlights their conditioning and marks the highest national placement to date for Exeter girls crew since the program started in 1973. It is also the most successful national finish for a New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) girls crew in the association's history.
Heat 1
With 24 girls 8s entered in this year's competition, Exeter took 2nd place in their first heat of 6 boats on Friday, June 12. Exeter's finish—4 seconds behind Marin Rowing Association from Greenbrae, California, gold medal winner in 2008—automatically placed them in the semifinals. Nisbett explained their strategy. "We knew that in the heats and semifinals, we only needed to be in the top 3 and top 2, respectively."
See Racetrak.com's graphic of the heat.
SemiFinal
The semifinal was a repeat performance as the girls took another 2nd place, this time finishing approximately 2 seconds behind Maritime Rowing Club from New Canaan, Connecticut. "Katie Courtin, our coxswain, did an awesome job of telling us not to panic when Maritime overtook us in the semis, because we were very solidly the top 2 teams," said Nisbett of Saturday's race.
See Racetrak.com's graphic of the semifinal.
See a video of the semifinal race. (Note: Exeter's semi-final is the 2nd video in this series and is labeled WY8+ SemiFinal.)
Grand Final
Heading into the last race, the girls were energized. "The night before the Grand Finals, we had a team meeting in our coxswain's room," says Abigail Loucks '10. "We sat and talked about the races we had finished, what we were afraid of, and how excited we were. Then every girl took a turn to go around and say why we wanted to medal. All of our reasons were for the other girls in the room."
On Sunday afternoon, Exeter and the other 5 top finishers lined up for the Grand Final. The participants included the 2 boats that had beaten Exeter in the first 2 races: Marin Rowing Association (the 2008 Gold winner) and Maritime Rowing Club.
"We were all psyched up," says Cassidy. "We concentrated on staying calm and letting each other know how much faith we had in ourselves and each other."
Here are the times that the boats took out of their previous semifinal races, and their lane assignments for the Finals:
Lane 7: St. Ignatius College Prep (6:54.67 Semi #3)
Lane 6: Maritime Rowing Club (6:51.01 Semi #2)
Lane 5: Los Gatos Rowing Club (6:51.75 Semi #1)
Lane 4: Marin Rowing Association (6:49.75 Semi #3)
Lane 3: Phillips Exeter Academy (6:53.10 Semi #2)
Lane 2: New Trier High School (6:54.98 Semi #1)
In a hard-fought race, Exeter finished 2nd as they trailed Marin by 5 seconds, while holding off Maritime by 2 seconds.
"None of the other crews knew how fast we were and the final race was an opportunity to prove our true speed," said Co-Captain and coxswain Katie Courtin '09. "Our plan was to row our best race technically with as much power behind each stroke as possible. We planned to hold nothing back and to give our best in each segment of the race. We were especially excited to show the competition an 'Exeter sprint' which we had not yet executed in Cincinnati. We did exactly what we wanted to do, and we rowed our best race just as we had hoped to."
Here are the relative positions of the boats at the finish.
Loucks sums up this season best when she says, "Racing in the Nationals was a chance to prove that a New England high school crew could be one of the top crews in the country, and we did that. Emphatically."
Crew at the Nationals:
Cox'n Katie Courtin '09 (co-captain)
Stroke Devi Lockwood '10
7 Ariana Wakeman '09
6 Abigail Loucks '10
5 Katherine Burd '10
4 Grace Cassidy '10
3 Louise Breen '10
2 Erin Metcalf '09
Bow Tamar Nisbett '10 (co-captain)
Alternate: Nellie Peyton '10
Sally Morris (coach)
Keith Hereford (coach)
This is the fourth consecutive year that Exeter's GV1 eight has competed in Nationals. A measure of the program's quality is that this success comes despite the short, nine-week rowing season compared to club crews.
2006 - Sixth-place in Grand Finals
2007 - Fourth-place in Grand Finals
2008 - Third-place in Grand Finals (first school crew to win a medal in event)
2009 - Second-place in Grand Finals (first school crew to win a silver medal in event)
Thanks to Roger Wakeman and Heidi Lockwood for their photo contributions to this story.
Interested in learning more?
For all the results from the Youth Nationals in Cincinnati, see racetrak.com...
For information on the Youth Nationals in Cincinnati, see usrowing.org...
For plenty of details on Exeter crew, including the recent Nationals and New England regattas, see http://www.exetercrew.com/...
Learn more about girls and boys crew at Exeter...
Got a story idea? Tell the Lion!
