RBC is Heating UP

By: Rachel Pettis

USRowing NE/Mid-Atlantic Masters Championships – Women’s 4x: Angelique Hrycko, Meghan Brundage, Erin Lallemand (MRRA) and Kit Casey.

After a rather drawn out extension of winter, otherwise known as spring, the summer season has finally arrived!  Despite the slow return to the water, Riverside is already heating up the season with fast results.   RBC opened the racing season at the NE/Midatlantic Masters Championships on Saturday, June 28th.  The Masters Mens Sweeps finished 2nd in the 8, AA-C 4+, and F-J 4+.  An RBC/MRRA composite 4x containing Angelique Hrycko, Kit Casey and Meghan Brundage left competitors in their wake as they cruised across the finish line in 1st by a lengthy margin.  Paul Dale also took home a gold medal in the Mens Masters Ltwt E-J 1x, a silver in the Mens Masters E-F 1x and John Yasaitis grabbed silver in the Mens Masters G-J 1x.  

The following Sunday at Festival Regatta RBC fared extremely well in both sweep and sculling events.  Paul Dale and John Tracey both placed 2nd in the Mens Masters 1x as did Meghan Brundage in the Womens Masters 1x.  Joe Hanna took home 1st in the Mens Open 1x and following his lead Men’s Sweeps placed 1st in both Open 4+ races.  Mens Sweeps also placed 1st,  2nd and 3rd in the Open 2- and then finished out the day with 1st and 2nd place in the Open 8.  

A  small contingent of RBC’s HPG competed at Elite Nationals on Lake Mercer, NJ.  After a fierce showing in heats and reps two Womens 2xs narrowly missed making the grand final but left the course satisfied with their efforts and knowledge gained from various unexpected regatta snags throughout the week.  On a lighter note Mary Foster’s RBC/Vesper composite in the Womens Lightweight 2x and 4x walked away with medals proving that keeping your enemies close does indeed have its rewards.  

Mary Foster’s RBC/Vesper composite in the Womens Lightweight 2x and 4x walked away with medals proving that keeping your enemies close does indeed have its rewards.

Over the recent holiday weekend Riverside competed at Independence Day Regatta with temperatures and fast crews blazing the Schuylkill.  In addition to the warm weather wind speeds were less than favorable ensuring that all boats had their work cut out for them.  Representing the Master Women, Meghan Brundage competed in a composite mixed 2x placing 3rd and then later in a composite Womens Open 4x and Womens Intermediate 4x placing 1st and 3rd respectively.  Nik Kurmakov raced Sunday in the Masters Mens 1x dash and though sporting a very swollen, slightly broken ankle cruised over the finish line with a win.  

Riverside Men’s Lightweight 8+

Mens and Womens Sweeps each raced well taking on rival clubs such as Vesper and Penn AC.  Saturday the women placed 3rd, 4th and 6th in the Open 4+ with Vesper coming in 2nd by a mere .8 seconds.  The men finished 3rd in the Open 2-, 2nd in the Intermediate 4+, and finished off the day with gold in the Intermediate Lightweight 8.  Sunday was another successful day for both teams as the women finished 4th and 5th in the Intermediate 4+ and 2nd in the Intermediate 8.  The men finished 2nd in the Intermediate Lightweight 4+ and 5th in the Intermediate 8, Senior 8 and Intermediate 2-.  

The HPG also entered several boats and on Saturday placed 2nd and 4th in the Women’s Intermediate 2x.  Racing in an extremely competitive field Chloe Zwiacher finished 6th in the Women’s 1x and Erin Roberts won the Lightweight Women’s 1x several lengths ahead of the other boats.  On Sunday Sarah Olenich started the day off nicely with a 2nd place finish in the Intermediate 1x.  Later on in the Womens 4x a sharp crew of RBC ladies had the chance to race a Vesper crew containing RBC Alum Hillary Saegar and placed 3rd ahead of Ottawa.

At the end of the weekend all crews left the Schuylkill sun-kissed and tired but thrilled to have had the chance to rep their stripes in a pool of worthwhile competitors.  No doubt about it that all teams look forward to seeing rival crews again in a few short weeks at Royal Canadian Henley.  Train hard RBC!

Results: 2013 Canadian Henley

By Rachel Pettis

There’s just no ending the summer without the highly anticipated Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. Across the board RBC had quite a successful week with multiple crews leaving St. Catharines wearing some pretty hardware. The conditions on Henley Island grew more and more favorable each day and by Sunday treated the crews to nearly flat water and sunny skies. To start off the week, the Master’s Men’s 8+ won gold as did Nik Kurmakov in the Master’s 1x. Both Men’s Masters 4+ finished 2nd overall.

Lauren Ayers took home gold in the Senior Women’s Lightweight 1x, arguably one of them most competitive events of the week. Finishing just ahead of Vesper after a mean sprint, Lauren’s victory was as exciting as it was deserved. Mike Farry placed second in the Senior Men’s Lightweight 1x in another extremely competitive final. Men’s and Women’s Sweeps also fared well against rival and Canadian clubs alike.

The Senior Men’s 8+ finished sixth overall and the Women’s 8+ Dash took home second. The Women’s Senior 2- finished third and in an extremely close race RBC took home third and fourth in the Women’s U23 2-. The Senior Women’s Lightweight 4- took home 4th overall but was the first American crew to cross the line. According to a spectator in the Port Dalhousie grandstand this particular race was one of the most exciting due to some questionable steering. After multiple crabs and collisions in the last 250 meters, several of the Canadian crews crossed the finish line in the entirely wrong lane. Riverside also competed in the Dash for Cash with a mixed 8 winning gold as well as some swanky Regatta Sports gear. Tired but satisfied RBC left Saint Catharines feeling like Olympians…well not exactly but Border Patrol seemed convinced enough.

Results: 2012 Textile River Regatta (TRR)

Open and Masters

M Veteran 1x: Paul Dale
M 2-: 1st: Keir Evans, Brad Sherman
M Master 8+: 1st and 4th
W Club 2x: 1st Beatrice Sims, Chelsea Wakeham
M Open 1x: 1st Jim McGaffigan, 2nd Sean Wolf, 3rd Evan Bailey
M Club 8+: 5th
W Club 8+: 3rd
M Master’s 4+: 1st
W Club 1x: 1st Kelley Woodacre
M Open 4+ 3rd, 4th
W Open 4+ 4th
M Master’s 2x 1st (John Saxelby, Ernest Cook) 6th (Ed Frankenberry, Shameek Sarkar)
M Open 8+ 6th
M Club 2x: 3rd, 4th

Juniors

M Jr 4x: 2nd
M Jr 8+: 16th, 55th
M Junior 4+: 3rd, 27th
W Jr 4x: 7th
W Jr 4+: 11th
W Jr 8+: 15th, 43r

2012 Fall Sweeps Update

The Women’s Sweeps
By: Severine Imbert de Smirnoff

The Women’s Sweep Team is excited to welcome 11 new rowers and 3 new coxswains this fall: Talia, Hannah, Allisaon, Beatrice, Molly, Meghan, Janie (not new), Shana, Carrie, Chelsea, Rachel, Carly, Grace and Mike.  They all bring great talent and enthusiasm to the team.  This fall they have already raced 2 out of 3 of the Head of the Kevins, Textile River Regatta, and the Green Mountain Head.  Looking ahead, be sure to cheer them on at The Head of the Charles in the Women’s Club 8+ and teh Women’s Championship 4+.

The Men’s Sweeps
ByL Jeff Forrester

The Men’s Sweep Team is experiencing a run on masters  for the fall season.  There enough to fill an 8+ and two Senior Master 4+’s for The Charles. The 8+ is expected to be competitive and move further up the rankings.  In the last few years we have placed in the Senior Master 4+ (50+’s), so we are looking for some hardware in that category as well as in the age 60+ boat.  For the young guns, we have a Club 4+ and Champ 4+ entries.  Both are positioned to place quite well, if not win.

The Juniors
By: Katy Ruderman

The juniors are excited to be starting their fourth season as Riverside Juniors!  We have 20 boys and 20 girls this fall.  We completed our first race (besides the world renowned Head of the Kevins) at the Textile  a couple Sundays ago; we raced eights, fours, quads, and doubles.  We have a very young group this fall and it seems that each week someone drops another minute off their 6K!

For the Head of the Charles we have a men’s and a women’s youth 4+ entry (Sunday at 10:05 and 10:36 respectively), seat-racing is under way with many rowers competing for the coveted Charles boat seats.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our creative uniforms at the last two Head of the Kevins, next time we’ll be repping the stripes!