Three represent Riverside at US Masters Nationals

View of the race course in Oak Ridge, TN.

Masters 8+s.

The US Masters Nationals was held August 17-20 on a beautiful cool river in Oak Ridge, TN.  The water temperature was about the only thing that was cool as the heat steamed up during the day, but cool breezes and plenty of shade made the whole experience a delight as all the teams rented spaces for tents on shore to watch the racing.  The weather and conditions were pretty much perfect though the sun was really intense as the rowers sat out in the boats waiting for the start of races.  Three mornings there was an hour long fog delay but the organization by US Rowing was excellent as 99 teams with over 3000 rowers participated.  Chinook again won the points trophy with almost twice as many points than second place, Texas Rowing Center.  Only three members from RBC attended: Sean Wolf, Nikolay Kurmakov and Catherine Widgery.  

Catherine Widgery racks in the medals.

Catherine again competed as part of a composite team of masters women from around the country and earned three golds: WF2X, WG4+ and WE8+ and three silvers: WF4X, WD8+, WF8+. 

Masters Nationals moves to Oakland, CA next year.

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: 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

Results: Masters Nationals 2012

By: Todd Milne and Ernest Cook

“Stormy weather” was the theme song for this year’s regatta.  Thunderstorms delayed racing Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Many finals were canceled on Friday.  If heats were held in those events, medals were awarded based on heat times.  So we quickly learned to go all-out in the heats, no matter what kind of lead we held. This was a huge regatta with 2000+ rowers representing 150+ clubs from around the country – the largest ever held by US Rowing – and the competition was tough.

Men’s Sweep
The team was joined this year by some youngsters – Alex Caruthers and Evan Labuzetta – and that allowed RBC to put together some very competitive A and B boats. Overall, 20 of 24 entries made it to the finals with 15 of the Riverside boats placing in the money, so nearly everyone came away with hardware.   The RBC masters sweeps team medaled in age groups A, B, C, D, E, and F and in all sweep boat classes; 2-, 4-, 4+, and 8+.  There were also medals in team sculling boats with medals in the Club and Lightweight D4x events. With fewer than 25 rowers, Riverside placed 4th among the men in the quest for the points trophy.

Notable results:  Todd Milne and Neil Harrigan blazed to a gold in the C pair.  Later they were joined by Jason McDonough-Hughes and Evan to take first place in the Club B4+ and take home an obscenely large trophy.  Alex and Shameek Sarkar also conquered the field to take gold in the A pair.

All results

Gold
Womens Ltwt B 4 x
Mens Hwt. C 2- F (Todd Milne, Neil Harrigan)
Womens Ltwt A 1 x (Alexis Sneff)
Mens Hwt. B 1x (Jim Mcgaffigan)
Mens Hwt A 2- (Alex Caruthers, Shameek Sarkar)
Mens Club B 4+

Silver
Mens Hwt C 1x Final
Mens Hwt B 4+
Womens Open C 1 x (Tina Vandersteel)
Mens Club B 8 +
Mens Club D 4x
Mens Hwt. C 4-
Womens Ltwt A 2x b (Alexis Sneff, Ashley Lanfer)

Bronze
Mens Club C 4+
Mens Ltwt E 4
Mens Club C 8 +
Mens Ltwt I 1x (Nick Daniloff)