A beautiful spring day welcomed the full boys’ squad to the Pomfret boathouse on Quassett Lake this past Saturday. Bright blue skies, warm temperatures, and a strong tailwind made for some great racing against a talented field that included crews from Dexter Southfield, Groton School, Taft School, and our hosts, Pomfret School.
A full afternoon of racing began with Deerfield’s 7V4+ and 8V4+ matching up with Pomfret. While an equipment issue forced Deerfield’s 7V4+ to miss the start time, the boys in the 8V4+, making their racing debut, stepped up and delivered a strong performance to capture the win over Pomfret’s 7V4+ and 8V4+. It was a great way to start some promising rowing careers!
Up next was the 2V4+ in a race that proved to be the closest of the day. The boys from Deerfield trailed early in the race, but made a strong move to grab the lead in the final 500 meters. Not to be outdone, tough crews from Taft and Groton responded with sprints of their own to close the gap. In the end, the Deerfield crew pulled out the win by .6 seconds over the boys from Taft with Groton in a close 3rd. Dexter and Pomfret rounded out the field.
With the tailwind helping to create a fast course, the 1V4+ took to the water and managed to separate themselves from a very competitive field. While Pomfret wasn’t able to sustain the pace, Dexter, Groton, and Taft remained locked together all the way down the lake, trading positions throughout. In the end, Deerfield crossed the line first with Groton in second, less than one second ahead of Dexter to nabbed third. Taft was fourth, less than a boat length behind Dexter. Between the quick conditions and a strong field that pushed the pace for the entire 1500 meters, the Deerfield boat ended up setting a new course record, besting the previous mark by a little more than one second.
In the 3V4+, 4V4+, and 5V4+, the boys from Deerfield were able to produce the same results in very similar ways. All three boats charged to the lead in the first couple hundred meters and slowly moved away from the field from there.
In the final race of the day, the 6V4+ was joined by the 7V4+ and they pushed each other down the course with the 6V4+ picking up the win, followed closely by the 7V4+ with the Pomfret crew in 3rd.
Complete results can be found on the Row2K website: http://www.row2k.com/results/resultspage.cfm?UID=2566B6DB4C2C52EF6D0DEEB2E06A72BF&cat=1
After the first weekend of racing saw only the top four crews compete, it was great to get the entire squad lined up against some strong crews and with many of the athletes racing for the first time, it made for an exciting day. There is still plenty of work to do be done and the team will now turn its focus to the Founders Day Regatta on Sunday, May 6. This event will be held on Lake Waramaug in New Preston, CT.
April 28, 2018 Lineups:
Boys First Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Henry Hayden
Stroke – Vanja Obradovic
3 – Jimmy Patton
2 – Henry Lowe
Bow – Lachlan Cormie
Boys Second Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Robbie O’Brien
Stroke – Tommy Gilmore
3 – Oliver Diamond
2 – Jack Brown
Bow – Punisa Lekovic
Boys Third Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Kishor Bharadwaj
Stroke – Philip Weymouth
3 – Andrew Peck
2 – Spencer Hurst
Bow – Charlie Pink
Boys Fourth Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Inthat Boonpongmanee
Stroke – Chris Thagard
3 – Jake Meier
2 – Garrett Alexander
Bow – Zane Smith
Boys Fifth Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Mark Chung
Stroke – Gabe Moos
3 – Owen Louis
2 – Seth Thayumanavan
Bow – Alex Leong
Boys Sixth Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Alison Xia
Stroke – Lawrence von Steuben
3 – Nick Fluty
2 – Matt Wierzbicki
Bow – Kian Sorhaindo
Boys Seventh Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Henry Barrera
Stroke – Charlie Lewis
3 – Skye Bacon
2 – Ari Kraan
Bow – JP Patton
Boys Eighth Varsity 4+
Coxswain – Alison Xia
Stroke – Thomas Lyons
3 – Eric Wang
2 – Hayden McGuinness
Bow – Nikhil Barnes