Despite almost a full week of being unable to train on the water due to rough weather, Duxbury crews shook off the rust and performed well at the New England Junior & High School Championship on Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond, capturing eight medals on the day in strong racing against both scholastic and junior club teams.
The Duxbury Boys and Girls 1st Varsity boats each paced their fields, capturing gold medals as the top-finishing high school crew. The Girls 1st boat of Deirdre Sullivan, Olivia Szachta, Emma Szachta, Libby Weldon and coxswain Fiona Shortt took 2nd place overall in the event, and bested their archrivals Cambridge Rindge & Latin for the win in the HS category. The Boys 1st boat of Tom White, Walter Stanwood, Will Rubin, Chase Estabrooks and coxswain Emma Collins was 3rd overall, but was the top-performing high school crew in the event.
“Our crews did a very nice job bouncing back from a really brutal week of training on land,” said Head coach Oli Rosenbladt. “The athletes have worked very hard since August to establish a strong technical foundation to what we do, and they did very well today on extremely limited water time this week, that’s a huge credit to them.”
For White and Stanwood, their medal in the 1st Four was their second podium finish of the day, as the two athletes combined to take silver in the Men’s Double Sculls to start the day. “Part of our goal as a team this year was to be able to produce top finishes in multiple events at our racing this year, and today’s result shows that we are on the right track,” said Rosenbladt.
Duxbury also claimed medals in the Boys & Girls 2nd boats (Silver, Bronze), Boys & Girls 3rd boats (Silver, Gold), as well as a Silver in the Girls 4th boats.
Duxbury athletes also competed strongly in the Varsity Eights events, with both the Boys and Girls fielding entries in preparation for the Head of the Charles regatta (October 20th). Despite finishing out of the medals, the coaches felt that the race was a positive experience for the athletes.
“The eights were probably the crews most impacted by not being able to get on the water this past week,” said Rosenbladt. “In the eights you have a lot of moving parts, and you depend on your training time to get everyone to mesh. With a hopefully better week of weather this week, they’ll come together.”
Duxbury’s novice crews were also in action, with the Novice Girls Eight finishing a strong 5th place in their field, while the Novice Boys Eight suffered a mishap while racing, which dropped them to 12th.
Duxbury Crew is next in action at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston on October 19-20, with Duxbury representing in the Women’s Youth Fours (9:07am), Women’s Youth Eights (10:24am), Men’s Youth Fours (11:58am) and Men’s Youth Eights (1:12pm) on Sunday.