Dueling Over a Grand 1

Early on a windy Saturday morning, 11 crews crawled out of their beds and made their way down to the buses. It was the day of the first Spring regatta for the Brentwood rowers, Dueling Over a Grand. Many will look back on that day as the start of their competitive rowing career. For some, these races would be their first, and for others, their last at Elk Lake. As we neared the lake, squished onto the bus and hardly able to see outside the windows due to the warm air condensing as mist, we knew that we would spend the day wet, but we were ready. It was time for regatta season - time to win. The coaches sent 11 crews, boys and girls, seniors and juniors. The races, 1000 meters, were set up as a tournament. If you won, you advanced into the semis, then finals, etc. Losing one race would send you to the bottom, and to make the finals that crew would need to win their way back up to the top.  On day one we had some wins, some losses, and one miscellaneous. Mrs. Sage, after hauling the four girls who flipped their quad at the start dock out of the boat, said that she would never put one anonymous athlete in a sculling boat again—she’d flipped at this same regatta last in year in a similar fashion. In their defense, the water was less than desirable on Saturday—in fact the waves became so large many crews thought they would capsize. We did. Though we had some laughs, we also overcame some obstacles—such as the bus forgetting the second wave of rowers Saturday morning. Well, we laughed, but Mrs. Sage didn’t.  Overall, was a great weekend with four crews making finals and two winning Gold, the Junior B Boys 4x, with Peter L, Lion T, Max V & Aidan W and the Junior A Girls 4x with Sydney P, Featherdawn F, Petra J, and Jessica N. The prize: a ribbon and a chocolate rabbit. What more could a girl (or boy) want? Featherdawn F, Alex ‘15