BHS Crew starts year with success at Bair Island Regatta

   Photos courtesy of Mark Shaw (top left), Eric Carlson

Under schizophrenic skies that were cool, cloudy, sunny, and even a little rainy, Berkeley High School Crew was anything but uneven at the Bair Island Aquatic Center's 18th annual Fall Regatta on November 22nd. The Yellow Jackets took six first-place medals against boats from Los Gatos Rowing Club, NorCal Crew, Palo Alto Rowing Club, Stockton Rowing Club and UC Davis. Both the women and the men enjoyed success, even winning together at the end of the day in a mixed boat.

For this first regatta of the year, the course was long and challenging: five kilometers in length rather than two, with sharp turns complicating the typical straight-away. As Coach Chris Dadd explained, "This is a cox's race course." With so many corners, an adept coxswain can help seal a win.

The point was proven by the mens open 4x, or quad. The BHS coaches wanted to use a cox, even though it would mean hauling an additional 120 pounds. After discussions about fairness, the coaches of the competing crews agreed to let Berkeley have its extra body. Coach Dadd urged his rowers not to give up, even if they found themselves behind for the first 2000 meters; the cox would give them the advantage in the curvy final 3000 meters. The strategy paid off in Berkeley's third medal of the day!

The medal count began early for Berkeley Crew. The womens lightweight 4+ raced to a 17-second victory, led by a varsity rower in her first competition as cox. The mens lightweight 4+ followed with a 31-second win in the mens junior (open weight) 4+ category. Two hours later, this group improved their time by 41 seconds to take first place in the lightweight category. The womens junior novice 8+ negotiated the course without penalty on their way to a medal, and not long after that, in a hot-seated, bagel-fueled finale, the mens lightweight 4+ joined the rowers of the womens lightweight 4 to win the mixed junior 8+.

In all, Berkeley's rowers -- novice and varsity -- worked hard and rowed well. The coaches were certainly pleased. Hopefully, the successes of this first day of competition for the 2009-10 season are a good omen for the spring season that starts in February. Follow the Web site for race schedule details and come on out and support the Jackets!

Results (download)

Photos:
PicasaWeb Gallery
Eric Carlson's photos on SmugMug