Races, 2010-2011
BHS takes bronze at 2011 Nationals
The Berkeley High Crew men's lightweight 4+ boat won the bronze medal at the 2011 US Rowing Youth National Championships on Sunday, June 12. In a strong performance, battling for 2nd place with New Canaan (CT) over the final 1000 meters, Berkeley High School rowers medalled at Nationals for the first time since 2007.
Finish line, BHS boat in foreground, wearing neon caps
The BHS men finished in a time of 6:46.90, just .28 seconds behind New Canaan. Sammamish (Redmond, WA) won gold with a time of 6:44:63, after pulling out early and leading the entire way, with New Canaan and Berkeley nipping at their heels at the end.
(left) l-r, Meador, Pengra, Remler, Bell, cox Lukanuski; (right) At the catch.
The final race capped a weekend of four races for Berkeley High Crew. The boat showed early on that it belonged in Tennessee, turning in the fourth best time in Friday's heats. The next morning, the BHS rowers finished first in their heat and fastest among all the boats in the repechages. (The winners of each of Friday's heats won a bye in the Repechage round.) In its semi-final race Saturday afternoon, BHS finished second. Its time on Sunday was a full fifteen seconds faster than its semi-final time. Coach Chris Dadd noted, "The guys got stronger everyday and built on their experience. The team executed our strategy, and we changed our strategy each race. It was a great group. They were focused and still had a lot of fun."
Congratulations to rowers Lucas Bell (sophomore), Daniel Remler (senior), Ian Pengra (junior), Kevin Meador (junior) and cox Hannah Lukanuski (senior). Also, to coaches Chris Dadd and Gulliver Scott.
Results: USRowing.org (pdf download) - Look for race 13FA
2011 USRowing Youth Nationals - Saturday Update
Tentative Sunday schedule:
(Times are Eastern Daylight Time)
A-Finals at 12:39pm
Heat sheets and results
posted at USRowing.org.
Sunday preview: Finals
Finals #13FA Men's Ltwt Youth 4+ A-Final
Sunday 12:39PM EDT (9:39 AM in California.)
Maria Kiernik sends this table (pdf, 32KB download) listing the boats in the final and their previous times this weekend.
Saturday's semi-final:
Berkeley High Crew takes second place Now, it's ON TO THE FINALS.
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Saturday's repechage: FIRST PLACE TO BERKELEY HIGH CREW!!!
Berkeley wins its rep by a full boat length. On to the semifinals this afternoon.
Jim Meador reports:
Our kids were wearing those green caps. ... They were neck and neck for 2nd-3rd place, a full boat length back from the lead. But in the final third of the race they pulled ahead, winning the heat by 2.93 seconds. Their finish time was more than two seconds faster than any other boat in any of the 3 Rep heats, so hopefully they are in good shape for the semis....
Semis are at 6pm EDT this evening (3pm PDT). Top three in each heat go to tomorrow's finals (called the A-Finals). Bottom three in each heat go to tomorrow's B- (or Petite-) Finals. Video coverage of the semis and finals will be streamed live by USRowing.
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Saturday preview:
Rep Heat #13R3 Men's Ltwt Youth 4+ Repechage 3
Saturday 11:09AM EDT (8:09 AM in California.)
Top 3 Places in this heat advance to the Semi-Finals. Berkeley has the middle lane due to the fact that they had the fastest qualifying time. (They had the 4th best time of this morning's heats, and the first 3 are automatically advanced to the finals.)
>The boat has launched. We're heard a report of minor problems with the cox-box. Don't know if that was fixed. Race time is about 10 minutes away.
Go Jackets!!!!!!!
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Friday: first reports - "They got 2nd or 3rd."
Jim Meador adds: "Second place in the heat today!!!!!"
Official time: 07:09.71. Three seconds off New Canaan, the first place finisher in their heat. Fourth fastest time among the men's lightweight 4's on this first day of racing.
Jeff Bell describes the scene:
Overall a good day. The boat would have loved to get the win. And their showing today definitely showed they are in the fight. They are eager, hungry and focused for more. Chris and Gulliver are doing a great job keeping them focused and driven.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Bell
BHS Crew Lightweight 4+ launching for its Friday heat
Nice. That means racing tomorrow – about 8am, our time – in the repechages, trying to qualify for the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon. Three of the semi-finalists have now been set -- the winners of each heat today. Tomorrow, the next nine semi-finalists will be determined; these boats will vie to make the A-Finals (top six) and B-Finals (7-12) on Sunday. The remaining six boats will qualify for Sunday's C-Finals.
Results: USRowing.org (pdf download) - look for race 13C
BHS Crew back to Nationals
Berkeley Crew has a long, proud history as the rare public school competing in crew against the best boats in the west. From time to time, BHS Crew sends a boat to challenge the best in the nation. This weekend, for the second straight year, Berkeley's Lightweight 4+ men's boat (four rowers plus a coxswain) will be doing just that in Oak Ridge, Tennessee at the USRowing Youth National Championships.
The BHS lightweight 4 has been slotted into the third heat on Friday, scheduled to go at 2:56pm EDT. (Heats and times are subject to change.) Heat sheets, links to video streams of the finals, and other information can found on the USRowing web site.
Striking gold in Oak Ridge
BHS and crew go way back – the 1905 BHS Yearbook shows pictures of women rowers. The modern BHS Crew was established as a men's team in 1967 and a women's team in 1976. (The two merged in 2004.) The men were undefeated at the varsity level from Fall 1969 - Spring 1971.
In 1980, the women's crew brought home the first of many medals of this modern era of rowing at BHS. The Varsity 8 came back from the Nationals – held that year, like this, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee – with gold!
Download a full list of BHS Crew medal winners (pdf, 83KB)
The 2011 CJs - May 7-8 - Lake Natoma leads to Tennessee!
The Berkeley High crew season is fairly lengthy when compared to other high school sports. The kids begin training in September as soon as school starts and then compete from mid-winter through late spring. It seems like a long season, but after experiencing a race like the CJs (the Southwest Regional Junior Championships) at Lake Natoma on May 7-8, most would argue that it’s all worth it! Competing with well over 20 teams, CJs is the largest event that the Jackets compete in each year. And it is usually the last race of the season. But not always.
This year, racing ran from about 8am to 6pm both Saturday and Sunday. Of course, that kind of activity requires energy for both racers and spectators. So being from Berkeley, the kids’ parents made sure they had plenty of healthy food to munch on all weekend!
Mini "Hamburger" Cookies Same Bowl - 10 minutes later!
Being the last race of the year, it is often filled with hopes and expectations, as well as frustration and finality. For many of the seniors, it is the last time they will compete in crew. With so many top teams, BHS had plenty of moments of frustration, as they were outgunned by some of the big “club” teams. But the fact is, the Jackets were often right there in the mix until the end. And in the case of our Men’s Lightweight 4+ boat, they qualified to go to Nationals in June!
Rowers from the Men's Lightweight 4+ (Lucas, Ian, Daniel and Kevin)
The day was competed with qualifying heats and by coming in 2nd out of 6 in their heat, they were able to race in event’s final later that day. Then, by finishing in the top 3 in this CJs final, this Lightweight 4+ garnered a spot to go to the US Rowing Youth National Championships (June 10-12) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee! GO JACKETS!
More on CJs to follow.
Results, from US Rowing: here.
Photos: Eric Carlson's SmugMug gallery
510 Sprints - April 23, 2011
Hum-Boldt! Hum-Boldt!
This year's 510 Sprints – Berkeley High Crew's annual celebration of rowing on the Alameda Estuary – was but a race away from completion when the loudest shout of the morning went out for the men's double from up north. With their small but vocal squad of teammates yelling for them to push harder, the Humboldt Bay Rowing Association duo put it all on the line and came out victorious, edging their competition from the Stanford Rowing Club by a mere second. That, and the beauty of a boat full of athletes moving in sync as their shell flies across the surface of the water, is what the sport of crew is all about!
Race morning broke calm and beautiful in the East Bay, the air warm and the water glassy as rowers from Deep Water Rowing Association, Humboldt, Palo Alto Rowing Club, Serra High School, Stanford and the Stockton Rowing Club joined Berkeley High School crew on the estuary. The welcome weather was met by a regatta full of good racing. All but one of the squads came away with at least one 1st place finish, with Stanford and BHS Crew eventually dominating the results board. With equal notes of grace, power and good spirit, the day rang out the end of Berkeley Crew's regular spring season of racing.
Berkeley's winning boats included:
- Men's lightweight double (Daniel Remler and Jason Bowers)
- Men's freshman 8+ (Wesley Eccles, Jack Gerrard, Nico Atherton, Levi Godin, Whitman Hall, Robert Klabbatz, Sam Remler, Lewis Campbell and David Wild, cox)
- Women's varsity 4+ (Ruby Moore-Bloom, Signe Henderson, Cassidy Villeneuve, Ava Miller-Lewis and Juliet Grodzins, cox )
- Women's lightweight 4+ B-boat (Paola Alonso, Delia Werner Bills, Canine Masri, Caroline Pearson and Lillian Farnkopf, cox)
- Men's lightweight 8+ (Daniel, Lucas Bell, Kevin Meador, Jason, Ian Pengra, Brendan Gill, John Clara, Nick Bielak and Hannah Lukanuski, cox)
- Women's varsity 8+ (Ruby, Elle Holland, Cassidy, Signe, Anna-Linnea Rodegard, Ava, Eden Teller, Kiara Grey and Juliet, cox)
- Women's lightweight 8+ (Gina Gonzalez-Roundey, Paisley Sato, Rosie Romick, Geneva DeBiasi, Paola, Caroline, Delia, Canine and Lillian, cox).
Congratulations to all.
Now, the team prepares for the post-season: one shot for glory at the Southwest Regional Junior Championships (the "CJs") over Mother's Day weekend. The best crews from what has become, arguably, the strongest region of junior rowing in the country, will vie for first-, second- and third-place honors and an invitation to the Junior National championships at Oak Ridge, Tennessee in June. Berkeley, being a small team, will field most of its athletes. The action will be intense, and the winning times faster than those on the estuary this weekend. With luck, those ten short, sharp days of preparation will lead to a few pleasant surprises by BHS Crew.
Go Jackets!
More photos, results to come...
Pacific Small Boats Regatta - April 9, 2011
The BHS Crew Team competed against 3 other teams at Lake Merced on Saturday, April 9th, including Pacific Rowing, the Oakland Strokes and the Upper Natoma Rowing Club. After a tough week of wind-impacted practices, they fought their way through most races, with the Women's Novice 8 and the Women's Varsity 4 boats showing the best on the day.
Members of the Women's Novice 8 were happy with their 2nd place finish out of 5 boats.
The week before the race - spring break - was a tough one for training. With some teammates away for college visits and vacations, the Estuary exhibiting very windy conditions, and a little case of "rower malaise", build up to the regatta was not typical. Add to that some indecision on the part of the organizers (let's race Saturday....no Sunday....no Saturday!) and it wasn't the best formula for a stellar day on the water.
Throughout the morning, the team hit the water with 16 boats in 11 races. There were a few 2nd and 3rd places, but unfortunately, no winners. Lindsey, the women's coach, was still pleased that progress had been made and it looked like the women could be on track for a competitive weekend at CJs. A competitor's coach had even mentioned the obvious improvement in the women's team over recent weeks. Chris, the men's coach, said his rowers had the talent, but needed a bit more commitment to take it to the next level and win. But he also recognized the difficulty of the day, given that they had little chance to get on the water to train.
As long as the team builds on this day for our last two regattas, we'll finish the season strong. All rowing can build experience, right? Right! Be there for the 510 Sprints at JLAC on Saturday, April 23rd and then the year's finale at CJs (Lake Natoma) on May 7th and 8th. We'll be counting on you, Jackets!
(Note: Just days after this regatta, the former Harvard rowers, the Winklevoss brothers, had their legal case against Facebook tossed out of court by a judge. Maybe our losses weren't so bad.)
2011 Scholastic Invitational Regatta – "Wet" A Day!
The skies were dark, but the mood bright as the Berkeley High crew team cleaned up at the Scholastic Invitational crew regatta on Saturday, March 19th. As reported on these pages, the prior week’s race was a tough one for BHS. Although challenged by the wind, rain and cooler-than-normal temps at this JLAC regatta, the Jackets performed quite well indeed!
A check of the leader board showed Berkeley High boats garnered seven wins. Not a bad take, given the nasty weather! The first place boats included the Men’s Freshman 8+, the Women's Varsity 4+, the Men’s Lightweight 4+, the Women's Lightweight 4+, the Men’s Novice 8+, the Men’s Lightweight 8+, and topping off the day was a win by the Women’s Novice 8+. The team garnered even more second place finishes (six), a success by any measure! Congrats to the whole team.
More from the finish line: Many crew fans took advantage of a couple of finish line tents to keep out of the rainy weather. And Svante, our MC for the day, provided a music mix that kept people dancing (and a bit warmer) on the impromptu dance floor under the tents! It wasn’t just the music of course, but the success of the team that helped us deal with the day’s chilly rain!
Teams participating included Brophy and Xavier College Preparatory High Schools from Phoenix, Arizona, and St. Ignatius and Serra High Schools from San Francisco and San Mateo, respectively. Thanks to all for attending, especially to the Phoenix teams for making the long trip to “sunny” Northern California.
Our next race, the Pacific Small Boats Regatta, will be held on April 9 at Lake Merced. More info will be posted on this team webpage for the race.
Results, courtesy of Row2K.com.
Families: If you snapped some photos of the regatta, please email them to sendphotos@berkeleyhighcrew.org. Thanks!
Battle of the Bay - March 13
Sunday's Battle of the Bay pitted the Berkeley High School Yellow Jackets against Marin Rowing Association, Oakland Strokes and Saint Ignatius High School. The results board was dominated by Marin and Oakland, who had an almost iron-clad lock on first and second place throughout the day. SI, typically a team, like Berkeley, geared towards success later in the season, fielded a number of very fast boats. Berkeley High's rowers, too, while finishing no higher than third in any event, showed their strength. For the Jackets, though, the regatta provided a bold marker of where the team must get in the next eight weeks.
Bright spots on the day for Berkeley Crew included the Men's Freshman A (A boat) 8+, the Women's Varsity 8+, the Women's Light 8+, the Women's Novice Quad (4x+) and the Men's Lightweight 4+. The Freshman A 8 recovered from a start in which another boat nearly collided with them to finish a strong third, just seconds off the pace of the 2nd-place Strokes. In the Women's Varsity 8 event, all four boats finished within 10.6 seconds of each other.
In the tightest race of the day – a two-boat showdown of men's open weight 4+'s – Marin edged the Strokes by just .4 of a second. Those rowers provided the excitement and beauty that will become more regular as the teams approach championships in May.
The day's racing also brought a nice reunion with former Berkeley Crew coach Morgan Fenner, who's now Assistant Women's Varsity coach for Marin. Morgan's 3V8 boat did well. Plus, she had the chance to check up on the progress that her former rowers are making with the BHS Crew varsity. Sweet stuff, all around!
Results, thanks to: Row2k.com (Note: mistakenly dated March 12)
League Race #2 – Pacific Invitational Regatta
The Berkeley High School crew season is in full swing, with our 2nd race day completed on Saturday, March 5th. What was scheduled to be 2 days of racing at Lake Merced in San Francisco was compressed into one day due to rainy weather forecast for Sunday. That’s not so bad for some rowers, but the spectators appreciated the sun! On the water, there was clear evidence that all those fall and winter days on the erg machines were paying off!
The Pacific Invitational Regatta at Lake Merced hosted 8 teams besides BHS. We raced against many in the field, which included Pacific RC, Serra High, St. Ignatius High, Norcal RC, Capital RC, the Stanford Jrs, Humboldt RC and the River City RC. And a quick look at the top of the leader board showed an equitable share of wins for most teams.
BHS crew fielded 8 boats throughout the day and the Varsity Men started the day off strong with a tie for 2nd in the Lightweight 4 race. Also early in the day, the Varsity Women’s Lightweight 4 just missed a 2nd place spot. Coach Chris Dadd noted that many of our rowers had not been able to get enough time in the water, but were just “going on guts.” The message here was to just be patient! Later in the morning, the men’s Lightweight 2X, in a race with 6 other doubles, pleased the coaches and the fans with a strong 2nd place showing. Excellent efforts were put in for the day by all of our boats, women and men, Novice and Varsity, 8’s and 4’s.
Some later races were not quite as successful as the earlier races; Coach Chris noted that it’s early in the season and the rowers were “still learning to be competitive”. But one boat, the Men’s Freshman 8, didn't get the memo and proved that statement wrong! After fighting off an early challenge, they topped the field of 6 boats with a win by an impressive 4.5 seconds. Now that these young guys know what winning feels like, we think they’ll be back for more!
The Freshman 8 win with plenty of time at the line.
Some of the proud Freshman 8 winners!
Congrats to all of our rowers for their strong efforts! All in all, it turned out to be a great day. The decision to compress all the races into this one sunny day proved a good one and we went home with a strong first place, two second places and hard efforts from everyone involved. The team continues to grow and will get to test itself again on March 13th at the Battle of the Bay at JLAC. See you there!
Detailed results can be found at http://www.row2k.com.
League Race #1 - Positive Signs for the Spring
Smiles filled the faces of the Berkeley High School rowers as BHS Crew's spring 2011 racing season began on Sunday, February 13. After a winter of fitness and strength training, it felt good to be back out on the water. Sunday's meet, at Lake Merced in San Francisco, featured host Pacific Rowing Club, Palo Alto Rowing Club, the newly formed Upper Natoma Rowing Club and Berkeley High Crew. With a couple of wins and many strong second and third place finishes, the day's racing provided the Jackets an encouraging starting point for the upcoming season.
The women's 3V8+ (the shorthand means "third varsity boat of eight rowers plus a coxswain") began the morning with an exciting win. In only their second time rowing together, Anastasia Magana, Canine Masri, Emma Lutz, Madison Hibbs, Paola Alonso, Caroline Pearson, Taylor Niles, Luisa Pio and cox Lilian Farnkopf held off the Pacific Rowing Club's boat to cross the finish line 1.3 seconds ahead. As the afternoon began, the men's JV4, rowed by Ari Bolton, Julian Jaffe, Jack Lee and Marcel Ramos and coxed by Kieran Nageotte, took another first for the BHS. The men's lightweight and frosh 8's and the women's lightweight, JV and frosh 8's all rowed strong races, too – a bit exceptional for a team that has recently been too small to field competitive eights. "Always, we'd like to win more," said Coach Chris Dadd, "but there were a lot of good things happening out there today."
Coach Lindsey Anderson pointed out that the women had competed against Pacific Rowing the previous week indoors, on erg machines, at the Peninsula Indoor Rowing Championships. Out on the water, in boats, the Jackets fared much better. "They were a bit intimidated after last week," said Anderson. Today's strong showing will build the girl's confidence about the races to come.
Results: row2k.com
Photos: Eric Carlson's photos (posted on SmugMug)
Extra: After the day's racing, the team posed for yearbook photos. Here, thanks to parent Mike Gill, is a short video of that moment. Thanks Mike!
Head of the American Race – A New Year of Racing Starts! October 30, 2010
The Berkeley High Crew Team's first race of the new school year was a day filled with anticipation. On Saturday, October 30th, the team headed up to Lake Natoma for the annual Head of the American, which they had not raced for years. While it's not yet the official race season, it's a time for everyone to get a good feel for how things should (or shouldn't!) be. Would the novices do well in their very first races ever? Would the experienced rowers click together in their new arrangements after the summer break? Would all the racers be able to put out full power for the full 5K in distance? Would the cloudy skies stay dry? These were all questions that would be answered later on in the day.
A "head race" is a race against the clock. The boats don't line up for a side-by-side start like a sprint. In addition, they race for 5K instead of 2K in distance. They assemble with their competitors, go off the line at timed intervals, and then race against the clock. The skies occasionally spit on the rowers, but it was more refreshment than a distraction or discomfort. Berkeley High rowers fielded eleven boats in six races during the day. There were 70 different races being contested by all types of racers, including collegiate, masters and of course, high school. Included on the racer list were current Board President Ken Lutz and former crew parents Tom (former Board President) and Fredericka Horton - racing for JLAC - as well as 2010 graduate Zander Morgan, who is attending and racing for Humboldt State. Nice to see you all!
The first BHS boat heading out for the first race of the 2010 Head of the American
And how did the team do? The day started out with the Men's Varsity Quad (4X), which took 4th place out of 7 teams, missing 3rd place by just 3 seconds with a time of 17min 36sec. The Men's Novice 8+ was next and learned a hard lesson about getting to the start line on time! Due to a late arrival, they were penalized by 1 minute and ended up in last place with a time of 20min 23.3sec. All are confident that won't happen a second time!
The new BHS Crew T-Shirts made their debut at the Head of the American race
The Women's Novice 8+ race had two entries from Berkeley and showed a lot of heart, but ended up near the end of the pack. Hey listen, Lance Armstrong dropped out of his first Tour de France, so give 'em some time! Next up for Berkeley were the Men's Lightweight 4, also with 2 boats out of the 7 total, 4 of which were college level. One of our boats pushed hard enough to come in 3rd, beating 2 of the 4 colleges and the other came in 5th, also besting one of the colleges! Many members of the women's team got a chance to race in our next entry, which was the Women's 8+, where we entered 4 boats. Our top boat was 9th out of this huge field of 38 boats, with the others down in the field. With so many boats in the field, just a little more effort will move many of them up in the standings next time. And our final race was the Men's 2X or double, where our varsity came in 2nd out of 9 entrants with a great time of 20:13!
A competitor's bow message
Results to be posted.
And don't forget about our next race, the annual Bair Island Regatta in Foster City. This year, it will be held on November 21st. See you there!
