League Race #1 - Lake Merced (Feb 14)
Photo by Eric Carlson
The 2010 season for Berkeley High Crew started on Sunday, February 14th as the team competed in its first league race of the year at Lake Merced in San Francisco. The 1500 meter distance was shorter than normal, but that didn't mean the racing would be any easier. If anything, it meant the teams would be truly sprinting from the start!
Berkeley joined the River City Rowing Club and the Pacific Rowing Club for the race. It was a quieter event than last year, with only three teams participating, but tension still found its way into the event. Throughout the day, the women's and men's teams contested a total of 15 races.
The day began inauspiciously for the Jackets. The first race was a novice men's quad event. Four racers and eight oars in each boat. Four boats started the race and two crossed the finish line. Berkeley was not among the finishers. "Where's our boat?" spectators asked. An announcement came from the judges that Berkeley had a mechanical problem. Uh-oh. Soon the boat limped across the line; one section of the boat's rigging was damaged and one oar was missing. The oar was recovered, but the boat was done for the day. Coach Chris wasn't happy, as this was an important boat for the team. It could be difficult to repair. As he said: "This rigging isn't an off-the-shelf item." But he was realistic: "Tomorrow we'll just deal with it." Needless to say, those four racers were dejected.
Just over an hour later, the same four novice men joined four fresh teammates in a novice 8 race. The fog that had shown up now and then earlier was gone and sun was shining. Fueled by anger and frustration from the mechanical troubles shortly before, the novices hit the course hard and pulled out a win! The tide had turned and the team was again stoked!
Throughout the rest of this Valentine's Day, the team was kissed with 4 more first places, two for the women (novice 8 and freshmen 8) and two for the men (lightweight 4 and doubles). There were also some "near misses," with a number of hard efforts that didn't result in wins, but provided some satisfaction and plenty of learning experience. Everyone worked extremely hard and, for what started off a bit frustratingly, this turned out to be a great day of racing!
