"Damp, but Brightening" was the most optimistic take on the weather today on the official race comment sheets.
A few bright sun moments, sure, but light rain and, well, damp kept moving through before a crescendo of a storm. It hit, and poured, just before the Tea Interval, putting launch riders in ponchos and adding some extra weight to the crews on the water--including Washington's 2V Eight out for its next round of the Island Cup.
The sun was back out by the time the Huskies were on the clock and easing away from Dutch crew. Afterward, Husky coxswain Grace Murdock said the key to this race was the faith this crew--which raced the NCAAs in nearly the same lineup--has in each other:
"I think we went into this race just fully trusting that we were going to take every stroke for each other. We were making calls for everybody and you could just feel everybody backing each other up."
Brown also advanced in the Island before tea-time, and faces Nereus from the Netherlands next.
Who Moved On By Tea Time(US crews): Ben Davison (Diamonds M1x); Kara Kohler (Princess Royal W1x); Brown and Washington (Island W8+); Winter Park (Prince Philip JW8+); California A (Prince Albert M4+); Edmunds & King-Smith of Yale, Ahyi & Van Westreenen of Cal, and Mirfin and Frampton of UW (Hambleden W2-)
Who Went Out By Tea Time (US crews) Washington (Prince Albert M4+); California and Brown (Princess Grace W4x); Los Gatos (Fawley JM4x); Rosts & Krol of UW (Double Sculls M2x)
Getting Through in Singles and Pairs
Earlier in the day, it was good to be in the single--Ben Davison and Kara Kohler both won in convincing fashion--and in the pair, where all three collegiate pairs won easily.
First it was Yale's "home crew" duo of locals Lucy Edmunds and Katie King-Smith showed the pedigree as a U23 medalist and Henley winner, respectively, that put them in this elite pair event--and out of the Yale 1V that will race the Island--by winning going away, then Cal's Lucine Ahyi & Fien Van Westreenen did them one better with a slightly faster time. The Cal race was close to the 1/4 mile but their opponent bobbled and Cal slid away to the margin and the quicker time.
Cal's Lucine Ahyi & Fien Van Westreenen
The reward for those two pairs will be a quartet of Olympic gold medalists: Olympic Pair Champs Grace Prendergast and Kerri Williams from New Zealand for Cal, and for Yale it's the "AUSA" pair, with 2-time USA gold medalist Meghan Musnicki and Aussie 4- Champ Jessica Morrison.
The Washington pair--Shakira Mirfin and Madi Frampton--rowed just as cleanly down the course to advance. Mirfin and Frampton come out of Washington's Varsity Four from NCAAs, which means that UW, out of all the US colleges here, most closely resembles its NCAA squad: the 1V is in the Remenham, the 2V is in the Island, and then this pair. They next race Rowing Australia's Jean Mitchell and Eleanor Price, who won a bronze at the Poznan World Cup in the AUS Eight.
UW's Shakira Mirfin and Madi Frampton
UW Assistant Gordon Getsinger is working with the pair here: "I think they were happy to get down the course and go side by side with somebody for the first time at Henley. It's the most iconic venue there is in the world, but I think you have to kind of get through that that moment of like, "Oh my God, it's Henley, it's Henley." But then all sudden, they were able to hit their rhythm and be confident in their strokes by about 300 or 400 in."
The crew itself is a perfect microcosm of the UW program in this era: Shakira Mirfin hails from New Zealand and Madi Frampton? A Washington State native.
The day was more mixed for US college and junior quads: both college quads--Cal's and Brown's--went out, as did Los Gatos' silver medal crew from Youth Nationals.
"I think the Hereford crew just handled the conditions better than we did," said Channing Walker, the Los Gatos coach, "and that was unfortunate. It was not our best, but I think we were very aggressive."
"Our season has had a similar pattern: we were equal to, if not slightly quicker than the [Youth Champ] Newport Sea Base outfit in the first half of the race. Then they were just better drilled, a little stronger in the second half, so I think they just they need to they need to get fitter. They're all coming back, they're all juniors, so I'm confident that they'll be better next year."
For the bow pair, the summer is not quite over: Alberto Lasso and Jonas Thieme won the Junior Pair Trials last month, and are now headed to Rome for a training camp ahead of U19 Worlds in Varese.
Lasso is excited to get back to work: "A big part of racing at Junior Worlds is going to be this training block that we're going to have before Junior worlds, just to keep the fitness up. I think that's really the most important part as we go into this."
Thieme was looking forward to the switch to sweep: "I'm a big fan of the pair, especially this pair: it is one of my favorite pairs."
"They both have aspirations to row lightweight programs at the next level," said Coach Walker and I think an opportunity to sweep against, you know, the best heavyweight juniors in the world is something that they're looking forward to."
The Dolphin Club fared better, making the most of their first race and advanced with a four length win over Tideway Scullers.
"At the starting line, I was definitely very anxious," said strokeman Dylan Good. "Every practice I've just been imagining what it'd be like in the race but I didn't really prepare myself. It's just like I had to zone out and just really focus on getting clean strokes as opposed to winning."
"Even when we pulled away, I was like, they're coming back--I've seen this happen too many times to take it down a notch. So I just kept going at it until Tommy called the shift down at the very end. It was definitely a really good race: it felt really good I never was like really comfortable with our lead."
The crew has not had many opportunities to race this year, and we asked 2-seat Tommy Barbey what it was like to finally get to side-by-side racing:
"With racing the time trial, I'm glad we got one run down the course, but other than that, watching the racing on Tuesday was pretty brutal. I'm glad we got the bye because I think we needed it we were pretty tired from jet lag and everything. But I think watching that racing and seeing everyone get the extra experience and especially watching the crew we raced: they were down and they walked back through."
"We wanted to put as much distance in as we could, and even when I was trying to call it down at the end, I don't think the boat wanted to go down."
Of note, it is reportedly pretty unusual for the Stewards to award "selected status" and a higher seed to crews that come from Qualifying, but both Dolphin Club and the Winter Park Junior Women must have really impressed with their speed since this rare occurence happened twice, and both are impressing during race week proper.
How About that Winter Park Crew?
As for Winter Park in the Junior Women's eight, after an opening win against Tideway that one Steward deemed "definitive," Park proceeded today to knock off the defending event champions from Headington School, and did so with record times at every marker--beating the previous mark by 16 seconds.
Winter Park takes out Headington, with both crews well under record pace
Needless to say, Winter Park has turned some heads, and the group clapping them out of the tents as the launched was notably larger today--and that was even before they got out fast on Headington and then clung doggedly to the lead to win the race on grit.
Stroke-oar Paige Perrott acknowledged Henley is far longer than her crew races during the season back home:
"Coming from a scholastic team where we race 1500s, and this is longer than a 2k, it's definitely a completely different mentality. Honestly, the thing that like got me personally through the race was like the calls that we had the coxswain make: she made like calls for me to go for my sister, who's also in a boat [at 3] and she made calls for my granddad whose been here like this whole way and donated money for us to even be here today. Coach Vertullo always says that the piece is done with the heart, and I felt like all of us had our own personal reasons to go for each other--and also for everyone at home watching and the support we've gotten here. We've gained so much support at this regatta."
Winter Park next faces what many fancy to be the local favorite in Henley Rowing Club in the semi final on Saturday.
California and Washington treating the Enclosures to a proper Pac-12 Dual in the Prince Albert Fours; Cal takes it.
One Hip-Hip for a Single: the tradition of hip-hipping your opponent three times is all well and good for big boats, but when it is just two scullers? After one race, we saw one athlete just looks at the other and say "hip, hip, eh" and give a wave. Seemed to do the trick.
The Hidden Boatyards: the boatyards are well tucked away over the car park meadow and across Remenham Lane. Once you wander back there, though the rows of trailers remind you that Henley is just another regatta after all--and you sure see plenty of what may be one of the original Rowing Hacks: sectioned eights ready for trailering on tiny UK roads.
The Breakfast Club: crews here practice under many watchful eyes, but just across from the finish line this year, long time--and legendary--Brentwood College coach Tony Carr breakfast with his family, critiques the bladework passing by, and gets his son, current Brentwood Coach Brian, to look up bow numbers so he can track who is rowing the best. So, keep it sharp when you head out, and when you turn for that next lap: Coach is taking notes.
Officially Worlds Boats: three of the US crews and six of the athletes formally accepted the spots on the 2022 World Championships Team which they earned in Poznan today. The Light Men's Double, Light Women's Single, and sculler Ben Davison will race intact here, while the other six will race in the Men's Eight (Michale Grady and Justin Best), the Women's Eight (Claire Collins and Maddie Wanamaker), the Women's Quad (Sophie Vitas), and the Women's Single (Kara Kohler)
The HRR Report: You can read about more racing highlights, to include ones after the Tea Interval, in Thursday's Summaries.