By Jonathan Furlong ’12, ’13
After the disappointing performance at ACRA, we quickly returned to training, diving right back into two-a-days. The coaches felt we needed to develop a little more toughness to prepare us for the knockout style racing of Henley, which Frank described as “a regatta for those willing to fight to the death every day”. Workouts were intense and competitive, highlighted by “The Gauntlet”: a 1-on-1 erg challenge, where both rowers are assigned a target split, and the piece ends when one takes 10 strokes slower than the target. And just like Henley, the winners advanced through a bracket to race again, until Ben Hammond emerged as champion.
We all managed to endure about 2 weeks of this type of brutal training, before we scaled back the intensity just a notch, to give us a chance to make some final selections and test our speed against the records from the 2011 boats. The lineups are now all set (listed below), and all boats seem to be starting to find some swing; practice times consistently indicate that all of this year’s boats are faster than the 2011 versions. Also, a special thanks to Kevin Sauer, who spent time working with the 8+ on Monday, providing a new perspective, technical coaching, and valuable advice.
Varsity 8+, Temple Challenge Cup: Jonny Furlong (s), Ty Saitta, Scott Stuard, Sean Watson, Steven Lee-Kramer, Perry Cox, Garrett Thomas, Ben Hammond, Sarah Zillioux (c)
Varsity 4+ A, Prince Albert Cup: Peter Malm (s), Ed Crocker, Dylan Staples, Will Courtney, Katie Garrity (c)
Varsity 4+ B, Prince Albert Cup: Gage Wells (s), Ian Feeney, Forrest Brown, Edwin Nieves, Lindsay Sackellares (c)
Spares: Thom Hammond, Sam Kush, Bert Udler