After a long week of heavy training twice a day, we finished Spring Break with a friendly scrimmage against Georgetown. Over the course of the week we rowed heavy volume and tried various lineups, making solid improvements throughout. On Friday we settled on racing lineups for the next day and practiced some rate work to prepare. On Saturday, both the Georgetown heavies and the lights stopped by Charlottesville on their way home from training camp in Tennessee to join us for pieces.
We did a total of five pieces with them: three 1k’s and two 500s, all open rate. We did the pieces in three waves – 1V, 2V, and 3V, with the a novice 8 racing (and holding up well) with the 3Vs. The performances from all boats were solid, especially considering the workload and experimentation of the entire week leading up. In fact, there was even some lineup experimenting during the scrimmage, as some rowers swapped seats in between pieces to test out various lineups. In terms of results, the Varsity Eight was beating the Georgetown lightweights and consistently holding with the heavies, never losing contact at any point. We were also very happy to see a group of supporters watching from the shore despite the cold conditions.
After the pieces, Georgetown joined us for lunch on the pad, kindly organized by parents. All in all, the scrimmage was an excellent opportunity to add some competitive spice to our early spring training, and a reminder of the big racing coming up sooner than we realize. We’re looking forward to another scrimmage this weekend against Bucknell and Navy Lights as we get closer and closer to championship season.
Thanks for the recap go to Second-Year Alek Blumberg; he was 2-seat in the V8.