Polar Bear Regatta

29 March 2008

On a crisp, partly cloudy morning Woodson got off to another outstanding beginning of a season. The morning started off with a thrilling sprint through the leading boat by the Men’s First Four for a win by half a boat length. This exciting win was immediately followed by the Women’s First Eight who took first place and rowed the fastest time of all twelve boats in the two First Eight races.

The Men’s Second Four after a slow start placed third and looked very good the last half of the race. In the Women’s Second Eight, rowing your new Resolute, after rowing dead even with one other boat, pulled away at the sprint and finished with a 10-second open water victory over the nearest competition.

To end the day for Woodson, the Men’s Light Eight got off to a bad start with a broken seat and last place at the start, rowing several hundred meters by six to rowing to a third by the finish. This suggests a very fast boat and we look forward to the Walter L. Mess regatta next Saturday. We don’t yet know the potential for that boat.

Boat times for all the boats are available on the NCASRA Website at: www.NCASRA.org.

In summary, we entered five boats, three Eights and two Fours and finished the day with three first place and two third place finishes. This is a tribute to your outstanding coaching staff beginning with our conditioning coaches and their outstanding program over the winter.

Next week is the Walter L. Mess and the first full regatta that will have novices and freshmen, and heats and finals. This coming week will be an intense practice week. Encourage your athletes to keep up their academics and attend all the practices.

- Coach Fitzgerald