The First 250: March 21

If you’re thinking the racing season went from 0 to 60 real quick, you’re thinking what I’m thinking.

There were a lot of races taking place this past weekend including the 1st Manny Flick / Horvat Series, the Head of the Fort, the University of Washington’s Class Day Regatta, and the Cardinal Invite.

The University of Tulsa competed at the Cardinal Invite in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, against a number of other Division I schools.

“We saw a lot of progress from morning to afternoon racing,” Interim Head Coach Olivia Staff said. “We’ve have worked on their confidence and ownership of their race plan in spring training and today we saw them implement that. A lot of our new kids really stepped up for their first spring race and it is fun to watch as we compete against some top teams.”

Yale was a dominant contender at the event taking the top spot in the women’s varsity eight, varsity four, second varsity eight, and second varsity four events.

“The Cardinal Invite is a great way to start the season,” said Will Porter, The Friends of YWC Head Coach of the Bulldogs. “We saw crews from the ACC, Big Ten, and the Big 12. It was good to see how we match up against teams that raced at last year’s NCAA’s.”

At 1st Manny Flick / Horvat Series, the Mount Saint Joseph girl’s varsity eight lineup of Maggie Horgan, Kathryn Sponseller, Sarah Powell, Alexa Konowal, Caroline Johnson, Nina Rowello, Kelly Cleary, Grace Hartzell, and coxswain Annmarie Wallis had the fastest time of the day in that event clocking in at 5:12.340. Merion Mercy Academy had the second fast time with Mount Saint Joseph’s entry of Molly Maher, Anna Fedders, Clara Pagano, Maya McCottry, Meghan Krumenacker, Elizabeth Fazio, Karoline Prosperi, Grace Kyle, and coxswain Angelina Baker rounding out the top three times.

In the boy’s varsity eight event, La Salle’s entry of Matthew Kennedy, Justin Sloan, Liam Strain, Justin Getty, Dalton Janiczek, Thomas Tingley-Kelley, Kevin McCann, Shane Murphy, and coxswain Luke Bernal finished first with a time of 4:42.980. St. Joe’s two entries in the event weren’t too far behind finishing with a time of 4:46.820 and 5:00.050.

The 121st annual University of Washington Class Day Regatta also took place this past weekend continuing a longtime Husky tradition.

In the Seattle Times Women’s Eight event, the juniors took the top spot edging out the senior class by a little more than two seconds.

“I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” said UW women’s head coach Yasmin Farooq. “The senior boat, they’re definitely a very strategic crew, and they were in tact—the lineup was entirely seniors. The junior boat got to draft a couple of fifth-years and there definitely was a sense of redemption, because they were last year’s seniors, and they’d been beaten that junior class last year.”

In the George M. Varnell Men’s Eight age and experience won overall with the senior class finishing ahead of all others with a time of 5:44.974. The junior class came in second with a time of 5:48.082.

“It was really great to have Class Day activities back in full, with the banquet last night and parents here to watch,” said UW men’s coach Michael Callahan, “and it’s always great to see the seniors win. As a coach, you root for your seniors as they’re going out of the program. It was a really fun race to see them get the lead from the start and hold on from there.”

It’s a huge week of racing for senior national team hopefuls with the USRowing National Selection Regatta I and Para/Senior Speed Order regatta beginning Tuesday and running until Friday at Nathan Benderson Park. If that’s not enough another big weekend of racing will take place March 26-27 including the San Diego Crew Classic, American Youth Cup Series II, District Sprints, and the Doc Hosea Invitational.

Rowing News is covering NSR I throughout the week so follow along on social, in the app, and here on RowingNews.com to keep up with the action. Racing begins Tuesday at 8:00 a.m.