HOCR and Head of the Fish Recap
Hello Marist Rowing Alumni, Family and Friends,
Fall has arrived in earnest to the Hudson Valley. This past weekend we experienced our last gasp of summer with an eerily warm Head of the Fish Regatta at 70+ degrees, sunny and everyone in shorts and tees! We were the thankful group to escape Saratoga this year with the juniors on Sunday getting destroyed with heavy rain and temps in the 40’s! Extremely special honors go to our freshly installed weatherman junior James “Tennessee” Hall who has provided genteel southern comfort for our oarsmen throughout October. Even this morning, we had perfect glassy water and rain that seemed to abate just for us as soon as we hit the water. I’m certain he’s just storing up for some kind of biblical flood of world rending hurricane but so far it’s all upside! This week i’m coming to you with recaps from BOTH the HOCR Regatta and the Head of the Fish Regatta.
Head of the Charles Regatta Recap
What an amazing weekend in Boston. We had a HUGE crew in Boston to celebrate the full spectrum of generations of our crew. Friday was partly sunny and light winds for a perfect practice day. Saturday morning dawned rainy but the rain kept the wind low and the alumni raced in a casual crossing tailwind and nearly perfect water with many course records being set throughout the day. Sunday the sun came back but hammered us hard with about 15-25mph gusty headwind on the race course. All 3 days were a pleasant 60 degrees.
Saturday morning kicked off the racing with an amazing group of alumni racing throughout the morning. First down the course was the senior masters eight (50+ avg age) with members of the classes of 1982-2001 and helmed by Claire Connally from the class of 2020. Next came the Veteran Masters Eight (70+ age avg) who represented the classes of 1968-1981 and were coxed by Matthew Wright from the class of 2026. In the Alumni Eight we had 8 of our recent alumni from the classes of 2017-2023 and led by coxswain Ryan Lillis ‘18. Filling out the morning schedule the Women Alumnae raced in the Alumnae Eights led by Katie Moody ‘22. While the rainy conditions continued, many people disbanded from the race course but a core group of the alumni crews stuck around to watch our Varsity Women racing in the Club Four and the Club Eight events and then to watch current USNT member Chris Carlson ‘19T and USNT Ltwt hopeful Chris Crawley ‘21 racing in the Championship Hwt and Ltwt singles respectively.
Sunday was a far nicer day in the weather department alibi far windier on the water. There were fewer moving parts for us on land however we spent most of the day inundated with visiting recruits from the HS classes of ‘24 and ‘25 (a good problem to have). The varsity eight raced to a 33rd placing which was certainly below our expected position and below our goal by a significant amount. I’ll discuss more below
Marist Alumni Senior Eight Hype Vid!
My Thoughts on HOCR
I don’t like making excuses for myself or our crews. For certain the conditions played a role in disrupting our rhythm as a crew and we didn’t spend much time practicing in similar conditions in the days leading up to HOCR; however those same conditions would have effected the other boats as well. I can attribute the performance to two key factors. First I believe that headwinds have the effect of exposing the fitness levels between crews enabling the strongest boats to extend the margins between them and their weaker rivals. Our top crew has become increasingly savvy on the technical front but our scores on the erg have not been on par with winning Charles crews and I think that was on display this year. Also I think that our athletes have raced and are racing too conservatively in the last two seasons and requires a mentality shift that both Coach Stratton and I are trying to correct. The eight requires significantly less finesse than other shells and far most intensity and power. It is a boat where aggression pays big dividends and caution yields very little. In our experience, fast eights race with swagger, confidence bordering on arrogance, complete trust in one another and a unique willingness to “leap without looking” meaning to go all out in the early stages of races and depend on their fitness to last through the finish. Our time splits from Sunday showed a crew unwilling to take that leap. As we enter the winter, our obvious goals will be to take the next steps as a team in our fitness levels but an important intangible we will be hoping to hone is this willingness to race with a reckless abandon, especially in the early parts of workouts and pieces.
**Before I move, on I just wanted to mention how amazing this event has become each year. I was really filled with pride this fall as I watched four generations of Marist oarsmen preparing and racing, all working in unison for a common cause and all important parts of the past, present, and future of our crew. Many of you got a chance to meet recruits and it was amazing for them to see the real depth and strength of our Marist Rowing family. Several of my own former athletes were busy coaching their own youth or collegiate crews with great success and still taking time to stop by and lend their time and talents to our team. It gave me some amazing perspective about what it means to be the head coach of this crew and made me feel more determined than ever to do our best for all the parts of our Red Fox Navy
Head of the Fish Recap
The Head of the Fish arrived with unseasonably warm conditions and a headwind that started relatively calm in the morning but increased throughout the day. We started the day with collegiate singles where we raced Gavin Crouch and Thomas Graves. Gavin had a great run on the course and placed 2nd, just 4 seconds shy of taking the fish head home. He’d experienced major cramping in his forearm in the final meters and was super bummed he couldn’t close out the race as strongly as he wanted. Graves placed 9th with a good run but admittedly not the best we’ve seen this fall. Next we raced a collegiate quad. This was just a fun race for us with 2 of our recruited frosh and two of our current sophomores who volunteered to row with them. For 3 seat Peter Martinich it was only his 3rd or 4th time sculling ever! The boat placed 8th of 13 crews. In the collegiate fours we had 3 difference lineups filled with all upperclassmen and no Frosh. The crews placed 4th, 14th, and 24th out of 39 entries. In the Novice Eight we had recruited coxswain Joe Wyrozemski leading a mixed boat of 4 recruited oarsmen and 4 novices. They placed 3rd of 13 crews. The Varsity eight placed 7th of 15 crews The were 3 other crews within 5 seconds of their time. The 2V8 placed 5th in their event out of 15 crews and finally we had 2 novice fours that were composed entirely of novices and placed 11th and 14th out of 14 crews. Special nod to Robby Sasso, our novice coxswain who got his first TWO races ion Saturday with very limited boat time in the lead-up to the day!
My Thoughts on the Fish
This Fish went off better for us from a performance standpoint than last year however changes by the organizers in the timing of events certainly made the day feel more rushed and less enjoyable than previous episodes. As a general rule, boats came off the water feeling pretty good about their races and the positivity at the trailer was tangible (shoutout to Marty Torrey ‘73 for stopping by to cheer us on!). The Frosh eight had a good run and showed that we are a stronger class than last year at this time. This team is going to rebuild strongly in the coming seasons and the current class ‘27 has some key components to offer. The varsity eight rearranged slightly this week with a bucket at 4 and 5 seat in an effort to eliminate an ongoing starboard side lean. This effort was largely successful and the oarsmen reported a more set and consistent row in similar conditions to what we faced the previous weekend in Boston. The 2V raced hard and delivered some of the spunk and fight we have seen from that group throughout the fall. Overall it wasn’t our best possible outcome but it was far closer to our “best possible performance” than HOCR was and a good next step in the progression of the crews. There are clear target teams within easy striking distance for the spring. We saw a little more of the aggression we’re seeking today but there is a LOT more to be found in the coming months!
While the performance of the crew hasn’t changed substantially this fall from last fall I think we are entering this winter training period in a VERY different position from last year. For a start, we have gained considerable depth this fall with an entire extra eight of athletes where last year we only had two. I am expecting to have a full 3rd V8 this spring and that added depth increases our sustainability, reliability, and competitiveness. In addition, many of the athletes who have been in a more development mode are nearing a level of technical proficiency where their next big steps are going to shift strongly into the fitness arena. In particular, big men from our 2V last fall have gotten a glimpse of what the challenges in the V8 have to bare and are ready to take the next steps to tackle those challenges as they continue to develop. The coming month will be an important next step. with 4 weeks of water time before the true winter training period begins, the goals will be 3 fold.
1) Elevate the current novice athletes to increased technical proficiency where they can contribute to team practices on the water seamlessly
2) Elevate team fitness and strength. This will included elements of ergometer training, weight lifting and water workouts.
3) Chart clear individual goals and courses for our athletes to prepare them for the year’s ahead.
The positivity, competitiveness and brotherly support are extremely evident in this group; important tools that are going to make the next steps possible. Now it’s time to execute!