The NRRA presents the CT chapter of the Susan G. Komen foundation with a check for $7,311.00 from the 1st Annual Row for the Cure

Row for the Cure a huge success! Over $6,000 raised and lots of gold medals and smiles!

• See some NRRA pictures here.......
• In the news here........

10/31/2009

Happy Halloween (courtesy of Liz)

10/13/2009

NRRA crews won two gold medals on Sunday, part of a horde of five they brought home from the Head of the Riverfront Regatta in Hartford.

The JV boys eight  of Ben Stout, Stephen Zoeller, Matthew Lamonte, Clark Ely, Evan Boliakis, Kyle La Vecchia, Sam Oster,   Jeff Mastrianna, and cox Matt Stout put down the winning time of 20:50.5 over the 3.2 mile course, with a margin of fifteen seconds over the second-place crew.  The novice boys eight of Ryan Lewis, Trey Chapman, Chris Barr, Kyle Mikesh, Charlie Stout, Brad Plunkett, Tucker Klutey, Holden Chung, and cox Ryan Cross convincingly won the first race of their rowing careers by thirty three seconds.

Also rowing strongly in their first race, the girls novice eight of Mallory Dunlap, Taylor Schwabe, Anastasia Livesay, Alex Stonehill, Caroline Demko, Kylie O’Connor, Madeline Vocke, Claudia Tomaj, and Grace Phinney won silver medals, only seven seconds out of the lead.

Masters rowers brought home their share of hardware.  Katie Sikes and Stephanie Hedges placed second in the womens open double sculls event and Juliet Brocki won a bronze medal in the master womens single.

Coach Rob Slocum, rowing under the NRRA banner, brought home another gold medal.

Congrats to all!!!!

NRRA Rows 1,502,300 Meters in 11th Annul Matthew Zucker Memorial Ergathon

Many thanks to the dedicated rowers and team of volunteers who made last Saturday’s Ergathon and Tag Sale a huge success.  With the help of 103 youth, 28 friends and family of NRRA, and 20 masters and coaches, we were able to surpass our goal by 2,300 meters in just over 7 hours!  Pledges are still coming in, but to date we’ve raised just over $10,000…only a small portion of our goal of raising $35,000 to support youth scholarships during the 2009-2010 season.  It’s not too late to make your contribution (or collect your pledges) for the Matthew Zucker Memorial Scholarship Fund.

NRRA Men win Gold medals at the FISA Masters World Championships in Vienna, Austria!Congrats Bill and Klaas!

Youth Racing Team Orientation will be held at 3:30pm at the Norwalk Senior Center on Wed. and Thursday this week.

Rowing Strong, Rowing Together wins Silver!

Masters Nationals: Last Update

Here's the final update -

The first NRRA race of the day was the Mixed A 4x.  Jake, Melanie, Katy and Pat came in second in their heat to advance.  In the afternoon they finished fifth in the final.

The Womens' Club A 4x was final only (lucky them).  Juliet, Jessie, Melanie and Katy raced an aggressive race to finish second and win a silver medal (beating Saugatuck I might add)!

In the Mixed B 4x, Jake, Tom, Jessie and Steph won their heat to advance to the final.  They raced a great race (the last race of the regatta) and came in second to win a silver medal!

After racing was complete we loaded the trailer, gathered the rest of the hardware, refilled our mugs at Wild Bills one last time and went out separate ways.  Mel and I had a rather uneventful trip home with the trailer (yes - we drove it ourselves) and were relieved to pull up to the boathouse in Norwalk last night.

Congratulations to all on some terrific racing.  The hard work that you put in over the season paid off and I was proud to watch you race down the course.  Enjoy the week off and come back ready to train on Monday, August 24th!

Masters - hold the date of Thursday, August 28th at 7:00pm on your calendar.  We're going to hold a meeting to talk about the fall, upcoming races, and training options.  I expect to see all of you there!

Best regards,
Leanne

Masters Nationals: Update #3

Hi All,

Here is a recap of racing on Saturday ..

We started off the day with the heat of the Mixed D 4x.  Tom, Colleen, Jon and Bev finished third in their heat to advance to the final.  Next up they swapped out Bev for Marisel for the heat of the Mixed C 4x.  They finished second in their heat (1 second behind Annapolis) to advance to the final in the afternoon.  Great job to both crews!

In the final of the Mixed D 4x, NRRA raced to a fifth place finish.  Right after they arrived back on the dock the light weights went to weigh in.  Juliet, Jessie, Marisel and Steph all weighed in comfortably under 130 lbs (as if any of us were worried with this oppressive heat).  Their race, the Ltwt B 4x, was final only.  They finished third and walked away with bronze medals!  In the final of the Mixed C 4x, NRRA finished sixth.  I think it is safe to say that everyone was spent at that point.

After derigging some boats, we made a field trip over to Sprinkles for frozen yogurt.  We hung around in the parking lot and convinced Jon and Tom to go to dinner with us.  Located conveniently across the parking lot in the massive strip mall was a Cheesecake Factory.  Tom didn't believe that they actually had food there and the lightweights all decided that it would be a great treat.  Jon made sure that we were seated as quickly as we could be, while Juliet and I wandered to Ulta to change and clean up (we highly recommend the pomegranate facial wipes).  We ate a delicious dinner and enjoyed the Jon Jensen show (did you know that Jon had kidnap insurance?), then parted ways to crash for the night. 

Mel, Katy, Pat and Jake are joining us in Camden tomorrow for the final day of racing - expect to see some more great NRRA racing!  Mel and I are driving the trailer home as soon as we finish with racing (or we can get the trailer out of the corner that we are backed into - may require another trip to Sprinkles to wait that one out).  Expect to see results Monday morning at the latest.

Best,
Leanne

Masters Nationals: Update #2

Friday

We started off the day with a trip to starbucks, of course.  As far as the weather goes, the rain and clouds that we had on Thursday decided to make way for the heat and humidity that we have all come to expect from Camden, especially in August!

The first NRRA race of the day was the Mixed A 2x with Katy and Pat.  They raced a terrific race to squeak out a third place finish to advance to the final.  A comment overheard while they were launching was "Look Mary, you and Steve could do that.  That's a husband and wife - how cute."  Steph and Juliet were up next in the heat of the Womens Open B 2x.  They placed second to advance to the semi-final.  The white Kaschper 2x got quite a workout yesterday.  In the heat of the Women's Ltwt B 2x, Juliet and Steph also placed second to advance.  In the Womens Open A 2x, Jessie and Katy raced well, but placed fourth and did not advance.  Next up was the Womens Open B 2x semi-final, with Juliet and Steph.  It was a tight race and they placed fifth.  After that race I shooed them all away to find some air conditioning.  It was so hot and humid that sweat beads appeared on yoru skin the minute you set foot outside.  Oh yes - those races were all before lunch :)

In the final of the Mixed A 2x, Pat and Katy came in sixth.  Not bad considering they haven't rowed together that many times!  In the final of the Womens Ltwt B 2x, Juliet and Steph placed fourth in what was again a very close race.  They were only two seconds away from second and third! 

By the end of the day everyone was feeling pretty gross and exhausted.  We discovered a frozen yogurt place in the mega stripmall near the race course.  That was our first stop on the way home (need you even ask?).  To our delight it was self serve!  There is a whole row of forzen yogurt flavors and a topping bar.  You grab a cup, fill it up, then weigh it and pay.  I can't believe that we were the only rowers in there.  My favorite combination was a thin layer of mint, a fine dusting of oreo cookie crumbles, topped with a swirl of cappuchino & cookies and cream, finished off with a few chocolate chips.  It definitely tasted just like a mint mocha chip frap from Starbucks (no need to use that treat receipt now).

I'm leaving the air-conditioned comfort of Panera and heading back down to the race course now.  I'll get another update out late tonight.  We've got some great mixed 4xs racing today, as well as our ltwt 4x.  Wish us luck!

Best,
Leanne

Masters Nationals: Update #1

Hi All,

I'm checking in from Camden, NJ with a long-awaited update on our racing at Masters Nationals! 

Thursday

NRRA started off the regatta with a bang as Bev and Don won their heat in one of the first events of the day, the Mixed F 2x!  They cruised down the race course and comfortably came across the finish line in the lead.  Next up was the Womens Club C 4x, with Sarah, Jessie, Bev and Katy.  The race didn't go exactly as planned and they did not advance to the final.  We decided to mve on and focus onthe rest of the racing.  In the heats of the Womens Ltwt B 1x, Juliet and Steph each came in second to advance to the final!  The Mixed E 4x lineup of Don, Sarah, Bev and Phil came in third in their heat (without sprinting) to advance to the final in the afternoon.  In the Womens Open A 4x, Jessie, Juliet, Katy and Steph came in second to advance.

Aren't you tired after reading all of that?  Those races all happened before lunch!  Sarah and Laura came prepared with a delicious spread. Those of us not racing (or weighing in) ate some delicious cheese while basking in the afternoon humidity.  Laura - that chilled cucumber soup was absolutely delightful!

During the afternoon finals we had some great racing as well.  Bev and Don had a terrific race and finished second in the Mixed F 2x, winning a silver medal!  Juliet and Steph got to race each other in the final of the Womens Ltwt B 1x.  Steph finshed fourth, just 1 second out of the medals.  Juliet had a great race and finished sixth.  Everyone should be applauding her for making the final at Nationals in her first race in a 1x (not to mention that she hasn't been rowing it that long either)!  The Mixed E 4x finished sixth in their final, and I think they were pretty spent at that point.  The Womens A 4x finished fourth in their race.  They had a terrific row and were all happy with their race.  The last race of the day was the M/S 2x, with Sarah and Grady.  They raced a terrific race and finished third, winning a bronze medal!  It was so much fun to watch them come down the course.

The weather was completely unpredictable all day.  The day started off overcast with large clouds looming overhead.  We had a bit of a downpour in the middle of the day and finished off with sun and humidity.  I basically spent the day running around between the trailer, the launching docks, the finish line, the recovery docks, the trailer, launch, recovery, finish, back to launch and then quickly to recovery  ..... you get the idea.

I'll be back on my next break with more racing updates.  Stay tuned ...

best,
Leanne

NRRA Members, Bill and Wayne, take on the Blackburn Challenge (Open water race)

Club nationals Report #5

On Saturday NRRA had a terrific day of racing!

First up were Melanie and Sara in the Women's Senior 2x. They raced a great race and came in fourth out of 7 boats! The 2x finally came together and they were able to race the race that we all knew they were capable of. They looked relaxed and strong coming through the 1500m mark where we were cheering them on from.

Next was Steph in the Women's Senior Ltwt 1x. The Senior Ltwt 1x is typically one of the more competitive events at Nationals. Steph started strong and made her move around the 1,000m mark and just didn't stop! Steph raced an aggressive race and finished a close third (only 1 second difference between 2nd and 3rd place) and rowed away with a bronze medal. Look for photos of her on the medals dock.

Bill and Brian finally had their race in the Men's Senior Ltwt 2x. They came in a comfortable third place out of four boats to end up on the medals dock as well. After their race they commented that this was one of the best rows they have had. They proudly displayed their bronze medals the day. Last night the women went for a short row in the 4x and felt pleased and ready to race today when they came off the water.

We all went for dinner at Carraba's last night (yes - Bill and Brian chose the restaurant and they managed to make weight this morning) and sacked out pretty early.

This morning Steph raced in the final of the Women's Senior 1x. She came in 4th overall and managed to race some ladies that were twice her size! Still coming up are the Men's intermediate Ltwt 2x and the Women's Senior 4x.

I probably won't be able to get online after those, so check racetrak.com for results or watch for an email on Monday. We're going to hit the road right after our racing is completed for the long haul back to Norwalk. These guys should take the rest of the week off, but I'll see all of you at practice Tuesday morning!

Best, Leanne

LEANNE PRACTICES MEASURING PITCH....ON A TRAILER?????

Club nationals Report #4

Hi All,

Today was another hot day of racing in Oak Ridge!

In the semi-final of the Women's Intermediate 2x, Sara and Melanie came in 6th.  They were pleased with their race and I thought they looked much more comfortable and relaxed.  Don't confuse that with not being aggressive* racers, the relaxed shoulders and hands enabled them to have much better timing, row with more power, and concentrate on executing their race plan.

Brian and Bill came in a comfortable 3rd place in the semi-final of the Men's Intermediate Ltwt 2x in order to qualify for the final.

Stephanie came in 2nd in the semi-final of the Women's Senior 1x (yes - the openweight event!) to qualify for the final.  She had the third fastest time overall and was only 0.05 seconds behind first place (check out the photo finish on racetrak).  Steph raced an excellent race.  When she launched, I told her to just go out and race her race, and that I would be looking for her to make her move.  She took her move and never let up!  She also had the toughest conditions of the day (look at the photos on the NRRA homepage).

Steph and I went for a light jog this evening and with me by her side she was forced into doing the heavyweight shuffle.  Tomorrow I'll have more results from the first round of finals!

Best,
Leanne

Club nationals Report!

We've finished our first day of semi-finals!

The Women's Intermediate 4x (Sara. Melanie, Colleen, Stephanie) came in 4th in their semi and missed advancing to the final by just a few seconds.  We all agreed that it wasn't their best race and they didn't look as sharp going down the course as they usually do.  The good news is that there are concrete things to improve on and take to the next 4x race, which is on Sunday!  I think one thing that hurt us is that because practice was canceled Wednesday evening, we were not able to get onto the course in the 4x.  It has been nearly a full week since that boat has gone out for a row.  We'll have a couple of opportunities to practice the 4x between now and then.

Bill and Brian came in 5th in the semi-final of the Men's Intermediate 2x.  They were happy with their race and are looking forward to their lightweight events (intermediate ltwt 2x and senior ltwt 2x).

In other news our first race of the day wasn't until 5pm, so we used the opportunity to see the new Harry Potter movie at the theatre near our hotel.  After spending so much time in small rooms and cramped in the car on the way down here, we look for every opportunity to get out of the heat and find something to occupy our down time.  The movie was quite entertaining and all of the Harry Potter fans gave it a thumbs up.

Tomorrow I'll have news about Melanie and Sara in the semi-final of the Intermediate 2x and Stephanie in the Senior 1x!

Best,
Leanne

Club nationals Report!

Our first day of racing is complete!

Here's the rundown: In their heat of the Women's Intermediate 2x, Melanie and Sara cruised to a second place finish in order to advance to the semi-final.

Laura and Marissa had their first experience of racing at this level in a pretty tough heat. I think they got a bit overwhelmed when they suddenly realized that they didn't have a coxswain to tell them what to do at the starting line. All in all, not their best race, but I'm pretty proud of them for getting this first one under their belts.

In the Men's Intermediate 2x, Brian and Bill overcame a rocky start to squeak into third place. They advanced to the semi-final by 0.7 seconds!

In the afternoon, Laura and Marissa went out for a second race of the day in the Women's Junior A 2x. They came in fourth in their heat (only the top 2 boats from each heat qualify), but we are all happy with their race. They went out with a goal of beating the boat in the lane next to them, which they did by 30 seconds! All in all, I think the first race jitters are gone.

A storm came through late this afternoon with rain and lightening. Racing was delayed around an hour, which pushed the schedule back quite a bit. Practice this evening was canceled in order to complete the racing schedule. The officials are staying at our hotel and Steph and I saw them returning around 8:45pm. That makes for a long day in the heat! I think they made up for it because when we returned from Starbucks we saw them sitting outside by the pool with some cold beverages. All that is left on the agenda tonight is a lot of sleep!

Tomorrow I'll be back with reports of the Men's Intermediate 2x semi-final and the Women's Intermediate 4x semi-final.

Best, Leanne

NNRA goes to USRowing Club Nationals!

We're here!  We pulled into Oak Ridge around 1:30am.  I'd say that the last hour of the trip was especially painful.  Steph and I got so bored we decided to play a game where we quizzed each other on college mascots.  Have you ever heard of Artie the Fighting Artichoke?  Bonus points to you if you can figure out what school that mascot represents!

We rigged the boats and went for two rows today; a swing row to stretch out from the car ride and get used to the course, and a race simulation to get some hard strokes in and put out race plans into action.  It is a bit eye-opening to come from Norwalk to a regatta this size with so many good crews.  Our younger rowers especially seemed to be a bit overwhelmed.

If you have not been to Oak Ridge, TN, this is a terrific race course.  There are plenty of docks for launching and recovering, so the line never soome to be terriby long.  There is a paved path that runs alongside the river and you can bike pretty much the entire length of the course.  I'm sure the coaches peloton will be in full swing by this weekend.

The weather is warm, I won't lie to you!  We're going to spend pretty much all of our free time in air conditioning.  There isn't that much to do in Oak Ridge anyway.  There is a movie theatre across the parking lot from our hotel and rumor has it that the new Harry Potter movie is playing there this week.

I'll be back tomorrow evening with an racing update - heats in the Women's Intermediate 2x, Women's Junior A 2x, Men's Intermediate 2x.

Best,
Leanne

Community Challenge tears up the Norwalk River!- On Saturday, the 1st Annual NRRA Community Challenge took to the river and lined up for some exciting racing! Teams formed by businesses, schools and families raced for supremacy on the Norwalk River after 5 weeks of training. The quad event was won by Team KFAC (Kayak for a Cause). They won both match ups against Team Rowing Wounded (Source Marketing). The 8's event was won by The Strokers (Naramake Elementary School) over the River Rats (Brien McMahon H.S.), the Rockin Rowers and the Crewsaders (Greenwich Associates). The fun and excitement at the NRRA boathouse was amazing! Get ready for next year's event, already being planned!

I gotta say, there weren't enough fingers and toes crossed or we weren't fast enough. I'll blame the toes :-)

The speed here is very impressive and despite some of the best we've seen out of our guys, it wasn't enough. Sometimes you're just not the better crew. I suppose if you're going to lose, better at the National Championships!

The LtWts showed some amazing attitude today. I've never watched 8 guys pull so hard! Despite this, they didn't place in the top 3 so they didn't advance to the semi-finals!

The HvyWts did the same and finished with the same. An early trip to spectatorsville. Us coaches were very impressed with some limits that were broken today!

The Pair is the only NRRA crew that drew blood today, knocking off one crew and finishing 16th overall. Congrats!! Sorry, technical difficulties prevent pictures from this afternoon's racing :-(

There was a great moment today when Ned Brokaw poured the champagne over the bow of the WVB Princeton '52.

This new men's boat was added to the fleet this spring in memory of his dad, a member of Princeton's crew in the 50's. After the ceremony, the Seniors, Captains and Ned and Wendy Brokaw went for a row on glass water! What a great time! This boat helped the LtWts qualify at NEMA and then the HvyWts rowed it this weekend. Special thanks to all that helped!

So while the boys are driving go-carts and flirting with Wayland-Weston girls (don't tell Tom's girlfriend :-)), I'm writing this last post for the USRowing Youth National Championships. It's actually been fun running around scrounging wifi and updating everyone! All of us coaches are extremely proud of all the athletes and thank all the parents for their help. We had an extremely young squad here this year and are already excited for Nationals 2010! For those of you at home, get to work! Preparations are already beginning........

Cheers,
Charles

Good morning everyone! The Varsity LtWt guys are off to weigh in (required 2 hours before racing) while the others are groggily eating breakfast here at Panera. Too much video games last night?

The LtWts will be racing at 9:24 and need to finish top 3 to stay alive this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

The HvyWts will be racing at 9:45 and also need to finish in the top 3 to stay alive. Lots of crossed fingers and toes here!

Semis for the 8's are this afternoon at 2:30 and 3:00 respectively and the Pair races in its C final at 4:19pm.

Special today is the christening of the boy's 8, the WVB Princeton '52, named for W.V. Brokaw, a former Princeton oarsman. The boys varsity boat will have champagne poured over it. Many thanks to all that made this boat possible! This new 8 provided a great platform for the LtWts to qualify for Cincy and now the HvWt's are rowing it at Nationals while the women's team loaned the LtWt's their new boat. Watch for pictures later.....

We're off to race hard on this beautiful day!

Cheers,
Charles

Special thanks to Caribou Coffee for the free wifi this evening.....

While I blogged away at Panera's this morning, they guys hit IHOP for some last minute carboloading before the racing began. A grey, foggy, damp day greeted us at the race course along with a vicious cross wind in the 2nd 1000m.

The Pair started the day with a rough row. They came off the line well but the heavy cross wind at the 1000m mark took them out of their rhythm and had a rough 2nd half, finishing last by a long shot. The afternoon found beautiful conditions for their reperchage (2nd level heat leading to the semi's). They came off the water smiling. Despite finishing last again, they had a great row. Sometimes you just aren't as fast as the competion. They row in the C level final (places 13-18) Saturday afternoon around 4pm.

The Lightweight 8 had the second race for the NRRA and the speed was no different. There were 4 boats leading the pack with NRRA a distant 5th ahead of one crew. Again, they had a fine row and felt good, the competition is just fierce! They race in their reperchage Saturday morning around 9:15am. They must place in the top 3 to stay alive for the semi's. 4th or 5th will leave them as spectators for the rest of the weekend.

The Heavyweight 8 had the 3rd race of the day for the day for the NRRA. Once again, we found another level of competition we rarely see except at the Head of the Charles. The 4 boats in their heat fought fiercely for the right to go straight to the semi's (top 3 advance). We gamely rowed behind in a distant 5th, happy to go to the reperchage Saturday morning. Same as the LtWt, top 3 advance, the others become tourists.

Well, we knew the competition was going to fast, but, wow! Us coaches aren't surprised by the level of competition here and are teaching the boys how to deal with the conditions, on and off the water at a National Championship.

Quote of the day: "Coach, we were surprised when everyone had a good start!". Welcome to Cinci......

Joke of the day: The boat that finished last behind the LtWt 8 had a dragon painted down the side. Charles quips to Liz, "I guess they're dragon a**" :-)

'Til manana.....

Charles

Streaming Live from Cincinnati (and Panera's free wifi).......

The team arrived safely yesterday morning, checked in to the hoteland went out for a row. Grey skies couldn't dampen 22 excited athletes! Equipment arrived safe thanks to Wayland-Weston HS and practice went smoothly while Brian went running and Charles did work in the van.

The highlight of the evening was dinner at Carrabba's and ice cream at Graeter's Ice Cream (good but not as good as Sweet Ashley's!). The coaches were wondering why the boys were so quiet at dinner until we realized that they were all playing games on their phones! Technology helps with behavior management :-).

The Varsity Pair races this morning at 10:34, the LtWt 8 at 1:22pm and the Hvy 8 at 3:50. You can follow the schedule and live results at www.racetrak.com.

More later tonight!

Cheers,

Charles

Youth Racing brings home more Gold!
Coxswain Tossing 101! (when you win, the cox goes for a swim)