Cascades participate in Head of the Gorge
by Liz Chisholm
University of Victoria’s 33rd annual Head of the Gorge, held Saturday, October 29th stood up to its reputation of being one of the most thrilling rowing events world-wide. Racers row down a 5km piece of the Gorge Waterway, Victoria; through the infamous Tilicum Narrows – which boasts just enough room between the rocks for one boat to get through at a time, with viewers not 3 feet away on the rocks or looking down on the action from the bridge above.
The 2011 World Champion bronze medal Men’s 8+, and other Canadian National team members raced along with many university, and high-school crews.
“UFV hasn’t attended Head of the Gorge for a couple of years, and, except for one rower, this year’s roster hadn’t ever raced it. It takes a lot of tactical thinking, quick assessments of all the different situations on the water, and confident speed to do well at this race,” (Chisholm)
“It’s an odd one, fitting into the schedule just before Canadian University Rowing Championships – but for the reasons stated – I find the athletes get that boost of determination in time to head to the university rowing championships.”
Two of our boats that did quite well, for not having raced it before were our Men’s Varsity 4x (Scott Micona, Mat Morrison, Bryan Siemens, Emmett Campbell). “These 4 will be racing the 1x’s and 2- at CU’s next weekend, and can generate a lot of power between them Emmett has a head for strategy, and as bow person, I knew he would take this boat through this course fast.”
The Men placed 4th to the national training centre boat, Camosun, and a Washington crew, beating out the other 4 entries in the race which included U of Calgary and SFU. The Varsity Women’s 4x (Debra Neufeld, Jocelyn Woelke, Ashley Bilodeau, Nadine Mross) placed 3rd out of the 7 entries, in the later launch, to UBC and UVic’s crews, with the lightweight 4x (Becky Hildebrandt, Samantha Graham, Kaitlyn Block, Bethany Whitehead) coming in 6th.
Another good race, Genevieve Santos, and Nadine Mross rowed in the Varsity 2x, placing 4th to two UVic crews, and Camosun, but beating out UBC, and five other crews. Our 2nd men’s 4x (Caleb Davisson, Hans-Christian Mross, Samuel Glasgow, Brad Jones) placed 6th in that category – unfortunately being held up near the narrows, by a bit of t-bone interference by the U of Calgary, and slowing their time by quite a bit.
Results posted: http://vikes.uvic.ca/news/2011/10/29/MROW_1029111729.aspx
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