USRowing: Last day of heats, semis Saturday; more finals Sunday

 

By Luke Reynolds/USRowing

If Saturday’s racing on Melton Lake in Oak Ridge could be summed up in a few words, it would be these: wet, saturated, and exhausted. The athletes—some on their fourth day of racing—rowed through a consistent, steady drizzle, and at times, a heavy downpour.

Such was the case for Sagamore’s junior B quadruple sculls boat coming off the water after its heat.

“This is my second race of the day, so I’m pretty exhausted,” Sagamore junior Patrick Ansalon said. “Today’s race went … not so well. We had a U17 eight, which got fourth, and I was in a composite four that qualified for finals tomorrow.”

Luckily though, the rain let up around 1:45 p.m. during the break and held off for the majority of the afternoon. Around the race course though, conditions remained muddy and saturated from the several hours of continuous rain.

Saturday’s racing consisted of heats and semifinals setting up the second round of finals on Sunday.

 

In addition to the typical 2,000-meter heats, Saturday’s racing included 500-meter dash races in the men’s and women’s open single sculls.

Elizabeth Sharis, a member of the 2014 Junior National Team representing Y Quad Cities at club nationals, participated in the women’s open single sculls dash and won her heat with a time of 1:55.765. Second place came in with a time of 1:56.706.

In addition to winning the heat of her dash, she also won the first heat of the women’s senior single sculls in the morning with a time 8:31.342. In yesterday’s races, Sharis won the junior women’s double sculls with her sister, Caroline, who also won the women’s junior B single sculls less than an hour before her double’s race.

The fastest dash of the day went to All-American’s Andrew Rouse with a time of 1:44.870.

For photos, results and press coverage of the event, click here. Follow the USRowing Club National Championships on Twitter and Instagram with hashtag #clubnats14.

In addition to racing, USRowing also will host its 11th-Annual College Fair on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The fair will have more than 50 colleges represented with coaches on site to discuss various aspects of rowing in college. Athletes wishing to participate in the college fair must be seniors for the 2014-2015 school year and be competing at the 2014 USRowing Club National Championships. Those who would like to attend can register here.

Finals will be streamed lived tomorrow on USRowing’s YouTube channel beginning at 9 a.m. with the women’s senior eight.