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Parking at Melton Lake Park to be closed for regatta March 13 & 14

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Rowing at Melton Hill Lake (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

The parking lots at Melton Lake Park will be closed to the public during a regatta next week.

The regatta, the 2021 Oak Ridge Louisville Cardinal Invitational Regatta, is scheduled on Saturday, March 13, and Sunday, March 14. It’s hosted by the City of Oak Ridge in partnership with the Oak Ridge Rowing Association, a press release said.

It’s an invitation-only event, and it will feature elite college women’s rowing teams who will compete in one of the first events of the season, the press release said.

To comply with ACC and Big 10 COVID-19 guidelines, this is a “no spectator” event, the press release said. As a result, the parking lots at Melton Lake Park will be closed to the public during the regatta, the release said.

[Read more…]
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Regatta season starts next week

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SIRA-Regatta-April-17-2016-6
The 2016 SIRA Championship Regatta is pictured above in Oak Ridge on Sunday, April 17, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

This year’s regatta season will start next week with the Cardinal Invitational in Oak Ridge. That rowing competition with the University of Louisville is scheduled from March 13-14 at Melton Lake Park.

Other rowing events will begin in late April and run almost every weekend through May, a press release said.

This year, the Oak Ridge Rowing Association will host, for the first time, the NCAA Division I American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship, the press release said.

The races this year follow the cancellation of six regattas in 2020, including the NCAA Division I, II, and III Championships, the press release said.

[Read more…]
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NCAA cancels events, including rowing championships in Oak Ridge

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SIRA-Regatta-April-17-2016-6
The 2016 SIRA Championship Regatta is pictured above in Oak Ridge on Sunday, April 17, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The 2020 NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships, which were scheduled to be held in Oak Ridge in May, have been canceled because of COVID-19, and other collegiate regattas have been canceled as well.

Oak Ridge officials and others have been looking forward to the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships since it was announced three years ago. The Oak Ridge rowing venue is considered one of the best in the country.

In a March 12 notice, the NCAA said all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships were being canceled due to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. Also canceled were the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, which includes March Madness.

The cancellations affecting Oak Ridge include the NCAA division I, II, and III Women’s Rowing Championships, Big 10 Invitational Regatta, Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Championship, as well as other regattas slated to be held in conjunction with the Oak Ridge Rowing Association.

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Head coach named for Atomic Rowing

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Wendy Davis

Wendy Davis, who has been a head coach at the University of Minnesota, has been named head coach of the Atomic Rowing program in Oak Ridge.

The appointment was announced by the Oak Ridge Rowing Association on Monday. It follows a nationwide search, a press release said.

Davis was head coach of the Women’s Division 1 Rowing program at the University of Minnesota since 2000, the press release said. While head coach, Davis helped the Golden Gophers rowing team become one of the nation’s leading collegiate organizations, and she was consistently recognized by her peers, twice receiving Big Ten Coach of the Year honors, the press release said. The 2019 Golden Gophers had a mid-year national ranking of 15th, the release said.

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Atomic Rowing pair finishes 11th in USRowing Youth National Championships

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An Atomic Rowing team finished 11th in the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida, from June 6-9, 2019. The women’s lightweight double consisted of Sara Kate White, a sophomore at Maryville High School, and Veda Seay, a senior at Oak Ridge High School. (Photo courtesy Rachel Seay)

An Atomic Rowing team finished 11th in the nation at youth championships in Florida this month.

The women’s lightweight double consisted of Veda Seay, a senior at Oak Ridge High School, and Sara Kate White, a sophomore at Maryville High School. They competed in the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida, from June 6-9.

Seay and White had a fantastic weekend of racing, a press release said. Their boat placed 12th in time trials on Thursday, June 6, with a time of 7:29.200. Only the top nine teams advanced to semifinals, and the rest competed in a second-chance repechage.

Seay and White went on to win their repechage race on Friday, June 7, to advance to semifinals with a time of 7:47.576, beating a PNRA/Mercer team by about two seconds.

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Atomic Rowing competing in USRowing Youth National Championships

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Sara Kate White and Veda Seay racing the lightweight double in the USRowing Southeast Regional Championships in Oak Ridge in May 2019. (Photo courtesy Rachel Seay)

Atomic Rowing has two boats competing in the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida, this weekend, from June 6-9.

The boats earned their spots in the national championships by finishing in the top three in the finals of the 2019 US Rowing Southeast Regional Championships from May 11-12 in Oak Ridge.

Atomic Rowing had several boats advance into the finals of the regional championships, and two boats placed in the top three in the finals, advancing to the national championships.

Sara Kate White, a freshman at Maryville Junior High, and Veda Seay, a junior at Oak Ridge High School, finished an undefeated season by taking first place in the women’s lightweight double, a press release said.

[Read more…]

Dogwood Junior Championship regatta in Oak Ridge this weekend

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The largest-ever Dogwood Junior Championship regatta is in Oak Ridge this weekend.

The regatta is hosted by the Oak Ridge Rowing Association.

Racing will take place at Oak Ridge Marina on the Clinch River on Saturday, April 27, from 7:30 a.m.-6:45 p.m. and on Sunday, April 28, from 8 a.m.-4:15 p.m.

[Read more…]

Julio Sanchez hired as head coach of Atomic Rowing

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Julio Sanchez

Julio Sanchez

 

Coach Julio Sanchez has been hired by the Oak Ridge Rowing Association as head coach of Atomic Rowing.

Sanchez is experienced as both a rower and a coach, a press release said. He has rowed on elite national teams for Argentina and Spain, and he continues to compete at the national level as a master sculler, the release said.

Sanchez recently came back from Sarasota, Florida, after competing at the FISA Masters Worlds Regatta. He also had much success as the coach of the Spanish Junior National team, as well as U.S. teams such as Miami, Sarasota Scullers, and Westerville, the press release said.

“With Oak Ridge Rowing Association having the best rowing venue in the country, I am incredibly excited to get started and work with this team,” the press release said. “The club is filled with amazing and hardworking rowers that have welcomed me with open arms.” [Read more…]

Oak Ridger, teammate advance to world rowing championship quarterfinals

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Kristopher Fisher of Oak Ridge (bow) and Cooper Tuckerman of Bozeman, Montana (stroke), cross the finish line in the white boat at center in a 2,000-meter race in the second heat of the Junior Men’s Double Sculls event at the World Rowing Junior Championships on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018, in Racice, Czech Republic. (Photo by Kimberly Bell)

Kristopher Fisher of Oak Ridge (bow) and Cooper Tuckerman of Bozeman, Montana (stroke), cross the finish line in the white boat at center in a 2,000-meter race in the second heat of the Junior Men’s Double Sculls event at the World Rowing Junior Championships on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018, in Racice, Czech Republic. (Photo by Kimberly Bell)

 

Representing the United States, an Oak Ridge rower and his teammate advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Rowing Junior Championships this week in the Czech Republic.

Kristopher Fisher and his teammate Cooper Tuckerman of Bozeman, Montana, are racing in the Junior Men’s Double Sculls in Racice, which is outside of Prague.

They finished fourth among six teams in the second of five heats, Heat 2, on Wednesday.

The top four teams in each heat advanced to the quarterfinals, meaning 20 of the 30 teams advanced from the five heats.

The quarterfinals are Friday. Fisher and Tuckerman, the U.S. junior men’s double team, will compete in Lane 1 at 6:06 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (12:06 p.m. in the Czech Republic). [Read more…]

Fisher, an ORHS graduate, competes in world rowing championships this week

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Local rower Kristopher Fisher participates in a signing ceremony with Temple University at Oak Ridge High School on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Local rower Kristopher Fisher participates in a signing ceremony with Temple University at Oak Ridge High School on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Local rower Kristopher Fisher, who attended Oak Ridge High School last year and signed with Temple University in February, will compete in world rowing championships in the Czech Republic this week.

Fisher and Cooper Tuckerman of Bozeman, Montana, will race in the Junior Men’s Double Sculls event at the World Rowing Junior Championships, which are scheduled from August 8-12 in Racice, outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. (You can see the start list here and the Heat 2 start list for Wednesday here.) More than 750 athletes from 57 nations are competing.

Fisher and Tuckerman swept the Men’s U19 2x at the USRowing National Team Trials in July, winning the best-of-three format handily with victories in both the first and second event, according to the Oak Ridge Rowing Association.

On July 5, Fisher and Tuckerman were tightly matched by Jeremy Wolpert of San Juan Capistrano, California, and Michael Fairley of Saratoga Springs, New York, through the first 500 meters before pulling away in the middle 1,000, finishing in 6:56.41. The second place pair finished well back in 7:08.03. [Read more…]

State grant will help with national park signs, waterfront improvements

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Pictured above during a state grant announcement at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building for national park signs and waterfront improvements on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, are, from left, Dave Jones, East Tennessee division manager of Tennessee Tourist Development; Amy New, assistant commissioner of community and rural development for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development; Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch; Jody Sliger, community development director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development; and Marc DeRose, president of Explore Oak Ridge. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Pictured above during a state grant announcement at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building for national park signs and waterfront improvements on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, are, from left, Dave Jones, East Tennessee division manager of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development; Amy New, assistant commissioner of community and rural development for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development; Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch; Jody Sliger, community development director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development; and Marc DeRose, president of Explore Oak Ridge. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A state grant of more than $50,000 that was announced Tuesday will help create interpretive signs for historic sites in Oak Ridge that are related to the Manhattan Project National Historical Park and improve the waterfront for events such as rowing, cycling, and festivals, officials said.

The $56,250 Tourism Enhancement Grant, part of the third round of grants, was announced Tuesday at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building. A few Oak Ridge officials attended, and so did representatives of the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

“Through this grant, the City of Oak Ridge, in partnership with Explore Oak Ridge, will receive funds to support projects that improve some of the city’s key tourist attractions,” a press release said.

Marc DeRose, president of Explore Oak Ridge, said there are two parts to the grant. One is to enhance the city’s component of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The grant funding could be used to create interpretive signs at historic places like the Guest House and Chapel on the Hill. The interpretive signs will be accessible and include pictures and content, DeRose said. [Read more…]

Reminder: Oak Ridge will try to set world record in ‘knockout’ basketball today

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Guinness World Records Knockout Basketball Attempt 2018

A reminder: Oak Ridge will try to set a Guinness World Record on Saturday in a basketball game known as “knockout” today (Saturday, June 9).

The attempt to break the previous world record is part of the Secret City Festival this weekend. The game will start at noon in the parking lot of Dick’s Sporting Goods at Main Street Oak Ridge. The first 702 people will get a free T-shirt, organizers said. Then, every 30 minutes, prizes will be awarded from Electronic Express and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Once you have taken your shot (and missed…), you get to register for a Jeep awarded at no cost from Secret City Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. Every 30 minutes, one of those registrations will be pulled as a finalist for the drawing for the Jeep on June 27, organizers said. (You must be present to win and 18 and over with a valid driver’s license).

The Dallas Mavericks set the record for the largest game of basketball knockout with 701 participants in Dallas, Texas, on October 4, 2015. The game lasted 27 rounds and more than three hours, according to Guinness World Records. Team owner Mark Cuban was there before the record-setting attempt to check out the court and the turnout, and he also motivated the basketball shooters.

Organizers of this year’s Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge want to do better than Cuban and the Mavericks. They need at least 702 shooters to set the new world record. [Read more…]

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