Dogwood

NRC entered a Men’s four loaded with Brad Norris, Bo Bowen, Steve Patrick, and Chris Calico. Linda Logan was the coxswain. They raced against East Tennessee, Oak Ridge A and B, and Asheville A and B, finishing in fourth place. Next was entered a quad, boating Forrest Sanders, Dave Rowland, Mark Ragland, and Josh Herring. Racing against the Atlanta Rowing Club and Masters Coaching, this lineup finished in third place to medal. There was also a mixed 8+ consisting of Kren Teren, Bronwen Wickkiser, Lynnisse Roehrich-Patrick, Emily Carter, Steve Patrick, Bo Bowen, Mark Ragland and David Rowland. Chez Hughes took the crew down the course for her last race as an NRC coxswain. Taking on East Tennessee, Oak Ridge A, Asheville A and B, Atlanta A, and Masters Coaching, the boat did not place, but came in a close 4th.

US Rowing Southeast Regionals

The men’s team sent five seasoned rowers down to this event to compete in a number of sweep and sculling events. The first series of events were in the single sculls, in which Dave Franklin and Mark Ragland were rowing in their first ever race in a single, “Bo” Bowen was racing in the novice single event, and Don Sullivan was racing in his second singles race. All were doing this primarily for the experience, and they got it. Lots of experience. More than anyone else out there. (If you catch my drift…) We then did some double entries with Josh Herring in for Bo. Tons more experience! We were some of the most experienced crews out there! We did get a silver in the men’s four, after Asheville got disqualified for waxing their boat (it wasn’t like they were giving it a bikini wax or anything…), and it became a two boat race between us and Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge had an unusually fast boat for this race, stroked by a guy who just got done rowing across the Atlantic. They took off like they were still sitting in the Gulf Stream. Our best race, maybe our best race of the year, came with us filling out a mixed eight with the Orlando Rowing Club. This started as a three boat race, with a mixed eight of Asheville/Orlando, the Atlanta RC, and our Orlando/Nashville eight. They were referring to the two mixed-mixed eights as “Or-ville A” and “Or-ville B”. I think we were “B”. In the first start, the Atlanta eight veered out of their lane and almost hit the “A” boat, causing the referee to stop the race, and then disqualify the Atlanta eight due to a hand gesture from the cox. ( We did not get a good look, and still can’t say for sure how many fingers the cox used to wave at the judge.) For the second start of a now two-boat race, stroke Dave Franklin took the governor off the stroke rate and we whistled down the course at 36+ strokes per minute. We literally whistled, as the Orlando woman rowing in four seat had recently had some sort of surgery and sounded like she wasn’t going to make it. But she did, fortunately. We won this with a length open water, which saved the weekend for us.

Chattanooga Head Race

The NRC Men’s four, stroked by club president Josh Herring, finished with the second best raw time behind Oak Ridge, but dropped another slot to the Rocket City age handicap, settling for third place, with an adjusted time of 19:35.

The Men’s eight found itself in a two-boat race against an Atlanta lineup which featured something like 20 former Olympians, or so it was rumored. (The actual number climbed as the day wore on….) The NRC’s last hope for victory was dashed when the “Dream Team” boat did not burn up in the atmosphere. Their final time: 15:54. Ours: 19:04. We are proud to say we finished second to a boat containing 38 former Olympians (see?…).

The mixed eight race featured the most exciting finish of the day, in which a hard-charging NRC eight caught up to and passed the mixed eight belonging to Rocket City in the last 250 meters of the course. The fact that they were close enough to do so meant that Rocket City had already lost the the race, but it was still fun to watch. The video of that finish is posted on our club FaceBook page for all to see. Winning time: 19:30.

Hobbs Island Head Race

The NRC men’s four, stroked by Josh Herring, clobbered a composite Rocket City / Guntersville four to take gold. The NRC time was 18:53, a comfortable margin over the second place time of 19:17.

The men’s eight also raced a composite RCRC/Guntersville eight containing no Olympians (contrary to the rumors) and again took first with a time of 17:19 raw (16:58 adjusted) compared to the RCRC time of 18:40.

The NRC men’s double composed of Steve “Shock” Patrick and Tom “Awe” Nagle came in second in their debut to a team from Birmingham, with a time of 23:25 behind the winning 20:40.

The NRC mixed eight continued their domination, with a winning time of 19:25 against a composite boat of Rocket City, Guntersville, UGA, and a bunch of other small Alabama towns, but no Olympians.

Secret City Head Race
The only NRC boat to travel to Oak Ridge to compete at this event was the men’s four consisting of Brad Norris, Roy Bowen, Tom Nagle, and Christopher Calico. They were in a two boat race against host Oak Ridge, and finished second by 32 seconds raw time. The age handicap of the Oak Ridge boat bumped the final margin of victory up a bit. It was still a productive day for this lineup, which also was the first time for Brad Norris in the stroke seat.

The Hooch

Up until the Hooch, the NRC men had been kicking butt in two-boat races, unless the other team was composed of an infinite number of former Olympians. The large and strong field of competition at the Hooch was a wake-up call telling the guys that you probably have to practice together – a lot – to do acceptably at this race. There were some hanging heads as the four finished second to last, and the eight, last place. One glimmer of hope was the performance of iron man Shannon Gilkey, who jumped out of the four after crossing the finish line and into the eight event. The mixed eight raced on Sunday and came in 18th out of 22 entries with a time of 20:06.

Women’s Sweep Rowing

Women’s sweep rowing at the Nashville Rowing Club really took off this year due to the great enthusiasm of the participants and Forrest Sander’s dedication and coaching. Not only did the number of women rowing at NRC double, but WE GOT FASTER too!

The season started with promise when a rocking group of alumni from the spring L2R classes joined the club and said THEY WANTED TO RACE. With so many women eager to compete, Forrest started using erg tests to determine fitness levels of all interested. The 5K test was a particular favorite among the group! But the hard work paid off in results. Here’s the recap:

Rocket City Rowing Club Scrimmage – Experienced Women’s 8 and Mixed 8 both took gold.

Chattanooga – Women’s 8s placed 4th and 5th.

Hobbs Island – Women’s 8 placed 2nd. Women’s 4′s placed 2nd and 3rd.

Head of the Hooch – Women’s 8s placed 8 and 21 out of 22. Women’s 4 placed 19 out of 20.
Some highlights of the season:

• Ann Campbell materializing out of thin air to cox our boats. Ann rowed at Mary Washington University and was in Nashville for the summer doing an internship at Vanderbilt. We love Ann, not just for her good nature and wit, but also for her playful wickedness, often in cahoots with another un-named NRC rower. Forrest was “iced” at least 4 times. Ann made an encore performance by returning to Nashville over her fall break and coxing some NRC boats at Hobbs Island.
• The new dock. A real rowing dock. It’s great! Putting it into the water was probably the riskiest part of its construction. Had we known ahead of time what was involved, many of us may have had second thoughts about helping with the launch!! Ignorance is bliss!!
• Summer evenings after practice with beverages and snacks on the new dock! A new NRC tradition was initiated this summer. It started with baked goods and quickly moved to frosty cold drinks after training sessions on the lake.
• Photos of the novice women’s 8+ that appeared online after a female bonding afternoon at Hannah’s house involving guns and shooting. Love those gun-toting NRC bad-a__ women!!
• Getting lost on the lake one morning in fog so thick that Forrest (in the launch) couldn’t find us. Thanks to modern technology in the form of a smart phone and gps Forrest finally found the proverbial needle in the haystack.
• Almost capsizing at the “Head of the Percy Priest” (or Head of the P.P. to those in the know) in the roughest water most of us had ever seen on the lake. On top of this, the NRC women’s 8+ almost got rammed by Georgia’s novice boat which included several NRC women filling seats for them. Sabotaged? Couldn’t be!
• Hannah’s family surprising NRC by catering a tailgate party at the Hobbs Island Head Race. We need to do that again. After all, rowers do like to eat!!!! And drink.
• The biggest highlight of the year was having THREE women’s sweep boat entries at our final regatta the Head of the Hooch: two 8+ and one 4+ with 20+ women rowing for NRC this year. Our best result was the “boomer 8+” which finished 8th out of 22 boats, up from a 24th place finish out of 27 boats last year. Yeah, we’ve come a long way.

The success of the women’s sweep rowing, both in terms of the number of rowers and the faster times, can be attributed to our coach, Forrest Sanders. Forrest put in an untold amount of time in developing new rowers, honing the skills of existing rowers, coaching the boats, getting us to work together as crews, and maintaining equipment. We know that there may have been times when rowing off into the sunset in his single would have been far preferable to coaching, but Forrest stuck with us and made us work harder. THANKS FORREST!!! We look forward to fun (and more icing) in the coming season.

Also, many, many people in the club contributed to this year’s success. Thanks to everyone who showed up, worked, contributed money or time, and helped out in so many ways.

Bring on 2012, even faster boats, and more women rowing!!!

Other Highlights

Women’s 4x at the Hooch: NRC’s Quad (Erin Ketelle, Cherie Pilliod, Emily Carter, Jessica Grigsby) came in 7th out of 16 boats, but let’s look at the raw time. NRC came in 4th overall by a tenth of a second behind Atlanta. NRC’s raw time was 19:20:6. Atlanta was 19:20.5. That’s tight competition for 3rd place! What will happen in 2012?

Mixed Open 2x: At Masters Nationals, Forrest Sanders and Erin Ketelle came in second. At the Hooch, they stepped up their game and received gold for their amazing performance! Nice job!! (Erin, we’re glad you’re OK.)

Other Highlights

- 1st place for the Mixed 8+. Check out the video footage of them overtaking another boat at the finish. Impressive!
- 1st place for the Women’s Quad
- 1st place for Women’s 1x (Erin Ketelle)

All results can be found here. For photos taken at the Chattanooga Head Race, head on over to our Facebook page.

Next on the schedule – Hobbs Island in Huntsville, AL. Good luck everyone!

“The World Master’s Regatta was an amazing event. Knowing that Nashville had representation at an international event was even more amazing. The event was held in St. Catharines, Canada on the same course they hold the Royal Canadian Henley.  It was impressive to see officials move 250 participants with boats, oars and rowers on and off the dock every 30 minutes. Nashville Rowing Club was popular with participants as it seems the city of Nashville is known all over the world. No one could understand what the other was saying with so many languages, but Nashville was a recognized name. Mexico would often yell ‘Nashville’ every time we walked past their trailer.

With so many boats on and off the water, it was intimidating to maneuver the warm up area. Then as you worked your way closer to the starting lanes, you would be greeted by so many foreign languages as everyone was so friendly and would say ‘hello’ right before the race.  For those that know me and my wildlife mishaps, I would like to note that I barely missed the swans in the warm up area.  Wow, those birds are huge!

The regatta was such a fun event. New friends were made and many races discussed. I look forward to the next World’s event and highly recommend anyone considering, to just go.”

The results were as follows:

Womens A 1x
Lizabeth got 3rd in her flight with a time of 4:28.6

Amanda got 3rd in her flight with a time of 4:20.2

Womens A 2x
Lizabeth and Amanda got 4th (4:04.43)

Womens B 1x
Lizabeth got 4th (4:21.24)

Mixed A 2x
Amanda and Kristian got 4th (3:47ish) – pictured above

Mixed C 2x
Lizabeth and Bob Franks (from Oak Ridge/All American Rowing Camp) got 7th (4:06.8)

Mixed C 4x
Lizabeth raced with a group from the All American Rowing Camp and got 6th (3:56.58)  – They managed to cross three lanes with a broken rudder.  This gave the official’s a good laugh.

The Head of the Charles – October 23, 2010

This is one of the greatest rowing regattas in the world. Everyone should have it on their bucket list. Several NRC members were competing in this year’s race. This may have been the first time ever that an NRC rower was to be seen racing down the Charles. And it was a very respectable showing. Erin Ketelle, rowing in the women’s single event, came in 8th place out of a field of 34 rowers – from around the country and the world. Her time was 23:15, not that far off the winning time of 21:51. Maybe next year, right Erin?

Amanda Joyner and Kristian Selders raced in the mixed doubles event, finishing 18 out of 25 with a time of 21:47, behind the winning time of 19:42.

Secret City Head Race – October 30, 2010

Secret City Head Race

I’d tell you the results, but then I’d have to kill you. Seriously, some jerk will have them posted on Wikileaks by next week, so we may as well tell you about it here and now. Overall, this was a fun day which featured our first use of the new blades, several club members rowing their first races, and several races which featured NRC boats going against each other as well as other clubs. Although heavy fog delayed the start of racing in the morning, the rest of the day turned out to be wonderful.

Scullers: Good ole Forrest came in first in the men’s single with a time of 21:26. He then also came in first in a composite double with a sculler from Oak Ridge. I think he could have finished first with the Vandy Great Dane rowing bow seat.

Men: The novice men’s four of Steve Patrick, Brad Norris, Abass Aquaye, and Lawrence Yoo, rowing their first race together, and for the bow pair their first race ever, finished second to a novice four from Oak Ridge to claim silver. It was all good once they got off the dock without flipping.

The next men’s event was the four, which featured two NRC crews battling one other from host club Oak Ridge. Due to some confusion on the docks, the NRC “A” boat launched with no bow number and the other boat’s set of blades. The “B” boat, launching second, thoughtfully grabbed the missing bow number and provided it to the “A” boat on the way up to the start, thus helping their teammates avoid a hefty time penalty or having to row back in to get the missing digits. The result was that the “A” boat, with a time of 23:43, beat both Oak Ridge and the “B” boat, turning in an aggressive last 1500 meters. This charge was led by stroke Josh Herring, rowing on port instead of his customary starboard, and pulling hard to impress his new daughter, wife, and in-laws. (Just think what we could do if we all had in-laws present….) It is a great feeling to know that your teammates have your back, so thanks to the “B” boat.

Women: The women’s eight turned in a time of 24:49 and finished third to the Atlanta crew, who had a winning time of 22:37. Oak Ridge came in second. The women’s four was second to Atlanta, with a time of 23:49, behind the winning 23:04.

Mixed eights: This was an all-NRC event, with two boats entered, after Oak Ridge scratched. The “A” boat was stroked by Josh Herring and coxed by Melissa Mcguire. The “B” boat was stroked by Dave Franklin and coxed by Kren Teren. Novice rowers Debbie McCachern and Lisa Delaney were in their first races. The official results were a win by the “A” boat in a time of 22:12.75, beating the “B” boat time of 22:12.9, (a .15 second split) caused by a 30 second penalty assessed to the “B” boat for missing a buoy. Since the “A” boat had also missed a buoy and apparently gotten away with it (along with a concurrent profanity that might have been good for a couple of minutes worth of penalties), the good sportsmanship that had been so manifest earlier in the day in the men’s four event came to the fore once again, and the “A” boat enthusiastically gave their gold medals to the “B” boat. I’m sure that if there had been anyone other than the NRC present to witness this event, there would not have been a dry eye in the crowd. By that time of the day it was pretty much us and the cleaning crew.

Head of the Hooch – November 6, 2010

The Head of the Charles is commonly considered to be the biggest and most prestigious regatta in world, next to the Olympics and World Championships held each year. This year the estimated number of rowers at the Charles was in excess of 8000. At this year’s Hooch there were 9248 rowers and 1922 boats. Look out, Charles!

Once again, the weather was cold but beautiful for racing. Unlike last year, the river current did not resemble the log flume ride at Dollywood.

Head of the Hooch

Women’s team: The women’s eight, rowing for a cure for breast cancer, finished 24 out of 27 entries with a time of 19:48, behind the winning time of 16:58 posted by the Orlando Rowing Club. The women’s four did better, finishing 12th out of 29 with a time of 20:26, behind the St. Louis “A” boat at 18:44.

Men’s team: The men’s four came in 12th with a time of 19:04, beating Rocket City, Oak Ridge, the Arkansas Boat Club, and the Quad Cities YMCA, and almost tied the Carolina Masters Crew, being 4 seconds behind due to their age handicap. The men were 7 seconds behind Miami Beach, and beat two other crews in raw time, but got beat by their handicap. This race featured the first outing by cox Chez Hughes. She did an outstanding job. They hit one buoy on the upper half of the course, and when it rolled down the port side of the boat, it was feared they would be penalized for being off the course. Chez argued that the boat was on the line, and that the buoy could have rolled either way off the bow, and so was not off the course. This must have been a good argument, for there was no penalty. The crew loves Chez, who appears to have a great future as a public defender, should she tire of her teaching career. The men’s eight was remarkably consistent, again finishing in 12th place. They beat Oak Ridge and Rocket City, but finished behind Asheville.

Our mixed four, racing in the fading light in the last event of the first day, turned in a time of 21:43, behind the winning time of 18:32 posted by the team from “Masters Coaching”.

Da scullers: Forrest came in first with a time of 18:28 in the master’s men’s singles event. He and Erin then went on to post a first in the mixed open doubles event, with a time of 18:20. That is two gold medals for Forrest in the biggest regatta in the USA, if you’re still counting. Amanda Joyner also rowed in the mixed open double event, with her stand-in partner (commonly referred to as “The Unknown Sculler”), and they finished 9th with a time of 20:55. In the master’s women’s single event, the NRC had three rowers compete. Erin took 8th (out of 16) with a time of 21:12. Lizabeth Theiss was 13th at 22:37 and Amanda Joyner was 14th at 22:58. Later the women rowed the quad to an 18th place finish, with a time of 19:15.

NRC won 102 club team points at the Hooch, which put us in 8th place overall, the winner being Orlando with 276 points, and second being St. Louis with 232.

The Nashville Rowing Club Men's 8+

It was a successful day for the NRC. The men’s eight finished first out of two against a Rocket City eight in a time of 19:54. Next up was the women’s four stroked by club VP Lynnisse Patrick, also known as the “Biloxi Bomber”, finishing second at 21:08 behind Rocket City’s 19:47.

The Mixed Master’s eight, rowing together for their first time, and featuring first time stroke Dave Franklin, barely finished second behind a Rocket City boat. The NRC time of 20:05 was nine seconds behind Rocket City. That kind of race makes you wish you could take a few strokes over again, but it was a most impressive first outing for this bunch. Look for them to row again in future races and kick some butt.

The men’s master’s single featured a surprising finish, as NRC star Forrest Sanders finished first in the time of 19:23. I neglected to mention that this finish was a surprise only to the Great Dane brought by one of the Vandy parents. Everyone else would have been surprised if Forrest had finished second to anyone on this planet or solar system.

The men’s four, stroked by Josh Herring, a former starboard rower trying out the port side as part of the NRC “Equal Employment Opportunity” program, beat a Rocket City four that struggled to stay in the same time zone, finishing over four minutes behind the winning NRC time of 20:33. Unfortunately, the winning cox, Anna “Three Number Rule” Baik was not thrown in the water after this victory, but her day will come.

The mixed master’s double race was almost a total NRC affair. First place finishers were Erin Kettelle and Forrest Sanders, in a time of 19:46, once again stunning the Vandy Great Dane. Rocket City came in second, and third of three was wrapped up by club treasurer Amanda Joyner, rowing with some guy she was forced to find when her usual partner bailed on her. I never did catch his name or where he was from.

Nashville Rowing Club Women's 8+

Last was the women’s eight. This was a great race, featuring a substitution at stroke of Karen Martin for Lynnisse “Biloxi-bound” Patrick. In a clutch performance, Karen stroked the ladies to a second place finish, 44 seconds behind the Atlanta Rowing Club, who had a time of 21:14. The Rocket City women, normally a formidable bunch, finished third in a time of 22:33.

Be sure to check out the Nashville Rowing Club Facebook page to see photos from the event.

Our next race will be the Secret City Head Race at Oak Ridge on Saturday, October 30.

Chattanooga Head Race Results

NRC crews entered seven events:

• First up for the day, the women’s masters 8+ finished within a 10th of a second of Rocket City’s 3rd place raw time after passing the Chattanooga boat on the outside. Being a younger boat spread the handicap-adjusted margin to 26 seconds.
• Next up, Forrest Sanders took 5th place in the men’s open 1x among a strong field of 13 rowers from as far away as Palm Beach, Florida.
• Then Erin Ketelle pulled a 2nd place finish in the women’s open 1x out of a tight field of top regional rowers.
• The men’s masters 4+ nabbed a 3rd place finish, while the women’s masters 4+ pulled within 2-tenths of a second of the more experienced Oak Ridge crews’ 5th place finish (and within 23 seconds of the NRC men’s masters 4+) in a field of 8 highly competitive crews.
• NRC’s mixed masters 8+, with several novice rowers and a stern pair that had just rowed the men’s masters 4+ to its 3rd place finish, ended 3rd against highly competitive crews from Oak Ridge and Rocket City.
• Topping off the day, Erin Ketelle and Forrest Sanders showed their stuff with the fastest raw time in the mixed masters 2x, placing them a solid 2nd in the handicap-adjusted times.

A good, but exhausting time was had by all! To see photos from the day, click here.

Head races are a time-trial competition where competitors start individually and race the clock over a 5,000 meter course. Saturday was a great day for head racing with nice temperatures, clear skies, and very little wind.

Rocky Top Head Race Results

Nashville was represented in four events and medals were earned in all four.

Women’s 1x: Erin Ketelle-Gold
Men’s 1x: Forrest Sanders-Bronze
Mixed 2x: Erin Ketelle & Forrest Sanders-Silver (fastest raw time)
Women’s 2x: Erin Ketelle & Sarah Arms (NRC/ETRO composite)-Gold

Sunday’s race was a half marathon, 21,097 meters, with singles, doubles, quads, fours, and eights competing. The half marathon course was a 10,550m race up stream to the turnaround buoy and 10,550 back to the finish line near the Oak Ridge Rowing Association Boathouse. The weather was less than favorable with cold temperatures and a very strong head wind that shifted during the race creating equally rough conditions in both directions. Erin and Forrest both competed in singles. Forrest posted the fastest time of the day for any boat class with a time of 1:27.

Women’s 1x First Place Cup: Erin
Men’s 1x-First Place Cup: Forrest

Head racing is a great way to get out and compete against other regional crews and enjoy the great fall weather. The next race NRC will be competing in is this weekend in Chattanooga. The 18th annual Chattanooga Head Race is held on the Tennessee River at Ross’s Landing.

by Forrest Sanders

“Nevah, Nevah, Nevah Surrendah” was what his t-shirt said and at the time I did not know the full meaning of the message. The only reason I even noticed the t-shirt was because the man that was wearing it stood out in sea of physically fit middle aged rowers at Masters Nationals. He walked with a cane and could barely stand upright, but what you noticed was that medal hanging around his neck. As he walked down the sidewalk people would all congratulate him on his accomplishment, and you could tell by the smile he was proud of that medallion. It was not until returning to Nashville that I realized how big this man’s accomplishment really was.

The man’s name is Paul Green and at 87 years old he was the oldest competitor at the regatta. That is in itself is quite a feat but it is not the full extent of this man’s accomplishment. Paul Green was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 75. Since then Paul has been using rowing and other vigorous exercise to combat the onset of a disease that should have rendered him helpless. Here is a man that is an inspiration to all defying aging and a debilitating disease. In an interview with US Rowing, Pauls says the following of the sport:

“I’ve rowed in various regattas over the years,” Green said. “I do it for my health, for the competition and for the camaraderie. I like that it’s intergenerational.

“I’m not just with old people,” he said. “I’m with the kids and masters. I think that rowing is something that is just very important to stay young.”

You can read more about the man and his accomplishments at his web site:

www.nevahsurrendah.org

Hopefully he can be an inspiration to all of us to get out and enjoy life through the sport of rowing.

For the second year in a row Nashville Rowing Club had representation at the USRowing Masters Nationals Championship. This year NRC doubled its entries and tripled its medal count.

NRC rowers Amanda Joyner, Lizabeth Theiss, Erin Ketelle and Forrest Sanders began their training in December of last year by following an eight month structured training program. These rowers spent their winter doing hundreds of thousands of meters on the erg to build aerobic capacity. A colder than normal winter pushed water training off until March but from there the group embarked on training 5-6 days a week in their singles and occasionally a crew boat. Lots more meters were rowed on the lake in preparation for the shorter more intense training that followed during the summer. Sounds like a lot of work; yes it was. But the benefits were worth the effort with great results and a new level of fitness that has built confidence that these rowers can achieve the goals they set for themselves.

At Masters Nationals, Nashville rowers made 7 starts in 6 final events. These rowers scored a total of 15 points to rank NRC 66 out of the 129 team attending.

Point Total Detail for Nashville Rowing Club

Womens Open AA 1x: Amanda Joyner – Fifth Place – 1 pt

Womens Open AA 1x: Erin Ketelle – Third Place – 4 pts

Mens Hwt. B 1x: Forrest Sanders – Third Place – 4 pts

Mixed A 2x A: Erin and Forrest – Third Place – 6 pts

NRC rowers also competed in composite boats comprised of rower from other clubs. This is a great way to build relationships with other competitors and build the reputation of Nashville Rowing as a respected club of real competitors. Two of these composite boats received silver medals although because they were composite boat no point were awarded.

Mens A 8+: Nashville , Fairmount, Undine – Second Place

Mixed A 4x: Nashville , Oak Ridge , Syracuse – Second Place

If you are motivated to compete next year then mark your calendar as the OKC Boathouse Foundation and Oklahoma City will play host to the 2011 USRowing Masters National Championships August 11-14, 2011, on the Oklahoma River.

Read USRowing’s article “Friday the 13th” posted on their site featuring NRC’s rowers sporting their lucky cowboy hats and boots. Based on the results of their racing, we think it worked!