Henley Eve

As I write, it is the morning of our first race, and all that remains to be done is race. Yesterday was a good day for the team, and it started with our normal breakfast and morning practice. Since we have begun to taper, we have being rowing only one lap on the Henley course, where we usually go over our race plan at a low rating. By now, we are all familiar with the race course, and we could point out all of the well known landmarks like Barrier and Fawley.

But the big event of the morning was watching Gonzaga's spare pair (Nick Jones and Chris Williams) compete in the spare pair's race. There were 7 pairs entered in the event, and the races were held on the course over roughly 1500 meters. There were 3 quarterfinal races to qualify for 2 semifinal races; however, Gonzaga was the only boat that did not have to qualify, and Nick and Chris went straight to the semifinal because there were an odd number of crews. Westminster College's pair defeated Belmont Hill's pair, so Gonzaga raced Westminster in the semifinal, and won by 4 or 5 boat-lengths! Interestingly enough, the other quarterfinals included the Princeton Lightweights, Bates College, and MIT, so Nick and Chris ended up racing MIT in the final of the spare pairs race. Unfortunately, MIT won by a lot, but now we can say that Gonzaga Crew has raced in the 'finals' at Henley and that Gonzaga has raced MIT, an Eastern Sprints crew program. Congratulations to the pair.

As usual, we ate a quick lunch in the town, and returned home to rest for a few hours before another short practice. We rowed one lap on the course again, showered, and returned home for dinner. Nervous and excited, the crew went to bed early and was ready to take Gonzaga Crew to new heights.