Garden States and Cooper Cup Recap

The club is enjoying a day off today after a fantastic weekend of racing that started on Saturday at the Garden State Scholastic Championship and ended yesterday with the Cooper Cup.

Garden States:

HTCC had all nine crews in the finals for Garden States on Saturday, with seven crews taking home medals! 

Matteo started finals racing with his best race of the year and an impressive silver medal in the boys junior single. 

Sophia and Christine followed Matteo with another great race in the girls junior double.  Although they were only in the lineup for two days prior to the race, they raced hard and brought home a silver medal.

In one of the closest and most exciting races of the day, Kara, Olivia E, Rebecca, and Rachel, missed out on gold by 1 second to a very fast Ridgewood crew in the girls junior quad. 

Parker, Dan, Walter, and Duff won the first gold medal of the day for the Hawks in the boys junior quad.  The boys were even with Ridgewood for most of the race but were able to open a four second gap in the last 500 meters.

Joey followed the girls by taking home a silver medal in the boys senior single and qualifying himself for the Scholastic National Championship!

Although both girls are novices, Ella and Julie put together an amazing race against tough competition and finished fifth in the girls senior double.  After advancing out of heats, Joel and Noah followed the girls with another fifth place finish in the boys senior double.

The last two races of the day showed some of the most dominating performances of the season by the Hawks.  Angela, Lauren, Olivia H, and Noa brought home gold medals in the girls senior quad, beating the second place finisher by 20 seconds!  In the very next race, Erik, Springer, Luke, and Keaton grabbed their own gold medals, beating the second place finisher by 18 seconds!

Automatically Qualified for SRAA National Championship:
MV4x: Erik/Springer/Luke/Keaton
WV4x: Angela/Lauren/Olivia H/Noa
MV1x: Joey
MJV4x: Parker/Dan/Walter/Duff

Cooper Cup:
The club returned to the Cooper yesterday to compete in the Cooper Cup.  This race is open to clubs and is 2000 meters (500m longer than the standard scholastic distance of 1500m).  Although tired, every crew stepped up and put forward strong performances.

HTCC had two mens varsity doubles racing on Sunday (Joel/Noah and Joey/Tyler).  Both crews advanced from heats to semis, and Joel and Noah continued on to the finals, where they finished in fifth place, despite it being their fifth race of the weekend! 

Ella and Julie had a great race in the girls novice double, finishing in second place in their flight despite being run into by another crew.  Ella showed great determination by finishing the race after being hit in the face by the other crew's oars!

Matteo followed the girls with another strong race, holding tight with the field for the first thousand meters.

Christine and Sophia finished in second for the second day in a row in the girls JV double, again putting together their finest performance of the year. 

Angela, Lauren, Olivia H, and Noa won their heat in the girls varsity quad and advanced to the final where they finished in third place behind a very fast River Rowing crew and Conestoga.

Erik, Springer, Luke, and Keaton finished in second place in their heat in the boys varsity quad and went on to the finals where they mounted a tremendous comeback in the sprint, returning from over o boatlength down to just missing gold by a bow deck.

Kara, Olivia E, Rebecca, and Rachel dominated the field in the girls jv quad, finishing in first place overall and taking home the only gold medals of the day for the club!

In the final race of the day, Parker, Dan, Walter, and Duff fought hard in the boys jv quad, racing neck and neck with River Rowing all the way down the course, but in the end were unable to pass them and took home a solid second place overall.

The Hawks will return to the Schuylkill next weekend for the Philadelphia City Championships.