On October 1, twelve CCR rowers competed at the Textile River Regatta in Lowell MA in the Women’s Masters 8+ and Men’s Masters 4+ events. We are thrilled to report that each boat placed third in their race, and we brought home some medals! On top of that, the day was remarkable because:
It marked the inaugural (and auspicious!) rowing of our eight, the Alex Machi, in a competition, and
It was the beginning of what we hope will be a continuing coordination with the Massachusetts Maritime Academy rowing program, coached by our very own CCR member John Edwards. John, we cannot thank you and your crew enough for sharing your trailer, transporting our boats, outfitting us with coxswain, and last but not least, supplying some cadets to do some of the heavy lifting when it was time to de-rig/load. We felt totally spoiled.
I think everyone will agree that having Coach Bob’s guidance over the summer helped us achieve such a great result at Textile. Thank you, Bob, for your skilled coaching and practice plans - we literally could not have done it without you. We are looking forward to next season already!
Also a big shout out to our Race Coordinator Kathy Cook, for all her work keeping us race-ready: organizing all the details and making sure we stayed in the loop with the venue’s many regulations. No easy feat. Thank you, Kathy!
In other racing news, we are proud of CCR members Beth King and Pam Owen, who recently competed in the Paper City Regatta in Holyoke MA. Their Women’s Masters 2x (Double) entry took gold, and were awarded a home-baked pie, arguably better than a medal! Congratulations, Beth and Pam! Holyoke Rows is the home club of Coach Stephanie, who ran a sculling clinic for us over the summer.
If you’re a recent or even a not-so-recent LTR grad, please consider racing next summer/fall. The regattas are so much fun, often drawing a mix of high school, collegiate and masters rowers. And if you’re a competitor, you can carb load in advance for at least a day or two! So, it’s a “win-win”!
