NSR 2: Day 1

Post #46

Princeton, New Jersey - Julie and I raced the time trial this morning and placed second behind the USTC - Oklahoma entry of Abby and Ursula. We had a great time going down the course and the water was glassy, which always makes me happy. It's always hard to read the results because you don't know what everyone's effort level is in the time trial. That's especially true for this one, where no one was eliminated in the progression. The time trial results function as a seeding for tomorrow's semifinals.

(thank you to the excellent photographers at Row2k for these!)

The schedule is as follows:

Friday May 13 - 8:04 am semifinal 1, 8:12 am semifinal 2. Top 3 finishers from each semifinal advance to A final, last 2 finishers to B final.

Saturday May 14 - 7:50 am Final A, 8:28 am Final B. Winner of Final A qualifies to race at any/all of the 3 World Cups.

Results can be found here (WL2x on that page). The weather looks to be excellent for racing over the next few days - 4 mph winds and warm. Better than NSR 1!

It is always great to see the other Wisco alums at these National Selection Regattas. Seeing their familiar faces makes me feel right at home. They're the ones who I raced with, trained with, and had great times with in college. Plus it's always nice to feel like you have a team. Sometimes during the training rows in the days leading up to an NSR, you'll hear a little "Go Badgers!" from a fellow alum going the opposite way. One of the Wisco alums at this NSR is Claire Wallace, racing in the light double for Riverside. Claire's not only a talented rower, she's also a marathoner extraordinare. She ran Boston just a few weeks ago. She and I rowed together in the Wisco Varsity 8 together back in '06.

Claire and me after winning Eastern Sprints in 2006 in the Wisco Lightweight 8. We had matching golden race socks!

Claire (second from right) and me (fourth from left) after winning the National Championship in 2006.

Speaking of Eastern Sprints and the Wisco Lights, it looks like it'll be an exciting race on Sunday for them. From the Row2k preview:

"In the lightweight racing, the regular season has seen a shakeup atop the rankings, with Princeton supplanting Wisconsin atop the poll first the first time in about half a decade. The Tigers beat the Badgers at the PAC-10 Invitational by a sizeable margin in late March, but it’s been also been shown historically that it’s pretty tough to beat the Badgers in May."

Next update to come tomorrow. Thanks for the support and for watching!