During the last weekend in April, Fish Creek played host to the 28th Saratoga Rowing Invitational. The regatta brought in teams from all across the nation with clubs traveling from Chicago to New jersey making it one of the biggest youth races in the country. The racing style was set up, so all teams raced a 1500-meter distance, the standard length for youth racing. This was followed up by a few 2000-meter events on Sunday. Before racing I had a chance to speak to athletes from other competing teams. I got the chance to interview Owen Brown from Princeton Rowing Association. Owen said, “The Saratoga invitational is such a fun and competitive race because it allows us to see early season competition and test out lineups against national teams”.
On Saturday, April 27th, the Saratoga Varsity Boys started off with bang, placing 2nd in the freshmen eight-man race coming 3 seconds off last year’s national champions, New Jersey’s Row America Rye. After a few hours, the varsity eight-man boats had a chance to race down the course for the first time of the season. The first eight had a good showing with the boat placing 3rd in their respective heat. They faced off against some of the biggest teams in the country including the national champions, Greenwich, and Row America Rye. The second boat had a great race, lining up 9 crews across. Later in the afternoon, the wind started to pick up very fast which made the day of racing conclude early.
On day two of racing, the course was changed to a 2000-meter format. The heats from that Sunday determined the seeding and configuration for the day’s finals. Both the first eight and the second eight got to race in these select events placing fifth and second respectively in their age groups. After a long weekend, the varsity was done racing while the freshmen still had two races left. The U17 eight was first to launch in the afternoon where they placed 3rd. The 3rd eight was second to launch, ending up placing 6th which was a good showing given how fast the freshmen/U17s are. The last race for the varsity boys was the 4th eight racing two Rye and two Greenwich boats. Overall, the results from the past weekend were a strong showing for how fast the varsity and U17 boys are. After the racing was over, I had the chance to watch all the team’s pack and leave another successful Saratoga regatta.