By SARA CASLER
Rowers rock the oars to steady the boat. The coxswain, sophomore Gabrielle Yordan, checks her “cox box,” an intercom system laced throughout the boat she uses to keep the rowers on rhythm, and waits for the starting gun.
As the year comes to a close, the team continues to push for perfection. The season started in the summer of 2011 with about a dozen team members, not counting middle schoolers, no equipment and two donated boats from a local rowing club that were unraceable; they had originally been slated to be discarded. The boats were repaired, and once rowers paid their participation dues, the team invested in new equipment and also in maintaining the original equipment.
Also, because most of the rowers had never set foot in a sculling boat or racing boat, the team competed at the novice level more often than not, with three of the five boats competing in those categories. Despite the newness of the rowers, even with the novices, the team made a new name for itself. The Men’s Novice 4 placed second at the Mayor’s Cup and the Women’s Novice 4 placed second at the Florida Straights Regatta. The Novice 8 placed third at the Straights Regatta as well. Also at the Novice Regatta on Feb. 11, three boats, the Mixed 8 and both Mixed 4s, placed in their respective races with a Mixed 4 boat placing second and the other two placing third.
“[The team performed at its best at] the Novice Regatta. Most of our boats came home with medals, some of which had never medaled before. I was really excited for the novices because the faster their boats are, the faster we are overall,” senior team captain Michael Merwin said.
Merwin placed sixth in the state in his most recent race, the Sculling State Championships racing a Men’s Lightweight two, with his sculling partner, sophomore Jesse Pollard.
Team captain Madison Lennon, junior, reflects on this year as one of challenges and teamwork.
“We try our hardest. We are not as strong as we could be, but our technique is really good. I think that’s what saves us sometimes. We have high hopes. [This year] was going to be hard, but we were fully aware of [that],” Lennon said.
Yordan also considers this year an overall success after performances such as the Straights; she was a rower on the Women’s Novice 4 rather than the coxswain for this race.
“We have a bunch of strong new rowers that have been joining and have shown potential. We’ve lost rowers before and we learn to work with each other’s strengths and weaknesses to perform at our best,” Yordan said.
Yordan’s most recent event as coxswain was the Tampa Mayor’s Cup on March 17.
The final race of the season, the Southeast Regional Championships in Sarasota, begins May 12, with every available novice and varsity boat hitting the water.
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