Female A grade silver medallists Eily Taylor , Liy Rose, Julie Underwood, Imogen Wragge, Sommers Hogan.
The Victorian State Championships were held at Ballarat over the weekend, with the first day’s racing over the 2000m course.
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Imogen Wragge entered in the open schoolgirls scull, lining up in the fourth heat.
Four heats were required due to the many entries, with first and second from each going through to the final.
Imogen had a great start and was in a fierce battle for the first 500m of the race before making her move at the halfway mark to move clear and record a confidence-building win.
With eight crews lining up in the final, Imogen once again rowed a great race for a first-time racing in a single scull over 2000m to finish seventh overall.
The crews were greeted with tough crosswind conditions on the second day of racing which was over the 1000m course.
A grade coxed quad scull final featured the Corowa crew of Sommers Hogan, Lily Rose Hall Krause, Imogen Wragge, Julie Underwood and cox Eily Taylor.
In a tight battle down the course, the Essendon and Corowa crews took the lead with Essendon taking the gold and Corowa less than a length back claiming the silver medal.
Lily Rose and Sommers teamed up in the A grade double, needing a top four finish to progress to the final.
They finished second in their heat to a strong Essendon crew.
Lining up with eight crews in the final, little separated the entire field over the course with the Corowa crew having another great row, finishing just outside the medals in fifth.
The club had two entries in the C grade quad scull, with the crew of Eily Taylor, Grietje, Liz Sandow, Tamasin Burch and cox Edie Tomlinson in the first heat.
They won their heat, which earned them a place in the final.
The second crew of Susie Scott, Indi Hogan, Clare Abbott, Kylie Krause and newly accredited cox Andy Abbott finished a credible fourth in their heat, just missing the final.
The crew, stroked by Eily, kept pace with the field and had a late surge to finish fourth, missing out on a medal by just 0.63 of a second.
Male C grade doubles silver medallists Marcus Davies and Darren McMahon.
In the men’s C grade double scull, the newly formed crew of Darren McMahon and Marcus Davies teamed up for their first race together.
It was a tight battle in the heat between Essendon and Corowa, with both progressing through to the final.
The final saw a full field of eight crews, and it was another tight battle with Essendon.
The Corowa crew narrowed the margin to take out a much-deserved silver medal.
There was a large number of entries in the female B-grade single scull, with Corowa fielding two scullers, Julie and Imogen.
A top two finish was needed to progress to the final.
Both scullers rowed well given the tough conditions for single scullers, with Julie just missing out on progressing to the final by one second, and Imogen narrowly missing by only 0.2 seconds.
The B-grade women’s coxed quad scull was the next event for Corowa, a crew comprising Sommers, Imogen, Phoebe Packer, Eily Taylor and coxed by Edie.
The crew needed to be placed in the top four to make the final, and they won their heat in a fast time.
The final included some strong crews, but Corowa fought bravely to take out a bronze medal, only missing the silver by 0.61 seconds.
C Grade gold medallist Marcus Davies.
The men’s C grade single saw the double scull crew split up into singles.
Darren, in a single scull for the first time at competition level, rowed a great heat to earn himself a place in the final.
Marcus also had a strong row to join his crew mate in the finals.
In tough conditions with the wind picking up, Marcus’ race plan was to get out in front and hold on.
He followed the plan to a tee and was able to hold off the fast-finishing competition over the final 20m to claim the gold medal, with Darren finishing in fifth.
The club wanted the challenge of returning to row a sweep (one oar) boat and eight women entered the C-grade eight.
The crew came up against some strong school crews, and a tough battle with Richmond saw them just miss the medals in fourth place.
After the eight rowed, the regatta was called off due to strong winds.
It was a great effort by all the rowers and families making the trip to Ballarat.
In tough conditions, the rowers gave their best.
Special thanks to Andy who stepped up to cox his first race, a special moment to cox his daughter’s crew.
Training will now focus on the Head of School Girls regatta at Geelong, with Imogen, Eily and Indi rowing in the open schoolgirls single scull over 1500m.
Anyone who wants to find out more about the sport is welcome to come down and have a look.
The club is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and interested people are welcome to come down to the club.
As the season comes to an end, we will start our strength training over the winter months.
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