Fantastic conditions greeted the rowers at the Nagambie Regatta, contested over the 1000m course.
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The club’s first race was the Female Masters quad scull, with Julie Underwood, Grietje, Liz Sandow, Tamasin Burch and coxswain Eily Taylor.
Little separated the six crews after the first 250m before Footscray City and Corowa began to move away.
By the 500m mark the two crews were well clear, trading positions, with Corowa well placed.
With 20 strokes remaining, Corowa surged into the lead to claim a fantastic win.
In the mixed sweep oar event, Eva Broad, Darren McMahon, Clancy Tomlinson and Nick Wragge, coxed by Edie Tomlinson, lined up against Powerhouse and Hawthorn.
The new Corowa crew settled well and, in a strong first race together, finished a clear second.
Under-17 male sculler Marcus Davies featured in the second heat of the U17 single.
Needing a top three finish to qualify for the final, Marcus showed the benefit of his hard work on race starts, keeping pace with the field and finishing second in his best single scull race.
In the final, with strong competition, he battled mid-field and finished strongly, gaining valuable experience against older opposition ahead of the rest of the season.
The Female C-grade quad scull featured Liz, Tamasin, Kylie Krause and the experienced Clancy with Edie steering.
Needing a top four finish to advance, the crew started cautiously but gained confidence each stroke to finish third.
In the final of eight crews, they improved their start, were well placed at halfway, and finished fourth — importantly bettering their heat time.
Nick and Darren showed their versatility by switching into the Male C-grade double scull.
With large entries, two heats were held with top four progression.
Against younger opposition, they battled with the Hawthorn double and progressed to the final by two seconds.
The final split into two races, with the favourites clear up front.
The Corowa crew battled the field and finished strongly to hold off Essendon and claim seventh place, gaining valuable race experience.
Imogen Wragge and Eily Taylor competed in the Female B-grade single. In a large field, both needed a top four finish.
Imogen rowed a strong first heat and controlled her race to finish second.
Eily struggled early but used her renowned endurance to move up and secure the final qualifying position in fourth.
In the club’s first race against each other, Imogen and Eily faced the Essendon sculler.
With little separating the field, the Essendon rower led, but over the final 250m Eily edged ahead to finish third with Imogen close behind in fourth.
The Nagambie regatta provided valuable racing opportunities for rowers after the cancellation of the Lake Moodemere regatta due to the Longwood fires.
Julie Underwood contested the Master single against quality opposition.
Three scullers moved clear, with Julie well placed and making a late move on the Victorian representative from Ballarat.
She gained steadily but finished a close second.
Julie then teamed with Grietje in the Master double sculls.
Given a 45-second head start against older crews, the Corowa pair gained steadily, overtaking the field but just missing the early leaders and finishing third.
The club’s mixed Open quad — Marcus, Eily, Imogen and Nick Wragge, coxed by Edie — battled for third place with Footscray City and finished less than a second behind to claim fourth.
Eily and Imogen’s final race of the day was the B-grade double scull.
After their confidence-building singles races, the duo showed great teamwork and finished a strong third in heat competition.
Although that result would have been fast enough to progress, only the top two crews advanced; their heat winners went on to finish first and third in the final.
Liz Sandow, always up for a challenge, raced the C-grade single sculls.
With five competitors, Liz held off the Ballarat sculler to finish fifth.
In the mixed Master double, Kylie and Darren were determined to beat their rivals and finished sixth, holding off a strong Hawthorn crew in a competitive field.
The club’s final race featured Eva and Marcus in the mixed double scull.
Racing together for the first time, the newly formed crew rowed strongly and gained confidence as the race progressed, finishing fourth.
The Nagambie Regatta provided valuable racing opportunities for our rowers, particularly following the cancellation of the Lake Moodemere Regatta due to the Longwood fires.
The crews now have two weeks until the State Championships at Ballarat.
Thanks to all the rowers and support crew who made the trip to Nagambie.
Anyone interested in learning to row is encouraged to call into the Corowa Rowing Club.
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