League Race #6 - 510 Sprints (April 25)

After a number of near rainy regattas this year, weather-wise we “got us a good one!” And the good news didn’t end with the day’s skies. On April 25, the Berkeley High Crew Team hosted the inaugural “510 Sprints” on their home course at Jack London Aquatic Center on a gorgeous sun-drenched Sunday.

The Sprints were the last home regatta for this year’s graduating seniors. After last week’s trophy win at the Deep Water Dash in Stockton, it was also the last tune-up before CJ’s in two weeks. Racing in 18 of the day’s 24 events, BHS snagged seven first-places and six second-places on the day. Even before CJs, BHS was on their way to finishing up a very respectable year!

Competing with BHS at the event were seven teams, including Deep Water Rowing, the JLAC Juniors, Palo Alto Rowing, River City Rowing, Serra High, Stanford and Stockton Rowing Club. The day started with a bang for BHS when they took the Men’s Lightweight 4 race by a solid 12 seconds. There were plenty of other BHS successes at the 510 Sprints, including BHS winners in a scorching Women’s Freshman 8 and a Women’s Novice 4B, who not only won their race, but beat a sailboat under power to the finish line! The Men’s Freshman 8 also won their race and all of our young rowers continued to show the bright future of the team! It should be noted that this reporter saw no BHS boat come in last in any race!

All rowers worked extremely hard and the results showed. (A rumor was floating around that maybe this event will have it’s own team trophy next year!) Many crew parents worked hard as well, including our Swedish DJ, Svante and our MC of the day, Tom, who kept everyone up to speed on the day’s events!

Don’t miss this year’s final regatta, the Southwest Regional Junior Championships – the CJs – which will be held at Lake Natoma on May 8th and 9th. A number of races at this huge end-of-year event have been scratched due to time limitations. Unfortunately that means that some of BHS’s talent will not get to participate. The coaches continue to evaluate which rowers will offer the team the best chance for success at the CJs by fielding its best boats. Come enjoy the competition and Go Jackets!

“Talk about the passion
Talk about the passion….”
   REM (1983)

For the full results, see: row2k.com
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