(many thanks to Ken Hutton for passing along this information)SU Alums continue to tear up the Masters circuit and
Andy Hobbs (pictured on the left in this photo), rowing for Wilmington Rowing Club, looks to be having a very good summer. Andy, always the gentleman, gave major props to other competing SU alums in his report:
"I nipped fellow SU Alum, Rich Lewis (pictured on the right in this photo), in the D1x final by about a second; he’s fast, I just had the better lane!! Joe Peter coxed about 50 races and must have had a bunch of medals. Also fellow SU alum Bob Price and I went head-to-head in the stroke seats in the C 8+ final. His Potomac boat was big and fast and took the gold beating us by about 2 seconds; my WRC boat took the silver."
Check out Andy's impressive record at Masters Nationals:
Gold
Men’s D 1x (
Andy Hobbs)
In an event with 20 boats, Andy had to survive heats, semi-finals and a final in those difficult conditions. In the final, he sprinted through three of his fellow competitors after the halfway mark to register the win.
Silver
Men’s Club C 8+ (Amy Evans,
Andy Hobbs, Steve Rosenberg, Matt Iacone, Brian Venti, John Williams, Mark Peters, Fred Mraz, Rush Fisher)
WRC and Potomac easily separated themselves from the rest of the group. Potomac loaded their boat with members of the open-age boat which had made it to the semi-finals of the British Henley this year, along with their usual collection of former pre-elite level masters rowers. WRC gave them all they could handle, but in the end, Potomac had a little too much.
Mixed C 8+ (Amy Evans, Cassandra Plas, Marie Peters,
Andy Hobbs, Brian Venti, Matt Iacone, Mark Peters, Maggie Brokaw, Kris Benarcik)
Another exciting race. WRC won their heat over the defending champions from Greater Columbus. In the finals, GCRA got out to an early lead and WRC spent the rest of the race gaining on them, before simply running out of water.
Men’s Club D 4x (
Andy Hobbs, Doug Green, Brooks Reinhard, Mark Peters)
One of the surprises of the regatta, as the WRC group was thrown together and had minimal expectations. However, WRC led off the start and was still tied for the lead going into the sprint before a better polished University Barge boat was able to sneak past them.
BronzeMen’s Club C 4+ (Amy Evans,
Andy Hobbs, Brian Venti, Matt Iacone, Mark Peters)
Another thrown-together boat which had a surprisingly strong result in one of the best finishes of the regatta. Only the first three boats were all within 1.7s of each other and WRC was only 0.06s out of second. WRC was closing down hard on the two leaders at the end, but just ran out of time.
The USRowing Masters National Championship Regatta took place from August 12 through 15 on the Cooper River race course in Camden, NJ. This is the second consecutive year that it has taken place there.
For those who haven’t experienced it, Masters Nationals takes place over four days and brings in the top masters racers from all around the country, crowning national champions in all age classes of all boat types. It is an excellent way to measure individuals, boats and programs against the fastest in the country in sprint racing.
This year, in addition to the competition, things were made even more challenging by a nasty head/cross-wind which exceeded 20 MPH on all four days and made alignment, rowing and steering very difficult.
Nice job all around for the SU Alums.
Four members of the SARA Executive Committee (VP Bill Purdy, Membership Co-Chair Lynne Pascale, Treasurer Joe Kieffer and President Tracy Smith) hosted a welcome dinner on Saturday night at Syracuse's beautiful Lemon Grass restaurant with new SU Women's Head Coach Justin Moore and his charming and lovely wife Lisa (who also competed on the world rowing stage as a lightweight in the early 1990s.) (under maiden name "Carey")
