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This year the the light 8+ was being put together by Community Rowing Incorporated, under the supervision of Bruce Smith. CRI has run two of the last three light 8+s and Bruce has coached several light 8+s at the international level. And with the 2x, 1x, 4x, and 2- events seemingly on lock down by the top athletes in our sport, the camp was able to attract a large pool of talent, consisting almost entirely of post-collegiate scullers with some amount of international race experience.
We had 12 rowers in the camp, making for some solid seat racing action. We were grinding it out in coxed fours in the mornings, doing 1000 and 1500 meter pieces ranging from 32 to 36 strokes per minute with athlete switches between boats to measure individual skills. I was seat raced once early on and won by a sufficient margin to not have to defend my position again. Most of my time was actually spent stroking the fours. It was not easy for me - I like to race at lower rates with longer strokes so trying to hit a 36 took some big changes. Luckily, I had no problem making the weight cutoff (161 lbs to be seat raced), so I was able to stay pretty charged up day-to-day. Afternoons were spent in various four and eight lineups to help athletes row with each other and find an effective common rhythm.
After two weeks of grueling racing and lots of double checking to give all athletes the benefit of the doubt, we established our lineup. I will try to provide a bit of information about the guys, but I am still getting to know my new teammates.
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| The light 8+, messing around on a trip to the Basin. |
Matthew Lenhart: A BU alum, this is Matt's first year of post-collegiate racing. He is a West Coast guy, a native of the Bay Area, and trains at California Rowing Club.
Dave Smith: Dave and I go way back, having raced the 2x together in 2012 at Olympic Trials. Dave has been on two national teams in the light 4x and is an alum of Dartmouth and the Harvard School of Design. Currently, Dave is training in Charlottesville under Frank Biller.
Jack Devlin: Jack raced in the U-23 lightweight 2- for the USA in 2012. He hails from Virginia and is a Georgetown alum. He currently trains in Washington D.C. Jack's parents were both high performance rowers; his mom was a world champion in 1984 in the lightweight 8+.
Chris Lambert: Chris has raced as part of the 2007 U-23 light 4x and the 2011 senior light 4x. He is heavy-hitter in our boat in terms of raw power and erg score. He currently trains out of Malta Boat Club in Philadelphia and is from Florida.
Peter Schmidt: Peter currently trains out of Riverside and was part of the 2014 light 4x. He is a solid sculler who is from Rhode Island and studied at Drexel. He works as an engineer in Boston and was kind enough to lend me a suit for my brother's wedding the weekend before trials.
Phil Henson: Phil has been mostly been sweeping since college, trying to make his mark in the light 2-. In 2011, Phil raced in the U-23 light pair for the USA. This was Phil's first year focused primarily on the 1x. He trains out of Craftsbury and his parents live in New Jersey.
Tobin Mcgee: Tobin is from New York and currently trains at Riverside. He has been on two national teams: once in the U-23 light 4x in 2010 and once in the lightweight 8+ in 2013. He currently works as an engineer.
And then there is me to round out the lineup.
It is a solid group of guys. Lots of experience, with a great coaching staff and rowing community to back us up. Trials has already started, but we are racing unopposed. We will come down the race course on Wednesday morning at 7:00 AM to secure our berth. We will be racing with a focus on practicing a good rhythm and getting a measure of our speed. I am so close to attaining this 11 year dream, is is surreal.
