On Sunday, April 17, the Mount Baker Junior Rowing team travelled to Vancouver, WA to compete in the Rose City Invitational against crews from Rose City Rowing Club and Green Lake Junior Crew. Nick Haley, Rose City’s Head Coach, described the event as “high quality, low key”. The distance was 2000 meters for all crews. The weather was fantastic, if a little cool with temperatures in the 50’s, mostly sunny skies, and only a mild tailwind which developed through some of the later races. The competition was very good as well, with several races finishing within a few seats of each other. The event concluded with a lunch provided by Rose City for the several hundred competitors and spectators.
On the boy’s side, the Boy’s Varsity 8+ continued their recent run of victories with a 3 seat win over Rose City, who was just a few seats ahead of Green Lake.
The boys Light 8+, racing together for the first time this season, held close to Green Lake through 1500 meters, but Green Lake was able to pull away in the last 500 to post a little over one length victory. Rose City did not have an entry in that event.
The boys JV 8+ found themselves a little overmatched by the crews from Rose City, finishing open water down on second place Green Lake and first place Rose City.
On the girl’s side, the Girls Varsity 8+ race was won handily by Green Lake by a few seats of open water, Mount Baker and Rose City duked it out for second through the entire course. Despite Baker edging out ahead of Rose City with a move at 1000 meters, Rose City was able to take a two seat advantage into the last 500 and extend that to four seats by the finish line.
The Girls Light 8+ proved to be the closest finish of the day. Green Lake extended out to a commanding one length lead through the first 1000 meters, which held through most of the third 500. Baker rallied in the last 500, closing the gap only to fall short by one seat. Rose City did not have an entry in this event.
The Mount Baker Girl’s JV 8+, like their counterparts on the boy’s team overmatched by older, stronger crews from Green Lake and Rose City. Rose City edged out Green Lake by several seats with Baker several lengths off the pace.
In the Novice events, the boys entered an 8+ and 4+. The boy’s novice 8+ finished third while the boy’s novice 4+ finished a close second to Green Lake. The girls entered two eights racing in separate events. The First Novice 8+ finished 2nd to Rose City while the Second Novice 8+ finished third.