The boys and girls first eights rowed their semifinals today and both qualified for the grand finals at the USRowing Youth National Championship at Harsha Lake outside Cincinnati, Ohio. Tomorrow morning, they will race for medals and the titles of the fastest youth crews in the United States. Only twice have any eights from any school from the NEIRA ever won at Nationals: the 1995 St. Paul’s boys and the 1996 Exeter boys. This year, both the boys in the Titus and the girls in the Gilmartin have the potential to join these ranks of national champions.

The boys eight, rowing in the Titus with (from bow to stroke) Tim Moore ‘08, Vaughan Coder ‘08, Mario Barosevcic ‘08, Ryan Jones ‘09, Chris Jones ‘08, Andrew Safir ‘08, Ian Winthrop ‘08, Luke Thoms ‘08, and Alex Manfull ‘09, raced their top-3 semifinal today at 4:08 PM. Also in this race was Newport Aquatic Center, Winter Park High School, St. Augustine Prep, Westerville Rowing Club and Green Lake Crew. Despite a delayed start, the boys were able to hold off the entire field except for Newport, finishing second in 5:53.31, 0.47 seconds ahead of third place Winter Park. Looking ahead to tomorrow’s 11:20 AM grand final, boats are assigned as follows:

• Lane 1: Winter Park High School (school from Winter Park, Florida)
• Lane 2: Capital Crew (club from Gold River, California)
• Lane 3: Newport Aquatic Center (club from Newport Beach, California)
• Lane 4: St. Joseph’s Prep (school from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Lane 5: Phillips Exeter Academy
• Lane 6: Wayland-Weston (club from Wayland, Massachusetts)

The girls eight, rowing in the M. Catherine Gilmartin with (from bow to stroke) Lyn Ann Forrester ‘08, Allison Courtin ‘08, Katrina Regan ‘08, Erin Metcalf ‘09, Katherine Dyke ‘08, Lizzy McDermott ‘08, Rory Erickson-Kulas ‘08, Cathy McDermott ‘08, and Alyssa Murray ‘08, rowed their semifinal today at 3:47 PM. Also in this race was Community Rowing, St. Paul’s School, Lincoln Park Juniors, Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club, and Oakland Strokes. The girls rowed another strong 2000 meter piece and finished first without sprinting, 0.79 seconds ahead of Community Rowing. Looking ahead to the girls grand final tomorrow at 10:56 AM, boats are assigned as follows:

• Lane 1: St. Paul’s School (NEIRA school from Concord, New Hampshire)
• Lane 2: Marin Rowing Association (club from Greenbrae, California)
• Lane 3: Phillips Exeter Academy
• Lane 4: Los Gatos Rowing Club (club from Los Gatos, California)
• Lane 5: Community Rowing (club from Watertown, Massachusetts)
• Lane 6: Green Lake Crew (club from Seattle, Washington)

To see how both crews have progressed through their heats, repechages and semifinals in the three-day regatta, check out the updated brackets below:

Best of luck to both crews. Follow along with the races as the results are published live at the Racetrak results page.

Finish line photos courtesy of Racetrak and Finishlynx.

Update: The schedule has been adjusted slightly.  The girls now race at 10:56 AM and the boys at 11:20 AM.

The Exeter Boys and Girls first boats, having both won at the NEIRA Championship Regatta, earned spots at the 2008 USRowing Junior National Championships at Harsha Lake outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. This morning, both boats raced other crews from around the country in the preliminary heats.

The regatta takes place over the course of three days, due its double elimination format. Unlike the single elimination format of NEIRAs, crews get a second chance to make it to the semifinals (and, by association, the grand finals) regardless of their performance in the starting heats. The 18-seed 6-lane double elimination format used has four steps:

• All 18 crews race in three heats of six boats each. The top two boats from each heat qualify directly for the semifinal, skipping the repechage races. The bottom four boats race in the repechages.
• The top three boats from each repechage qualify for the semifinal. The bottom three boats race in the C Final.
• The top three boats from each semifinal qualify for the Grand Final, the bottom three boats from each semifinal qualify for the Petite Final.
• All crews race in either the C Final, Petite Final, or Grand Final.

Since there are only 16 crews racing in the girls event, that bracket is slightly different, with the top three crews from the heats getting a bye on the reps and a single 7-boat repechage for the remaining crews, the top three of which get the last spots in the semis.
Full brackets for the Boys and Girls events are below:

The girls eight, rowing in the M. Catherine Gilmartin with (from bow to stroke) Lyn Ann Forrester ’08, Allison Courtin ’08, Katrina Regan ’08, Erin Metcalf ’09, Katherine Dyke ’08, Lizzy McDermott ’08, Rory Erickson-Kulas ’08, Cathy McDermott ’08, and Alyssa Murray ’08, rowed their heat Friday at 10:55 AM.  In the top-two to qualify heat, the boat cruised to a 3.64 second win over second-place Green Lake.  Courtin said “We were conservative going into the heat, preparing for hard competition since we don’t know anything about these crews.  We had a pretty solid row all the way down, didn’t sprint, Green Lake fell back early and trailed us most of the way.”  Looking ahead to the semifinal on Saturday at 3:47 PM, the girls are “cautiously optimistic,” in earning a top-3 finish to qualify for Sunday’s grand finals.

The boys eight, rowing in the Titus with (from bow to stroke) Tim Moore ’08, Vaughan Coder ’08, Mario Barosevcic ’08, Ryan Jones ’09, Chris Jones ’08, Andrew Safir ’08, Ian Winthrop ’08, Luke Thoms ’08, and Alex Manfull ’09, raced their heat Friday at 11:16 AM.  Despite having the third fastest time in any of the heats and being 9.41 seconds ahead of the fourth best time, top two finishers St. Joseph’s Prep and Winter Park were both in Exeter’s heat, and forced the eight into the repechages by 0.79 seconds.  The reps were originally scheduled to occur Friday afternoon, though severe thunderstorms forced a postponement of the reps until Saturday morning at 9:38 AM.  In this race, the boys took first by 3.69 seconds.  The Titus will row in the semifinals Saturday afternoon at 4:08 PM, needing a top-3 finish to qualify for the grand finals.

Good luck to both crews!  Follow along with race results as they become available at the live results page.

Update: (6/14-11:03 AM) News from the repechages has been added, and the brackets have been updated in preparation for this afternoon’s semifinal races.

Tomorrow, June 7th, marks the one year anniversary of the very first post on ExeterCrew.com. With the help, contributions and encouragement from countless past and present members of Exeter Crew, the site has come a long way. Originally envisioned as a small set of pages with basic information about the program, the site’s readership has grown and much more content has been added, including:

• Dozens of news articles detailing recent races and other Exeter Crew events.
• A comprehensive photo gallery with 1527 total photos from races and boat christenings (with full-res versions available).
• A fully functional discussion board.
• The team’s full schedule, complete boys and girls rosters, and a breakdown of race results for every boat over the entire season.
• Maps and other information about each racecourse on which the teams race.
• A collection of video clips taken at races.
• A history of the Academy’s crew program.
• Biographies for the varsity and junior varsity coaches.
• A detailed list of the 2604 varsity letter recipients since 1923.
• An overview of facilities at the Saltonstall Boathouse.
• “The Whiz Kids,” a recollection by Jack Bissell ’58.

Looking to the future, it would be great to get more user interaction with the website–especially on the forum. For example, anyone rowing over the summer or planning on going to Canadian Henley should post a reply. If you have any photos or videos from Exeter Crew events, make a new thread and post a link so it can be added to the site’s galleries. Any suggestions or comments about the site are best posted on the feedback discussion board.

In addition to contributing content to the site, make sure to tell any of your friends who were part of the program about ExeterCrew.com. The vast majority of the site’s exposure is from word-of-mouth.

On a personal note, I am very happy with the site’s success, and want to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to everyone who has visited it regularly. Seeing the site’s traffic grow from a few dozen to a few hundred hits a day has kept me motivated.

This week, expect a news article about the boys and girls eights headed to the USRowing Youth National Championships outside of Cincinnati, Ohio next Saturday, June 14th. In the meantime, Happy Birthday ExeterCrew.com!