posted 05/23/2008
Greenwich High School Crew made history Sunday as the team swept the Connecticut Public School Rowing Championships on Lake Waramaug besting perennial victor Simsbury in a multi-crown triumph. This bucolic outpost in the picturesque Litchfield Hills was transformed into a six-lane rowing course lined with enthusiastic spectators cheering on 13 participating high schools.
“For the first time in the history of the Connecticut Public Schools Rowing Association Championship, the team points Emerson Cup has left Simsbury High School's hands~~they held the title for eight years straight~~ and now belongs to Greenwich High School,” said GHS Girls Head Coach Nate Young.
On a day that began under sunny blue skies and, typically, segued into an afternoon marked by chilly rain , the GHS rowers pushed past their limits and into overdrive. While the States were snowed out in 2002, the only storm brewing there this weekend was a stellar performance from all levels of the GHS Crew Team. They were easy to spot in their new red jerseys and because of the speed with which they sprinted through the 1500 meter course, leaving competitors in their wake.
“Today's racing yielded landslide victories for Greenwich, testifying to the immense depth that this program has built throughout the year,” Young added.
"We are very proud of the entire team and hope that their classmates realize what the rowers have done in the name of GHS,” said Ashlee Branan, Greenwich Crew Director. “Hearing the race results as each boat came back to the dock was fantastic, especially when nearly every one was relayed with a huge smile. We have known all year that the boats had potential, with different ones showing glimpses of it at different regattas, but to have everyone perform so well at once is truly special and proves we have the makings of a championship team."
Begun on the Norwalk River in 2001 with a couple boatloads of public school rowers by Cris Brown, namesake of the Girls 1st Varsity boat and a local teacher, the Greenwich High School Crew program has burgeoned into a rowing force to be reckoned with throughout the region. Now numbering about 100 student-athletes in one of the state’s largest rowing programs, rowers “erg” inside at the Greenwich Water Club’s state-of-the-art facilities, climbing into their sleek shells right down its docks on the Mianus River in Cos Cob. They row rain or shine, through vacations and over most weekends, as well as every day after school. It is among the most grueling regimes of all high school sports and the workouts have paid off in multiple victories racked up this spring alone.
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