With crew’s spring season on the horizon, The Roundup takes a look back at crew’s performance in the fall. The team now has three fall regattas under their belt: the Head of the Oklahoma, Head of the Charles, and Head of the Hooch.
The entire team attended two of the fall races, the Oklahoma and the Hooch, with only the varsity making the trip to Boston for the Charles.
The season opened with the Head of the Oklahoma in Oklahoma City on Oct. 7. Jesuit Crew took fourth in the varsity 8-man boat division and took home the silver in the varsity 4.
The freshmen made a strong debut in the novice event as well for being so new to the sport. Unfortunately, technicalities before the start of their race prevented them from taking home the gold.
A few short weeks later, the top eight varsity rowers flew to Boston to once again compete in the Head of the Charles regatta, one of the largest regattas in North America.
Jesuit placed 35th in the five thousand meter head race on Oct. 21, a result the team was unhappy with.
“We had a rough start to the fall season and Head of the Charles portrayed that,” senior captain Tripp Cave said. “We had the speed but not the maturity which gave us a wake-up call which we answered later in the fall.”
And answer that wake-up call they did, roughly a month later in Chattanooga, Tennesse at the Head of the Hooch regatta. On Nov. 4, the first varsity 8 placed sixth after competing with multiple scholastic and club teams from across the country.
The varsity’s comeback was met with promising progress from the other varsity 8 boat and freshmen 8 in a strong and satisfying end to the fall season.
This season, the team hired a new coach and had the largest number of rowers in recent years. It seems to have paid off with the team doing very well overall.
The crew team is currently training every day on the water or in the erg room up in the Terry Center for the upcoming spring season
Their next competition is the Southwest Ergometer Amateur Tournament (S.W.E.A.T.), hosted here at Jesuit on Feb. 3. The spring racing season will officially begin with the Oklahoma City Invitational this Spring Break.
