Talk about a golden opportunity
Coxie finishes first at Henley two weeks after ‘joining’ St. Catharines Rowing Club
You can call Georgia Greenwood the Roger Maris of the 137th Royal Canadian Henley Regatta.
Members of five crews from St. Catharines Rowing Club won gold medals on Sunday’s final day of the world-class competition, but only Greenwood’s is adorned with a cluster shaped like an asterisk.
While the Don Rowing Club from Toronto didn’t win the women’s senior 52-kilogram coxed four — it didn’t even qualify a boat for the final — it nonetheless deserved an assist for allowing Greenwood to coxie the St. Catharines Rowing Club crew that did win.
She “joined” the club two weeks ago after all the Henley-bound boats at her home club filled up while she was away competing at the CanAmMex Regatta in Florida.
“I had friends at St. Catharines. I sent an email, and within two days I was here and ready to go,” the 17-year-old from Toronto said.
She was able to make the most of what turned out to be a golden opportunity, thanks to two and a half weeks of practising nearly every day.
In addition to becoming familiar with Martindale Pond, Greenwood had to become more comfortable giving instructions in a sweep boat.
“Don is primarily a sculling club,” she explained. “I talked with the other coxswain to help grow myself.”
The gold medallist with an asterisk couldn’t say enough about being a pinchhitter who went yard in her only at-bat at Henley — 2,000 metres, to be exact.
“I absolutely love St. Catharines. I’ve had a great time here,” she said. “These girls are so strong. I’ve enjoyed every moment.”
As a member of the St. Catharines club, Jacob Giesbrecht has “about 11 years, 12 years” on Greenwood.
“It’s starting to blur together,” he said with a chuckle after winning gold in a men’s senior lightweight eight.
Giesbrecht, who is studying ethics in lightweight rowing while pursuing a master's degree at Brock University, said the feeling of finishing first at Henley never gets old.
“You can keep doing this for as long as you’re alive. It’s always the same feeling,” the E.L. Crossley Secondary School graduate said.
Giesbrecht quipped that at 25, he’s “one of the old guys in the boat.”
He is asked good-naturedly if that’s his way of saying the young pups picked up the slack for the old dog when the time to make the final push for the finish line.
“I’d like to think I pulled my own weight,” he said, taking the bait. “But they definitely helped.
“It was a crew effort. One guy can’t make a boat go fast.”
St. Catharines coxswain Brooke Kew followed up her gold medal in Saturday’s women’s lightweight eight 500-metre dash with a first-place finish the following afternoon in the women’s senior lightweight eight.
Kew, who also coxed the men’s flyweight four at the Henley this year, said being a good coxswain and being a good teammate go hand-in-hand.
“I think it’s really about knowing your teammates, and what works with them and what doesn’t,” the 18-year-old said. “Some things work with some girls, and some don’t.”
Kew said it can be tough to compete in an event in which there are no qualifying heats or semifinals.
“I think this race especially we didn’t know what to expect from the other crew,” she said Sunday. “So it was really about going out there and doing what we practised.”
Evan MacRae said there’s no comparison between the triple crown he won for A.N. Myer during the high school season and the Henley gold he captured Sunday for St. Catharines Rowing Club in the men’s under-18 eight.
“This was just a crazy race,” he said. “I never really was down when I was triplecrowning, I also had an earlier lead, but today we were down by a little bit so we had to claw our way back.
“That was just an amazing experience to watch us just rip through these boys.”
After trailing Philadephia’s Hawk Rowing across the finish line in the semifinals, the Zoe Tekeian-coxed eight knew it had to find a higher gear when it left the dock this morning.
“We knew we were going to have a huge battle from Hawk Rowing.”
Johan May celebrated his return to Henley after a “gap year” in which he trained overseas with gold medals in the men’s lightweight eight dash, men’s senior lightweight eight and men’s under-23 lightweight pair.
The Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School graduate, who is going to Harvard University on an athletic scholarship, said joining a professional training group has contributed to his success on the water.
“I had a big advantage of doing a lot more volume in terms of training.”
Spending three months in France helped him refocus.
“It gave me a break from academics and kind of refocussed my life, to kind of see how far I really want to take rowing,” he said.
Following are Sunday’s top three and win
ning times, as well as the finishes of entries from Niagara:
Men’s para 1 single: 1. North Bay, 13:07.86; 2. CRI.
Women’s para 2 single: 1. West Side, 10:33.77; 2. CRI.
Men’s para 3 pair: 1. US Para, 7:38.33; 2. CRI.
Women’s para 3 pair: 1. US Para, 7:45.67; 2. US Para, 3. CRI.
Women’s under-19 quad: 1. Victoria City, 7:01.90; 2. Delta Deas, 3. Don, 4. St. Catharines
Men’s senior lightweight quad: 1. Riverside, 6:14.77; 2. Conshohocken, 3. New York AC, 6. Niagara Falls.
Women’s championship pair: 1. GMS, 7:30.02; 2. UBC, 3. Kingston.
Men’s championship pair: 1. New York AC, 6:51.52; 2. Riverside, 3. Craftsbury.
Men’s under-19 quad: 1. Conshohocken, 6:19.79; 2. Thunder, 3. Calgary.
Men’s senior 64-kilogram single: 1. Montreal, 7:36.21; 2. Minnesota, 3. St. Catharines.
Women’s senior quad: 1. Arion, 6:42.44; 2. North Star, 3. Riverside.
Women’s senior 52-kilogram coxed four: 1. St. Catharines, Kasaundra Pariak, Marissa Hagopian, Emma Parkin, Olivia Burgess; coxswain, Georgia Greenwood, 8:17.40; 2. West Side, 3. Wyandotte.
Men’s under-17 coxed four: 1. Monmouth Jr., 6:44.47; 2. PNRA/Mercer, 3. St. Catharines.
Men’s senior lightweight eight: Eric Buchanan, Brad Iafrate, Noah Van Helvert, Owen Voelkner, Ryan Walter, Johan May, Jacob Martens, Jacob Giesbrecht; coxswain, Autumn Bland, 6:03.89; 2. UVic, 3. Riverside.
Women’s senior lightweight eight: 1. Jordan Isnor, Alicia Piazza, Kaitlyn Dennis, Margaret Gralewicz, Andrea Jansen, Erin Corkery, Carly Zanatta, Jennifer Beaudette; coxswain, Brooke Kew, 7:01.21; 2. Leander.
Men’s under-23 four: 1. Mendota, 6:28.85; 2, Mendota, 3. Mendota, 6. St. Catharines.
Women’s under-23 four: 1. Kingston, 7:12.97; 2. UVic, 3. West Cambridge.
Senior men’s quad: 1. Penn AC, 6:19.92; 2. UVic, 3. Riverside.
Men’s under-19 eight: 1. St. Catharines, Evan MacRae, Nikolas Schramm, David Picard, David Law, Kai Bartel, Max Caruso, Christian McAlpine, Andrew Barry; coxswain, Nicholas Murray-Coplen, 6:01.18; 2. CRI, 3. Hawk Rowing.
Women’s under-17 single: 1. Guelph, 8:26.20; 2. Stithians, 3. Calgary.
Women’s under-19 eight: 1. PNRA/Mercer, 6:48.14; 2. TBC, 3. Cambridge.
Women’s senior lightweight quad: 1. Vesper, 6:59.37; 2. Vesper, 3. St. Catharines.
Men’s under-23 lightweight pair: 1. St. Catharines, Jacob Martens, Johan May, 7:08.66; 2. Riverside, 3. UWO.
Women’s under-23 single: 1. Western, 8:02.85; 2. Don, 3. Kingston.
Men’s under-17 double: 1.Oak Neck, 6:56.20; 2. Cambridge,3. Thunder.
Women’s under-23 lightweight four: 1. UBC, 7:11.30; 2. St. Catharines, 3. Los Gatos.
Women’s championship single: 1. Craftsbury, 7:40.420; 2. Craftsbury, 3. US Rowing Training Centre, Princeton.
Men’s championship single: 1. Penn AC, 6:58.920; 2. Craftsbury, 3. Schuykill Navy.
Mixed para 3 coxed four: US Para, 6:56.570; 2. CRI, 3. CRI.
Women’s championship eight: 1. Arion, 6:18.610; 2. UBC; 3. St. Catharines.
Men’s championship eight: 1. UBC, 5:42.820; 2. UVic; 3. Mendota.
Saturday races that featured entries from the region:
2,000 metres
Men’s under-19 pair: 1. St. Catharines, Christian McAlpine, Andrew Barry, 7:06.060; 2. Long Lake. 3. Argonaut.
Men’s under-23 quad: 1. Peterborough, 6:20.440; 2. St. Catharines, 3. Don.
Women’s under-17 coxed four: 1. Conshohocken, 7:44.110; 2. TBC, 3. West Side, 4. St. Catharines. Men’s under-17 single: 1. Oak Neck, 7:42.510; 2. Oak Neck, 3. Calgary, 5. Niagara Falls.
Men’s senior lightweight pair: 1. Riverside, 7:02.180; 2. St. Catharines, 3. Detroit.
Men’s under-23 lightweight double: 1. Conshohocken, 6:54.550; 2. Ridley Graduate, 3. Conshohocken. 4. Niagara Falls, 6. St. Catharines. Women’s senior lightweight four: 1. Argonaut, 7.27.880; 2. Leander, 3. St. Catharines. Women’s under-19 pair: 1. TBC, 7:54.880; 2. St. Catharines, 3. PNRA/Mercer. Women’s under-23 quad: 1. Don, 6:59.650; 2. St. Catharines, 3. Vesper.
500-metre dashes
Women’s lightweight eight: 1. St. Catharines, 1:36.560, Jose Olivia, Alicia Piazza, Kaitlyn Dennis, Carly Zanatta, Andrew Jansen, Margaret Gralewicz, Erin Corkery, Jennifer Beaudette; coxswain, Brooke Kew, 2. City Island.
Men’s lightweight eight: 1. St. Catharines, Eric Buchanan, Brad Iafrate, Noah Van Helvert, Owen Voelkner, Ryan Walter, Johan May, Jacob Martens, Jacob Giesbrecht; coxswain, Autumn Bland, 1:22.950; 2. Saratoga, 3. St. Catharines.
Men’s lightweight single: 1. Riverside, 1:38.720; 2. Hanlan, 3. Nottinghamshire, 4. St. Catharines, 4. Ridley Graduate.
Regatta Sport dash 4 cash mixed eight: 1. UBC, 1:23.350; 2. Dallas, 3. Calgary, 4. St. Catharines, 7. South Niagara.