Corowa Rowing Club’s female members made the trip to Penrith to compete over the 2000m course on Saturday and the NSW State Sprint Championships over 500m on Sunday.
Calm but wet conditions greeted the crews for day one of racing. The first crew on the water was the Under 17 quad scull featuring Sommers Hogan, Phoebe Packer, Imogen Wragge, Indi Hogan and Cox Edie Tomlinson.
The race featured 7 crews with the University of Queensland, UTS as the race favourites.
The Corowa crew kept pace early as the field split into two the race favourites with St Catherine’s holding the top 3 positions with the Corowa crew in 4th place.
Improving as the race progressed, the Corowa crew held into 4th place beating Newcastle Grammar, St Catherine’s 2nd crew and St Peter’s from New Zealand.
Bella and Eva teamed up in the Under 21 double scull. With the race combined with the Under 19 event, the Corowa combination had a great race to take the win in the event.
Sommers and Phoebe lined up in the Under 17 double scull with a field of 7 crews. In a tight battle down the course, the local crew from Nepean took the lead with a tight battle between the Corowa crew and Newcastle Grammar.
With a final push by the three crews less than 7 seconds separated the boats with Nepean taking the win and Corowa claiming third place.
The final race on day 1 was the U21 coxless quad with Bella and Eva teaming up with Imogen Tomlinson and Imogen Wragge.
The Corowa crew featured 3 under-18 rowers who stood up against their older opposition to be up with the early pace.
As the race moved past the halfway mark the Corowa crew were sitting in 3rd place.
The positions remained the same as the crews crossed the line giving the Corowa crew valuable race experience over the 2000m course.
Sunday's racing began with Liz Sandow lining up in the Masters single over the 1000m course. She had a great start and held good form against younger competition to finish seventh.
Racing then turned to the NSW sprint championships over a 500m course.
There were three girls in the under 17 singles which had three heats where the first two went into the final and the next three fastest times went into the final two.
Phoebe Packer and Imogen Wragge have great races and only missed out on the finals by a couple of seconds. Sommers Hogan won her heat and only just missed a medal in the final.in heat one.
The crew of Bella Heagney and Eva Broad continued their partnership in the under-21 double scull and put up a good fight to finish fifth in the final, well within sight of the leaders.
The doubles continued with the under-17 team of Phoebe Packer and Sommers Hogan, whose second placing in the heat came after a tight battle and a photo finish.
The two fought hard in their final and came fifth.
It was a brilliant effort in the under-21 scull race with Corowa having three qualifiers into the final.
Bella Heagney was the lead sculler of the group in the final with Eva Broad and Imogen Tomlinson following behind, but it was a wonderful reflection of the skill within the club to see a third of the big field coming from Corowa.
Liz Sandow flew the flag as the only master competing at the sprint championships and her race was again against younger competition.
The story of her race was a great start and a strong row as she used all her experience to finish seventh in the final.
The club’s focus was always on the bigger boats and while the racing in smaller boats showed the competitiveness of the Corowa crews, their eyes were on the prized races of the under-21 quad and the under-17 quad.
In a strong performance led by stroke Bella Heagney, her under 21 crew of Eva Broad, Imogen Wragge and Imogen Tomlinson made it a two-horse race for the lead. The crew fought hard and held off other crews to take a well-deserved single medal.
The under-17 quad race was a close affair with the Corowa crew of Sommers Hogan, Phoebe Packer, Imogen Wragge, Indi Hogan and Cox Edie Tomlinson up against entries from New Zealand, Queensland and NSW.
The first four crews fought for the medals with top honours going to the University of Queensland, MLC second and Corowa third.
The thrilling finish needed to go to a photo to work out the placings and there were less than two seconds between first and fourth.
It’s always a big trip to row in Sydney but the opportunity to row on an Olympic course is a great experience for the rowers and their supporters.
The quick turnaround between races meant the girls were often jumping out of one boat and into another but they showed their commitment to representing their club and simply got on with the job.
Special thanks go to the support crew who made sure this could happen despite the challenging program.
It was a great hit out for the rowers, and it has set the club up for the summer regatta season with plenty of lessons learned and much to think about and work on.
Racing moves local this Sunday with the club’s Santa regatta.
This is a wonderful event and allows our club’s newest rowers to compete in a fun day for everyone. Then the rowers will set their sights on training for the new year's first event at Lake Moodemere on January 11-12.