Comments

Winter Park definitely desrved this title...it shows a lot of maturity and athleticism to overcome a equipment breakage, start down to crews in a national final, and win by open water. I'd be surprised to see michigan to even make it to the C finals of IRA's.

Over the past ten years, Michigan has had a varsity eight qualify for at least the 3rd level final 9 times. The one year they didn't send a MV8, the MV4 took bronze. Why would this year be so different?

Yes some HS crews are better than college. But is it still not saying much if I told you they trained with Columbia's heavy and lightweight crews?

no, that is still not saying much.

Not really, there are some TERRIBLE college crews who have less experience than some HS crews. That isn't saying much.

Still a high school team competing against a collegiate team is a much different than a high school team competing against another high school team for many reasons.

Are you aware that while the Winter Park men were practicing with colleges during Spring Break, that the women were up in PA racing against and practicing with the Mount? I think that qualifies the Mount for crew of the week hands down! Why else would a Florida crew row in the snow in March if they weren't looking for the top competition?

Most people don't realize that Winter Park trains with collegiate teams during their spring break, and they are usually faster than the collegiate teams they train with.

hey now! old dominion university is up there too! give them boys some props for what they did!

I think it is fair to say at both the collegiate and high school levels, the true national championships (IRA for men/NCCA for women and USRowing Youth Invite) have not been raced. This is where we shall see the real test of the likes of St Joes Prep, Belmont Hill & Exeter on the youth level and Michigan on the collegiete level. Until then, apples to oranges. Have an Arnold Palmer and enjoy the racing.

i think comparing college rowing to high school rowing in general defines apples to oranges

for your information, this is Michigan's last year to compete at IRAs. As of next year, club teams will no longer be eligible to row for the national championship which is why ACRA was formed. All of the top collegiate club varsity 8s were present and Michigan dominated the field off the start.

I keep reading all these great arguments for Belmont Hill, Winter Park, Phillip Exeter, and Mount St. Joseph, so why on earth is Michigan in the lead? So they won a regatta? In that case, how about every first place team that raced over the weekend be nominated. When I think about this award, I look at the crew that did something special or out of the ordinary in their race over the weekend; not just win.

The Michigan Men didn't just win a race; they won the first ever national championship for collegiate club crews by 7 seconds over the Dad Vail Champion, Purdue, and they won the men's team title. Nuf said.

Also, this site is row2k, not row1.5k!

Because no one need to make an argument for why Michigan should win. Woot! High School Rowing!

The Nationals competition in the Girls V8 was similar if not more competitive than at Stotes, (although US Rowing Youth Nationals usually don't bode well for successful high school teams up against clubs like CRI and Long Beach). That aside, I thought that considering Mount's struggle for the gold lasted all season, and they fought for every single inch. I've seen that crew come in second place in several races against honorable competitors like HS and WP, which is something to be proud of, but not winning first for Mount is apparently just being the fastest loser. It's the same thing as not even qualifying for a semi-final to them. Failure is failure. They're bouncing back with a vengeance from last year's rocky season by making every stroke perfect and efficient and FAST. That comeback should qualify them for more than 18.6%. It would be hard to compete with the Winter Park Boys V8, though... I mean, seriously. What a race. What a crew. I know one of the rowers and the coxswain for that eight and I can tell you they're not even surprised they came back at the end after a broken oarlock. It's just how they DO. Yeah, it's great that Exeter Girl won all those races, and that's stiff competition, but they win like every year. They're a fast crew and they work really hard, but NEIRAs is basically in the pocket for them every year. Congrats, but big deal. I think Mount deserves this.

The NEIRA 4's league is the best competition for 4's in the country. In 1998, the cinci champion was nobles (an NEIRA 4s school). That year belmont hill took 4th. In 1999 nobles repeated again followed by brooks in 3rd (again both NEIRA 4s schools). In 2003, Belmont Hill gold, Groton silver (NEIRA 4s), 04 Gunnery 3 BH 5, 05 Deerfield silver by less than a foot, 06 BH open water, 07 BH by 7 seconds Groton 4th. The NEIRA has been notorious, as anyone can see, for producing the top 4s in the country. If you would like 8s results, in 2003 the BH 8 at Henley was the second best crew losing to Pangbourne in the Semis by 3 seats, the BH 06 Henley 8 (top 2 fours minus one man who was not elligible) defeated the Kent school (NEIRA 8s champs) by a length at the Marlowe Regatta. This BH boat went on to lose to Ignatius in the third round, while Andover, who lost to Kent by less than a second at New Englands went to the semis and lost by half a length. Do the math on your own, but think again before you say BH cant compete at the 8s level. Winter Park did a nice job losing to an unselected crew on day one at Henley last year and if you want to call yourselves national champions, go to cinci and try, but lets be honest, the Prep isn't getting any slower and you didn't seem to fair to well against them at stotes. Your going to need a more legitimate win other than SRAs to back up any claim to being a fast crew. Being praised by other people or yourselves on this website for not checking your equipment prior to a race against bad crews on a "national level" is laughable. Congrats to the BH rowers and Coaches on what has been a phenomenal year so far, and the best of luck at Cinci.

Well, Newport won both the first and second 8s at the Southwest Regional, which has been the fastest 8s region in the country for the past three years; they didn't win crew of the week. So, neither should Belmont Hill at the best region for fours racing in the country. What they've done at Henley, while impressive, does not matter in this poll. They will probably win at Cincinnati again; then I would support them as crew of the week, for winning three years at Nationals in a row, albeit in, arguably, the least prescribed and competitive mens event.

For science?

for science!

So I think that Mount St. Joes should do a re-race with Saratoga on flat water and see who wins. The conditions at Nationals were so unfair...Out of the 29 final events 23 of them were won in lane 1...good crosswind! fair, I dont think so, I believe that Saratoga will be at Cinci and they will race again there and we will see what happens. MAY THE FATSER CREW WIN!!

What year was this? Maybe my math is off but if you look at the results for the 2008 regatta something like 70% of the 1st places in all the finals (Grand, Petite, and 3rd Level) were in Lanes 3 & 4. I think the faster boat did win....... Nevertheless, hats off to Michigan.

so enough about high school people! vote for Old Dominion cause those boys are freaking AWESOME!

the exeter girls won gold in every event they were entered in at NEIRAS plus G1 set a new course record by more than 2 seconds and it was the 3rd year in a row winning NEIRAS and the team won the points trophy for the 3rd year in a row

didn't phillips exeter girls nearly sweep the events they were in at NEIRA? nobody here seems to even be blinking an eye about that... does this speak to male bias in the poll?

I agree with Hands...on, The depth of college rowing is so much more than High School. Imagine you take the 2 best athletes on each team put them together with 2 from four other schools then race boats made up of the same. The depth in High School comes out of Prep schools which recruit. Men's college teams don't have that luxury, we have to do it the hard way. Through coaching and athlete development.

Yah, college teams never recruit...

Michigan doesn't. They couldn't even if they wanted to, they're club. So not only can they not recruit, those guys are funding the program themselves.

As does Winter Park, a public school. They also have to build their team with coaching and athlete development, like just about every other high school rowing program.

Dear Bensmith, There's a huge difference between the obstacles that high schools and colleges face in building self-funded programs. Michigan rowers are living on their own, paying their own bills, and taking full course loads at one of the nation's best public universities. Building the top national collegiate V8 in the nation with these other academic and financial responsibilities is pretty spectacular. Stop trying to compare. So, suck it.

"Top national collegiate V8 in the nation" Haha ok. Sweet, I didn't know Division II rowing was the fastest league in the country. 5:56? Pretty impressive...

Last time I checked Michigan was a Division I school. I dont know where youre getting D II from.

OK smart ass, 1. Collegiate rowing = club rowing (hence, ACRA is the national championship for club teams now since IRA is kicking them out) 2. Club teams don't have divisions 3. Times don't mean anything...look to the boatlengths of open water Michigan had over #19 Purdue

The Belmont Hill Boys won by open water?!? OH MAN. Michigan didn't go 66-0, holy cow. Comparing Boys fours with top-15 Collegiate 8s is like comparing go carts and formula 1. Michigan's 1V was dominant, while it's other boats had to compete against solid program's top rowers in small boats. That speaks to the overall depth of the collegiate competition they faced, and not the weakness of the team.

WP has made finals for the past at lest 4 years? and they won nationals in 2005 as well as this year. they places second last year both at stotesbury and nationals.

SRAA is not nationals, so dont even try claiming it is. Youth Nationals out at cinci is the real deal, thats when all the crews will be there. When you have won at Lake Harsha then youve accomplished something.

When was the lat time WP won nationals or even made the finals????

if u look at the henley reults from the past years, belmont has done well in 8's. Reaching the semi's I think two years ago, so they have proven that they can row in 8's too, not just fours.

This is a poll for crew of the week for May 26, 2008.

how is michigan in first? ONE michigan 8 won by open water...big deal. 3 of the 4 belmont hill fours won by open water. and i dont think michigan was 66-0 this season

Woot! High School Rowing!

well belmont is weak anyways they should man up n get an 8 and forget all that bs that they dont have enough people thats garbage its all about the WP

The fact of the matter is Michigan is in the lead right now so i don't know why you all are fighting about belmont and WP. But the poll should definitely go to WP after there set back in Nationals and still owning and winning significantly.

As I understand it, Belmont Hill does not row eights out of both tradition and their membership in the ISL, where the four/w is the standard boat of competition. Unfortunately for them, the fact of the matter is that in the U.S. the eight is the top boat. All the way down from the national team, college, and high school the eight is the boat that is seen as the top priority. In '05, when Belmont Hill won at Youth Invites, the four/w was easily the most undersubscribed event with twelve entries; the eights had something like eighteen or nineteen. In '06 it was the second most undersubscribed event with sixteen entries. The top crews in the country are rowing the eight, not the four/w. If Belmont Hill wanted to, I'm sure they could put their top two fours together and win NEIRAs; twenty five guys is enough for three eights, and based on their depth in the fours, they would be successful with eights as well. This is the third year in a row that Belmont Hill has won the first four/w; the poll calls for the "Boys 4," so I assume that means the first four, which eliminates any relevance of the whole team being 66-0. If the poll said "Belmont Hill Rowing Squad" then it would be a different story; however, in the simple Boys First Four/w race, Belmont Hill won, just like they were predicted and supposed to. Winter Park overcame a huge setback that occurred in their race, at the "national" level, to come back and win by open water. Belmont Hill's victory at the New England championships, their qualifier for Youth Nationals, although impressive, does not stand up to Winter Park's feat at SRAs.

belmont is trying to be crew of the week based on their four though....not for what they did at henley?

your right, and for anybody wondering, numbers mean nothing, if you have seen the movie 300 you would know that obviously. anyways even though winter park has tons more kids than belmont, most of those kids play other sports, winter park is a consistent finalist in the state torunaments for basketball and water polo, they have a football team with like 60 players (not to mention jv football), a big baseball team, and a lacrosse team that lost in the state semi-finals this year. If all those kids also joined Winter Park's crew team, they would probably be able to beat olympic 8's. again, numbers mean nothing.

I agree. Anyways even though Michigan has tons more kids than winter park, most of those kids play other sports, Michigan is a consistent finalist in the state torunaments for softball and water polo, they have a football team with like 360 players (not to mention third and fourth string football players), a huge baseball team, and a lacrosse team who did pretty well this year. If all those kids also joined Michigan's crew team, they would probably be able to beat olympic 8's and winter park all-star crew team. I agree that numbers mean nothing.

touché. however, i still think winter park deserves this, both park and michigan are winners of the 2 biggest races this past weekend in the top boat in the men's category. both have less opportunites to grow and get better than does a team like Harvard (for michigan) or the prep (for winter park). michigan defeated their competition, winter park did too, the only difference is that winter park won after suffering breakage at the beginning of the race.

just going to throw this one out there: last year at henley, winter park lost in the first round of the princess elizabeth cup. belmont hill made it to the third round. and belmont hill had been in an eight for less than a month.

with all due respect Rain88, Winter park only boated 3 eights and a four this year...with a couple left over. thats like...30 guys. so to say that 25 guys isnt enough to have fast eights is incorrect, as goes for the comment about these schools having 8 eights. i would have to say that for just 30 guys, winter park is quite impressive, considering their numbers as well.

bro your a genius

This is the sixth year in a row that Belmont Hill School has won the NEIRA Boys V4+ team title, a feat never achieved in NEIRA history in a V4+, nor in any other category. In addition, I believe this is the first time a team has won the points trophy by taking the gold medal in all 4 races. During the season, all four Belmont Hill V4+ boats were undefeated in all of their regular season races. This is third year in a row that Belmont Hill School Boys V4+ has won the NEIRA 1st Boat race as well. Finally, to give some measure of the overall strength of this achievement and the quality of NEIRA competition, In 3 of the last 5 years, 2003, 2006, and 2007 Belmont Hill has won the Boys V4+ Jr National Championship in Cincinatti, OH, And in 2007 JrM4+ Grand Finals, the BoysV4+ 1st (Belmont Hill), 3rd, and 4th places were all taken by crews from New England. So not only has this year been an exceptional year for Belmont Hill Crew, there is amazing level of consistency in the program to be able to achieve and sustain this level of performance across multiple years against a formidable and notable group of competitors. This is what makes this an even more significant achievement.

A lot have people have been asking why Belmont Hill doesnt bump up and row eights... its probably because the entire rowing program at Belmont has 25 rowers - 6 fours and 1 spare These giant schools have like 8 eights or more... Belmont can barely field three there accomplishment is incredibly impressive - swept NEIRAs for the first time in the regattas history and combined to go 66-0. They are two time defending National Champions and are going to try to defend their title in two weeks...

winter park has like 32 rowers. winter park didn't even have enough freshman for a freshman 8, they are a public school and in Florida where nobody cares about crew, they care about football, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, and water polo. Try recruiting for crew down here. Lake Brantley, Edgewater, OARS, Power 10 rowing club, Boone and Winter Park (every central florida team), all had boats medal at the state championsihp, and none were even mentioned in the newspaper. With Winter Park able to even compete with some of the teams they beat consistently is incredible. And if Belmont goes 66-0, maybe they don't race the best competition. and who says you can't row 8's with 25 people, it's enough for three 8's and the spare can row a single. park pwns dude, just accept it.

yeah dude they pwn flordia state championships and won at SRA. Dynasty....

Woot! High School Rowing!

Yeah I couldn't agree with you more about The Prep and how they should just stop trying. Winter Park really just dominated them at Stotesbury in the V8, Lwt 8 and 2V.

i am a rower for lake brantley just a short drive away from winter park, and i am just going to say as much as everybody hates it when winter park wins every 8 event ever year on all levels in the state of florida, 1v, 2v, 3v, and now even a crazy light 8, i hate to say it, but those guys really deserve it. What they did can show all people the benefits of hard work and dedication. All rowers on Prep that beat winter park, you might as well just stop trying, i am sorry but you will not beat this boat again. i never thought i would say this, but go winter park. If belmont is so good why don't they put 2 of those undefeated 4's together and try to race winter park.

Very few saw Winter Park from the start in the finals at SRAs. Those that did-- saw a recovery from near disaster and sprint speed for 1300 meters. It looked to me like they surprised themselves proving that anything is possible. Those guys are fast. Never seen anything like it.

I raced Winter Park in the first heat at SRAs, they are an incredible team. Anything can happen to any team any time so just because an oar lock popped loose does not mean that they should not win this pole. They had the perseverance to overcome the unfortuneate event which shows that they deseve this pole.

I agree with Alexander Brovechkin. Although SRAs has always been considered 'fake nationals', it is still the closest race to a national championship that took place last weekend. And if Belmont's 4s are so good, why don't they put together an 8 and race some priority boats?

Considering only one legitimate national championship took place last weekend and Winter Park won it after suffering a broken oarlock they are the only logical choice. No other crew should be close.

exeter girls have proven themselves year after year at new englands and nationals. its been a trend for the past couple of years that we may have the smallest sized girls in comparison to other teams, but it has also been a trend that we have some of the strongest girls in the new england area and (according to our ranking at nationals in the grand final last year) some of the strongest in the nation. this year our second and third boats did a phenomenal job. 5-0 for both! its unfortunate our whole campus has one IP address. its possible we do not get crew of the week for may 26. but our team spirit, pride, and trophy cases say other wise amazing girls, amazing

Unnecessarily negative comments have been deleted. Let's try to keep this constructive. -row2k

quick question, if Belmont is so fast in the fours, why don't they race eights?

prolly because the school isnt big enough. Large schools like Exeter/Andover can field four eights. However Belmont is not nearly as big those schools so they cannot field four eights. Its not question of speed, its of the size of the schools.

I think that's a crap excuse. I row for Belen in Florida and we're a really small school. The longest stretch on our lake is 1300m, we don't' have a boathouse, and our high school is a little more than 1000 people. Yet, we put out an V8+, 2V8+, and even a 3V8+ this year at states. Although this year didn't go as well, last year we got 2nd (to winter park, of course) in the V8+ and 11th at SRA. So if their two fours are so fast... I think they should put them together and row the category that has all the fast teams' best rowers.

you make the point that belen has over 1000 kids... well belmont hill has about 300 students, and maybe 30 rowers plus they have won the new englands 6 years in a row and the nationals in cinncinatti two years in a row

regardless of the amount of kids in the school, I think that you can't be voted crew of the week if your crew wasn't racing the fastest crews possible. Let's face it, almost every single high school program in the USA puts their top 8 rowers on the V8+. I'm sure that Belmont's two fours are screaming fast, but unless they are put together and race the fastest athletes from the fastest schools, it's impossible to accurately judge their speed. And, even if they have only 300 kids, I am sure their facilities, boats, and coaching staff is adequate and they are supported by a long rowing tradition and a history of success. Belen might have 700 more kids, but the crew is only 8 years old, severely understaffed, underfunded, and lacks the adequate facilities for training boats of that caliber. So, in my opinion, it is better to race the fastest boats out there than to win easier events.

that's a good point about the facilities, but part of the BHS doesn't race in eights is because of that very tradition of racing as fours and competeing in the NEIRAS

We will see how Prep does when not on their home course and against WP. Looking forward to Youth Nationals.

Exeter's first boat was 4-1 going into the NEIRA championships, second was 5-0, and third was 5-0. Their second boat had been undefeated the past two seasons and then lost at New Englands, but this year they were strong enough to get that last win. The first and second boats were also down in their first 500s, but were able to walk through boats to beat their opponents.

The winter park Mens V8 set course records all year including a long standing(20 yrs.) college course record, and on the states course! BUT thats not the point they won SRAAS by a length after an oar came out of an oar lock the crew stopped 250 in, fixed it and powered through the field from 2 an a half lengths of open down! A crew with true speed: From last to first on a fast v8 national crowd! Very impressive!

Ignoring your offensive and blatant grammatical errors, I would have to disagree with your statement. Please answer this question: Would a good crew have an oar come out of an oarlock?

Also, just as an addition, if the plan was to counter with the statement that a good crew would have all motion be completely linear and therefore the oar should not have lifted out of the oarlock is completely irrational. At a starting cadence in the mid-40's, the it impossible to achieve completely horizontal motion with the blade as some vertical motion will always occur at the finish if no where else. I imagine that the oar must have popped out of the oarlock at the finish because the oar lock was not completely secured.

Based upon your statement, it seems that you equate a faulty oarlock that may have not been completely secured as a symbol of a crew's inferiority. I'm not trying to be cynical; however, I don't not see any logically explanation for this reasoning whatsoever. What I do see is a crew that recovered brilliantly from a potentially disastrous situation and who had enough passion to win that race. Do not insult a crew with enough speed and raw determination to succeed in gaining a gold after such a unfortunate start. I hope to see them finish the job at Cincinnati's, and I believe they can, readily.

to answer your question anything can happen to anyone any given time. Nothing is for certain. Winter Park deserves this pole because they showed such resiliance and perseverance to overcome what happened and they still won. The resiliance and perseverance puts them up top in my opinion.

Happened to Koven at Worlds the year after he became world champion; I don't think anyone would say he was a bad oarsman.

so true

wow just two and a half, that's nothing more than child's play to us OD rowers

Not only did the Exeter Girls crew sweep New Englands, but they actually did break the course record. They also won the team trophy and the first varsity eight race for the third year in a row.

I was out at Worcester for NEIRA's. Belmont Hill won the Men's Four Championship for the 6th straight year and the First Boat Four title for the third straight year. They also became the first team in history to win all the Boys Fours races in the day: getting gold in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th boat levels. Pretty impressive...

Similar to the Exeter argument- I say this only proves they have little competition at "home". What did they do out of their region against a more diverse field?

Belmont Hill won all four Boys' Fours events at NEIRA Championships this past weekend, capping a season with a record of 66-0. The B1V also came within 3/100ths second of the high school course record at Quinsig, and won the morning heat by open water rowing at a 30. This is a dynasty of a team who is having its best season of all time.

Winter Park over came breakage in the first 500 and was down almost two boat lengths; they recovered to win by more than a boat length. Pretty epic.