May 18 - 19, 2001 Stotesbury Regatta Philadelphia, PA
GOLD MEDAL The boys freshman 8 boat took the first GOLD MEDAL of the afternoon on Saturday with a strong win over formidable competition.
BRONZE MEDAL The girls lightweight 8 boat rowed to a BRONZE MEDAL later in the afternoon on Saturday.
Two national medals made for a great weekend for Winter Park Crew Team!
May 12, 2001 State Championships Tampa Bypass Canal
2001 State Champions The Winter Park Crew Team had a successful day in Tampa, taking home the "all points" trophy to become the 2001 State Championship Team.
April 28, 2001 Miami, FL
The Winter Park Crew Team successfully defended their "all points" trophy from the previous year by bringing it back to Winter Park for another year.
April 14, 2001 FIRA Regatta Tampa Bypass Canal
Winter Park men participated in the FIRA regatta in Tampa. This ended up being a head-to-head meeting between Edgewater and Winter Park, the only two high school teams participating. Winter Park made a good showing, and Coach Bertossa's notes are below:
Our Varsity had not raced together since beating Edgewater at the City Championships five weeks ago. In that time, I fiddled with the lineup a bit, but on Thursday we returned to the same nine that had lined up in the V8 at the first three races. Bill Allen and Steve Infantino had swapped seats at 7 and 2, but Jimmy O’Donnell Steve Chambers, Derek Richmond, Paul Haney, Peter Gleason, Witek Jurewicz and Christine Peters were all still in the same seats they’ve occupied in each race. The race went off on time with our crew in lane 3 and Edgewater’s Varsity in lane 4. After a very good first stroke or two, we began to spin our wheels a bit and allowed the powerful Edgewater crew to work out to a seven-seat advantage by the end of their high strokes. The margin stayed between five and seven seats for the first 500 m. At that point, Christine called for a power burst and the crew responded by getting her to just two seats down. Edgewater answered with a move of their own that gained back two seats to put them four seats up. They appeared to falter at the end of this move though, and our crew jumped at the opportunity and immediately drew even. With a seat or two advantage, and approaching the 1000 m mark. Christine called for another power move and this one seemed to be the back-breaker. By the time we crossed the 1000, we had seven seats and seemed to have plenty of gas left. The margin had grown to a full length by the 1500 and we broke to open water in the final strokes. Winter Park finished in 5:56 with Edgewater crossing the line in 6:01. We made a few mistakes and it was certainly not our best race, but its a clear indication that we’re on the right track when we beat a formidable opponent such as Edgewater. Only the Varsity crews from Jacksonville University (5:49) and University of Miami (5:51) posted faster times on the day. Another indicator that we have some speed in our varsity. Row 2k has posted all the results for the high schools and colleges competing at the FIRA regatta on their web site.
March 24, 2001 OARS Regatta Turkey Lake Park, FL
Winter Park High School again had a good showing at Turkey Lake
in a 1,000 meter sprint regatta. WPHS earned the "all points"
trophy for the day. Below are Coach Bertossa's notes regarding the
regatta:
In four weeks of racing we have now collected our fourth team trophy. Although the drought over the past several months forced regatta organizers to shorten the course to barely over 1000 m, the weather on Saturday was beautiful and provided the rowers with some unusually good racing conditions. With the short course, most of the team rowed in two or even three events. Steve Chambers, Jimmy O’Donnell, Derek Richmond and Bill Allen caught a bit of a break though as they were entered (along with Christine Peters at cox) in only one event. This group rowing in the senior 4 was our first race and after firing off the line at 45 they “settled” to 36 and raced reasonably well through the body finishing in an impressive 3:30.09, ½ length up on a crew from Sarasota (3:32.07) that has been talked about as perhaps the best in the area. Gainesville Area Rowing (GAR) finished third in 3:34.07. After a quick “hot-seat” which left no time for a proper warm-up, our crew of Devin Whitney, Timmy O’Donnell, Austin Konstantinov, Carter Collison and Nick Mancini raced in the Freshman 4 event. Although no official time was posted for this event, I clocked them at about 3:44 some 8 to 10 seconds ahead the second place crew. The freshman 4 was followed immediately by the lightweight 8 event. This crew appeared to row a bit scared (which is uncharacteristic of them) leaving the line at 54 and never settling below 38 ½. It was not a very solid performance, but good enough to beat the Lake Brantley crew that had finished ahead of us on two prior occasions. OARS “lightweight” crew were the winners in 3:18.07 with Winter Park 2nd in 3:24.02 and Lake Brantley 3rd in 3:29.04.
After a scratch from the Leon crew that won the freshman 8 event back at the Mayor’s Cup I decided to move our priority lineup from the freshman group to the Novice 8 in the afternoon and hurried the novice lineup to the line for the freshman event. The scrambling around before we launched seemed to carry over to the water as our crew rowed a bit out of control and finished in second less than a length behind Edgewater’s ‘A’ boat. Our 2nd Senior 4 raced exceptionally well and finished 2nd in a time of 3:49.08 behind Sarasota’s crew who finished in 3:43.01. A new lineup in our Novice 4 was up next. With virtually no practice time together, I happy with the solid 2nd place that these guys rowed to. OARS won the event in 3:48.00 with our crew crossing the line in 3:56.00. After sub-par performances from our Junior 8 and Junior 4, our Novice 8 was up next. This crew of Blake Ramsby, Timmy O’Donnell, Whitney, Konstantinov, Collison, John Morton, David Broussard, Dadricar Holder and Mancini raced very well. Although the stroke rate was a bit higher than planned, for the first time there was some control in the boat. Winter Park crossed the line in 3:35.04. The best any other crew could do was Edgewater’s 3:44.01. Our lightweight 4 rowed fairly well, but was overmatched from the start in what has turned out to be a very fast event this year. In the final race of the day, our lightweights stepped up for round 2, this time as the Senior 8 entry. This time the crew rowed with much greater control, actually under stroking the crews from Edgewater, Sarasota and OARS for a majority of the race. The crew from Edgewater, which has proven to be a very solid bunch, won the race in 3:20.06 with Sarasota finishing ½ length back in 3:22.06. Our lightweights were just a bit of open water behind Sarasota, crossing the line in 3:27.03.
March 3, 2001 Metro Cup Winter Park, FL
Winter Park took home the "all points" trophy for the Metro Cup 2001. There were many impressive races by Winter Park boats. The results and Coach Bertossa's comments are included below:
Six of the eight high school events were won by Winter Park
crews. (Time measured in minutes, seconds, and tenths of seconds)
Event:
Winner:
Times:
A. Men Novice 8
Winner: Winter Park Time:
6:47.9
B. Women 3rd 8
Winner: Winter Park Time: 7:47.6
C. Men 3rd 8
Winner: Edgewater Time: 7:05.4
D. Women 2nd 8
Winner: Winter Park Time: 7:30.0
E. Men 2nd 8
Winner: Winter Park Time: 6:40.8
F. Women 1st 8
Winner: Winter Park Time: 7:29.2
G. Men 1st 8
Winner: Edgewater Time: 6:32.0
H. Women Novice 8 Winner:
Winter Park Time: 7:51.4
3. Specific Regatta "Cup" Awards:
A. Chapman Cup
Edgewater HS, Men Varsity 8: time: 6:32.0
B. Yuell Cup (College)
UCF Women Varsity 8
time: 7:30.6
C. Logan Cup (College)
Rollins Men Varsity 8
time: 6:35.0
4. Splits: (time difference between selected boats)
A. Men Varsity 8:
Edgewater won; 6:32.0; WPHS 2nd 6:34— :02.0 split
B. Women Varsity 8: WPHS
won; 7:29.2; EHS 2nd 8:05.3--- :36.1 split
Coach Bertossa's Notes:
For the
second week in a row Winter Park collected the team trophy.
Six of the eight high school events were won by Winter Park crews.
The Freshman 8 started the day with a convincing 27-second margin over
Edgewater’s freshman crew. Devin
Whitney, Timmy O’Donnell, Blake Ramsby, Austin Konstantinov, Carter Collison,
John Morton, Brandon Mellin, Sean Fisher and Nick Mancini rowed the 2000 m
course in 6:47.6 to Edgewater’s 7:14.6. Not
bad given the rough conditions. You
can expect to see some of these same guys representing Winter Park in the
Freshman 8 in Philadelphia in May. In
an effort to try to keep the races competitive, and after Winter Park and
Edgewater coaches agreed that each school’s Freshman lineup was faster than
their novice 8, we lined our novice 8 up against Edgewater’s novice crew in
the “3rd 8” race. Our
guys rowed a very good race and finished the course in 7:10.2, just a bit of
open water behind Edgewater who crossed the line in 7:05.4.
Apparently the Edgewater coaches were unaware that their Novice crew was
actually faster than their freshman boat. Next,
we sent an ‘A’ and ‘B’ entry to the line in the 2nd 8 race.
The ‘A’ boat included Jon Carlon, Bentley Hoofnagle, J.B. Angle,
Sterling Winslow, Carlos Perez, Ron Brown, Kipp Whittaker, Adam Losey and Rachel
Campbell. Our ‘B’ lineup had
Christian Thomas, Chuck McNamara, Sean Olsen, Timmy O’Donnell, David
Broussard, Brandon Rich, Rich Telleria, Dan Howard and Nick Mancini.
All three crews remained bunched up during the first 500 m.
As we neared the 1000 m mark our ‘A’ boat moved out to ½ length lead
with our ‘B’ crew still running even with Edgewater’s JV.
As the crews neared the trees at the 1400 m mark our ‘A’ crew broke
out to an open water advantage and our ‘B’ boat gained a small lead on
Edgewater as well. Our ‘A’ boat
maintained a controlled 31-32 until the final 15 strokes and then sprinted to
the line in 6:40.8. The ‘B’
crew pulled away from Edgewater in the final 500 m to finish 2nd in
6:49.7. Edgewater crossed the line
in 6:56.2.
The Varsity 8 was our final race of the morning. Due to the slight turn in the course at the 1500 m mark, the starting line was staggered to favor Edgewater by four or five seats. I followed the race in a launch with Edgewater’s Varsity coach Steve DeZwart. As the crews passed the 400 m mark, it appeared that there had been almost no movement between the crews at all with Edgewater still up by the 4+ seats they were given at the start. At the 500 m point Christine called for a burst and the crew responded by taking back the initial stagger plus an extra seat or two for good measure. Edgewater had an answer though and responded with their own move. The crews went back and forth like this for the entire body of the race. Every time we would gain a seat or two, Edgewater would take it back. There was never more than two seats difference between the crews for the middle 1000 m of the race. There was a stretch of nearly 45 seconds when I looked across the boats and not only were they dead even, but they were matching stroke rate as well. It was probably the most well rowed high school race I’ve seen. It was clear that there were 18 warriors on the course that all desperately wanted the victory. In the end Edgewater crossed the line a little more than four seats ahead with a time of 6:32.0 to our 6:34.0. We rowed about as well as I could have hoped for and I’m very proud of the way our guys battled for the full 2000 m. This is a tenacious bunch and you can expect to see them bounce back at the City Championships.
February 24, 2001 Mayors Cup Orlando
Winter Park had a very successful first regatta of the season. The team took home the "all points" trophy in a very competitive field. The men's senior eight, the women's lightweight eight and the men's second senior eight all took home gold medals.
Coach Bertossa's notes:
I was
very happy with the effort at all levels on Saturday.
The team’s effort was good enough to earn us our first team trophy of
the season; an award that Winter Park has come to expect each week.
The group from Orlando Area Rowing Society (OARS) placed a distant
second.
Our “flyweight” 4 was the first crew to race. This crew of three novices and one second year oarsman averaging less than 130 pounds lined up against the top lightweights in the state from Lake Brantley and Edgewater. Our crew was a bit slow off the line and trailed the favorites as well as Boone’s crew. Shortly after the crews passed the halfway point our crew began to surge ahead of Boone and crossed the line in third. Their time was good enough to win fifth place points (OARS and Maclay High School posted faster times from the first flight). In addition, our flyweight’s time was only 2 seconds behind the fastest novice 4 time.
After a long stretch of women’s races, our 2nd Senior 8 started off the men’s 8 races in the early afternoon. By this time the winds had reached nearly 15 mph and the water had grown terribly rough. Sean Olsen, Timmy O’Donnell, J.B. Angel, Austin Konstantinov, Carlos Perez, Dan Howard (in his second race of the day), Nick Martin, Adam Losey and coxswain Rich Telleria lined up against The Bolles School from Jacksonville. Again, our crew was a little slow off the line and the race announcer reported the crews were dead even at the 250 m mark. As we approached the 500 m mark Rich called for a power move and the crew responded by quickly jumping out to a boatlength lead. From there, we consistently moved away from Bolles and finished more than 20 seconds ahead.
The freshmen 8 came down the course just 20 minutes later racing against crews from Bolles, Leon, and Edgewater. All four crews were fairly level after the first 500 m. At that point, Leon and Winter Park started to pull away from the other two crews. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of rowing the race a bit too high at 35 to 36 strokes per minute and in the rough conditions were unable to get much return for each stroke we were taking. Our crew fought stroke for stroke with Leon to the finish line, but in the end didn’t have the gas to have an effective sprint. The two crews finished virtually level; in fact it wasn’t until 10 minutes later when the officials reported the results that we found we had fallen 0.6 seconds short. Still, these guys rowed very hard and as we get a bit more disciplined with stroke rates and learn to row within ourselves, you can expect to see this crew come across the line first. Edgewater was two boats of open water behind our crew in third and the Bolles School was another boatlength behind Edgewater.
Our lightweight 8 was next to race. This crew was very quick off the line, but still trailed the crew from Lake Brantley by a couple of seats as both boats settled. Our crew panicked a bit at the unfamiliar sight of having another boat out in front. Although these guys raced with great intensity, the early deficit and the ugly conditions contributed to a lot of scrambling on the way down the course. We were still within striking distance with 20 strokes to go, but lost our bowman to an asthma attack and finished just 2 or 3 seats behind Lake Brantley. The Bolles School was a distant 3rd. This crew clearly has enormous potential and you can expect to see great things from these guys once we get a few kinks worked out.
The Senior 8 was the final race of the day. The winds had subsided to just 8 to 10 mph, but there were still a few white caps to add to the challenge offered by Edgewater, Leon, Lake Brantley, Stanton, and The Bolles School. Our crew seemed up to the challenge and left the line striking 50 ½ spm. We settled to a more comfortable 37, but this was well above the 32 that I had hoped to see. At the 350 m mark we finally found 32 ½ and the race announcer reported that Leon, Edgewater, Stanton and Winter Park were all within just a few seats of one another. At his point, our coxswain Christine Peters called for a power move and the group responded. Jimmy O’Donnell, Steve Infantino, Steve Chambers, Derek Richmond, Paul Haney, Peter Gleason, Bill Allen, and Witek Jurewicz moved from 2 seats down on Edgewater to 6 or 7 seats up. The rate came back up to 37 on the move and the adrenalin rush from powering into first place wouldn’t allow the crew to bring it back down. By the 1000 m mark the announcer indicated that Winter Park had established itself in the lead spot, but Stanton Prep (from Jacksonville) was challenging just 7 seats back. With 30 strokes to go Stanton had moved back to within 2 or 3 seats from us and the 36/37 that we had held through the better part of the race appeared to be taking its toll. Our crew found enough within themselves to get the job done though and crossed the line in 4:25.7, nearly 4 seats in front of Stanton. Edgewater (last season’s State Champion) was open water behind Stanton with Leon another 3 seats behind Edgewater. The victory was the first for Winter Park’s Varsity 8 at the Mayor’s Cup Regatta since 1991! Aside from the problems controlling the rate, the crew rowed exceptionally well even with the rough conditions. It appears that this crew is also going to show some good things this year.
Sixteen crews at the regatta posted times of 4:55 or faster – four of those were Winter Park Crews. Only four other crews had multiple boats in this area – all four could manage only two boats that accomplished this feat. I’d say we have some depth to our team this year. I’m very proud of the entire team’s performance. All the results can be found at 2001 Mayor's Cup Results
May 13, 2000 State Championships Tampa Bypass Canal
The 2000 Florida high school season came to an end at the Tampa
Bypass Canal with the state championship regatta. Winter Park brought home
two gold medals, in the men's novice 8 and the women's lightweight 8.
Winter Park was successful in multiple categories, and won the most points
overall, making Winter Park the 2000 State Champions.
May 20, 2000 Stotesbury Regatta Philadelphia, PA
WPHS Crew had a great day! All boats that raced made it into the semi-finals. The Men's Junior 4+ achieved an outstanding performance by winning a GOLD MEDAL in their finals.
May 21 - 25, 2000
Marist College Poukeepsie, NY
The women's and men's crews spent these days rowing on the Hudson River in training for Nationals in Delaware. The week was broken up by a train trip into NYC on Tuesday.
May 27, 2000 Scholastic Rowing Assoc. Regatta Delaware
WPHS Crew had another great
day. All boats again made it into the semi-finals. The Men's Junior
4+ had a repeat performance, bringing home a SILVER
MEDAL in a close race. WPHS Crew again
demonstrated their ability to compete on a national basis.
October 28, 2000 First Coast Head Race, Jacksonville, FL
Winter Park had a good showing in Jacksonville. [Click here to see results]
November 4, 2000 Head of the Chattahoochie, Gainesville, GA
| FLORIDA SCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION | |||||||||
| 2001 SPRING RACING SCHEDULE | |||||||||
| DATE | REGATTA | LOCATION | DISTANCE | ||||||
| January 20 | Milo's Regatta | Harbour Island, Tampa | 4.5 Miles | ||||||
| February 3 | Novice Regatta | Lake Fairview, Orlando | 1000 M | ||||||
| February 24 | Mayor's Cup | Lake Fairview, Orlando | 1500 M | ||||||
| March 3 | Metro Cup | Lake Maitland, Winter Park | 2000 M | ||||||
| March 10 | Orlando City Championships | Orlando | 1500 M | ||||||
| March 24 | OARS Regatta | Orlando | 1500 M | ||||||
| April 14 | Collegiate Championships | Bypass Canal, Tampa | 1850 M | ||||||
| April 14 | Gainesville Crew Classic | Palatka | 1500 M | ||||||
| April 21 | Hood Cup | Bypass Canal, Tampa | |||||||
| April 28 | Youth Championship Regatta | Key Biscayne | 1500 M | ||||||
| May 6 | Open (S.A.T. Exam) | ||||||||
| May 12 | State Championships | Bypass Canal, Tampa | 1500 M | ||||||
| May 19 | Stotesbury | Schuylkill River, Philadelphia | 1500 M | ||||||
| May 26 | Scholastic Nationals | Camden, NJ | 1500 M | ||||||