A contingent of rowers from Corowa Rowing Club competed at the Australian Rowing Championships in Penrith for the week commencing 24 March.  
 
Sara Williams rowed in under 19, Megan Vogel in under 17 and Brad Pearsall also in under 17 with Tom Whitechurch coxing in under 17.
 
In their 9 events, all of them made the finals, including 8 A finals. This culminated in 4 gold medals, 1 silver medal, and 3 top 8 finishes. This was an outstanding achievement for these young rowers.
 
Sara Williams was entered in the 3 sculling events in the highly competitive under 19 bracket. 
In the single, Sara qualified for the semi finals straight out of the heat and qualified for the B final to be ranked 15th in Australia.  In the double, combining with Lauren Hurley-Pearson from Melbourne rowing club, the pair improved with each row. They fought for a place in the A final and
came 6th overall. Sara and Lauren then combined with Megan Lowndes from Bendigo  Rowing Club and Brooke Wells from Nagambie Rowing Club. Once again faced with strong combinations from around the nation, our crew finished with their best row of the regatta to come fourth in Australia.
 
In her first National regatta, Megan also competed in three U17 sculling events. She finished her
single sculling campaign ranked 6th in Australia.  She joined Sky Froebel from Melbourne Rowing Club to win the double scull Gold Medal. Megan and Sky then teamed with Peta Terrell from Yarra Yarra, Kathleen Hansen from Hawthorn Rowing Club and coxswain Shiho Ozeki to also take out the quad scull Gold Medal. This was an extraordinary achievement from the young Corowa sculler
Megan, who with Sky and Kathleen, still have another year in the under 17 category.
 
Also competing in his first national regatta Bradley Pearsall progressed through to the finals in his three events. He came in second in the under 17 single scull to claim the Silver Medal. He combined with Nathan Leckie from Nagambie to claim the Gold Medal in the double scull and this pair also
competed in the quad scull with Cameron Foreman from Corio Bay and Ned Coleman from Hawthorn with  Corowa’s Tom Whitechurch as Coxswain to win another Gold Medal. Three medals from three events is reward for all the hard training he has done.
 
Coaches from all of the clubs involved joined Corowa coaches Wes Canny and Robert Eyers to assist these rowers in achieving these outstanding results. The crews were supported by David Ochert
from Melbourne Rowing Club, Winston Gilbert from Bendigo, Neil Lodding and Neville Smith from Nagambie, Paul Blanchfield and Tim Cleary from Hawthorn, Brenton Terrill from Yarra Yarra, and Dick Garrard from Corio. The combination of so many coaches was an example of excellent cooperation. Each coach was generous in their sharing of knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the crews.
 
Megan and Brad's development has been greatly assisted by the partnership between Corowa High School and the Corowa Rowing Club with the support of the Adopt a School Program, which is funded by Rowing Australia.
 
Thanks to the parents and supporters of these rowers and to all those who supported their fundraising to take these young rowers to Sydney to represent their club and the region.

The Corowa Rowing Club has an outstanding young rower development program as evidenced by this success at the highest level in Australia.

More photos will go up in News & Photos section....

Last weekend Corowa Rowing Club travelled down to Melbourne for the last club regatta of the season. 
Saturday saw the rowers compete over 850m at Footscray. 
Paige Cooper was the Star of the Day winning all three events she was
entered in. Paige has just come off winning the Year 9 Head of the School Girls, so is showing some great form for a 13 year old.

Paige won the U17 Single, D grade Single and then teamed up with Rachel Hansen to win the D Grade Double Scull.  Matt Vogel was also very successful winning the Open Male Single Scull, then teaming up with John Raschke to win the Open Male Double Scull.
Matt & John were joined by Ross Maclean & Andrew MacDonald to compete in the Open Quad scull but did not record a win (coxed by Cherie).   Matt & Andrew competed in the C Grade Double Scull.  Andrew completed in the D grade single, coming second in the heat to go through to the B Final,
which he won.  Bronwyn Collins and Sally Maclean; Cherie Collins and Rachel Hansen all competed in C Grade double scull, with Bron & Sally making it to the A final, but finishing second place.
Bron and Sally teamed up with John & Ross (Cherie coxing) to compete in the Mixed Quad race, but unfortunately could not come together to record a win.  
 
Sunday saw drizzling rain to start off the day over the short course (350m) at Essendon.
Paige was hoping to complete her clean sweep again, but unfortunately her and Rachel were beaten by .4 second in the heat in the D Double to miss the A final, they did then convincingly win the B
final. Matt Vogel followed up winning the same events as Saturday taking out the Open Single & Open Double with John Raschke. Bron, Sally, Cherie & Rachel (cox Paige) competed in the C Grade Coxed Four, but couldn’t quite record a win. Bron & Sally competed in the C Double Scull again today but did not progress through to the A final.  Matt & Andrew again recorded a second place finish in the C grade double, with Andrew repeating his Saturday performance in the single and winning the B final.  The Mixed quad (John, Ross, Sally, Cherie, coxed by Bron) had to restart their race after 200 metres due to a clash of oars, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the inform Powerhouse crew.  The final race of the day saw a local derby which saw our Male Open Quad Scull (John, Ross, Matt, Macca, coxed by Bron) compete against Rutherglen Lake.  The Rutherglen quad are the current C grade State Champions so it was always going to be a big ask to defeat them and unfortunately after a very quick race, Rutherglen Lake did take out the honour.

 A big thanks to Ian MacDonald who looked after bow numbers and helped the crews with boats all weekend. 
 

Corowa rowing club members competed at the Head of the School girls regatta on the Barwon river at Geelong Sat 15th and 16th March.

 The head of the school girls is in its 30th year and is the premier school girl regatta held and the largest of its kind in Australia..
Corowa Rowing Club had 4 rowers competing for their schools in the sculling events.
First up was Sara Williams representing Sacred Heart Yarrawonga in the open school girl division 1. Sara got out well but soon struggled with her steering allowing the Melbourne sculler to grab the lead and record a 4 length win.
Georgina Pearsall from Corowa High School competed in the open div 2 and rowed a strong race to hold on to 2nd place and move to the repecharge .
Megan Vogel from Corowa High raced in the year 10 scull and was a class above the rest of the field in her heat to qualify straight through to the A final on Sunday.
Paige Cooper from Galen Catholic College was in the year 9 single and showed her like for the Barwon course to lead all the way and qualify for the A final.
In the afternoon Sara and Georgina had their repecharges to row and both raced well  to win and get the opportunity to row in Sunday mornings semi-finals.
 
Sunday day 2
 The Semi Finals were the morning races with Sara needing a top 2 finish and Georgina requiring a win to move to the A final. The course on the Barwon had a strong tail wind making rowing tough as both girls prepared for the Semi. Georgina got out well to take an early lead and record a
fast time with the tail wind. Sara got out to a fast and led early before the other crews challenged. With 500m to go Sara was in 2nd place and in a real race from the girl who beat her in Saturday's heat. Sara was able to hold her off and come in 2nd place earning a place in the A final.

The first of the finals was Paige Cooper in the year 9 single. Paige has competed on the Barwon over the season and her knowledge of the course paid off with a lead all the way to win the final. Paige is in year 8 and will be keen to go back to back next season.
Megan Vogel was next and she showed why she is going to the Nationals next week with a dominate
display of sculling to lead all the way and record a strong win.
Georgina was in the next final and in a tough race she was with the leaders early before she
dropped off and come home strong to take a bronze medal.
The premier sculling event is the Open scull over 1500m Sara was ranked 4th going into the final and had nothing to lose as she lined up on the start. Her partner for the Nationals got out to a 1
length lead at the 500m mark as Sara was holding onto 2nd place. At the half way point the lead had extended to 2 lengths before Sara made her move in the windy conditions. Pulling up along the early leader with 300m to go Sara had enough boat speed to push away a win the final by 4
seconds.

Corowa Rowing Club rowers attended the Victorian school sports regatta
on the Barwon river in Geelong Thursday 13th March representing Corowa High
School and Galen Catholic College. The students from Corowa High have been in
training as part of the school rowing program for Wednesday sport. 

The day as usual was an early start with racing beginning at 8.30am so
the rowers were on the road at 4.00am.
First race was the female Open scull with the inform Megan Vogel leading the way, Megan controlled her heat to come second and qualify for the final. In the final racing against her sculling partner for the Nationals from Melbourne Megan turned the result from the heat to record a 2
length win.
Bradley Pearsall is coming into ominous form into the Nationals with a
dominate display in the open single scull he powered away to a comfortable
victory. The male doubles were up next with Bradley Pearsall and Jack Delaney
combining in the open double scull. Racing against year 12 students the boys
never gave up making the final and coming a close 2nd.The boys raced next in
their in the year 10 double scull and showed their class to prove too strong for
the opposition recording a strong win.
The year 7 and 8 quad scull was up next with Julia Delaney, Sarah Hughes, Olivia Hughes,Ellie Gough and cox Georgia King competing in their first regatta. These girls have have put in at training and
were excited at competing in Geelong for their school. The girls raced over the
shorter 500m course and showed great control to win their heat and and rowed a
great final to win the final.
Paige Cooper representing Galen College competed in the year 7 and 8 single scull. Paige has developed throughout the season and showed her improvement to prove too strong for the field to win the final.
Megan and Paige competed in the year 10 single with Megan making the A final to come
2nd in a close race. Paige qualified for the B final and rowed a great race as she finished strongly to claim the victory.
The male year 10 single scull saw Brad ,Jack and first time competitor Riley Van Leeuwen competing. As expected Brad won his heat and the A final while Jack and Riley qualified for the B final
with Jack coming 2nd and Riley a fantastic row to come 4th.

 A great day was had as the students showed their improvement and
development in the sport.

 Thanks to Corowa High teacher Sharyn Bridges and Corowa R.C life member Daryl Martin for the support with school rowing.  Chris Pensini and Stuart Pearsall for driving the students to Geelong keeping the travel costs down. The parents who helped out on the day particularly Rainer Vogel for doing the bow numbers for all the crews.

After a very successful season for our young rowers, three are off to the Nationals in Sydney in 3 weeks.  They are in the following crews:

Female U19 - Sara Williams
Single Scull - Sara Williams - coach Wes Canny
Double Scull - Sara is joining forces with Lauren Hurley-Pearson from Melbourne Rowing Club who is coached by David Ochert
Coxless Quad Scull - Sara & Lauren will be joined by Megan Lownes (Bendigo Rowing Club, coach Wynstan Gilbert) and Brooke Wells (Nagambie Rowing Clulb, coach Neville Smith)

Female U17 - Megan Vogel
Single Scull - Megan Vogel - coach Wes Canny
Double Scull - Megan is joining forces with Sky Froebel from Melbourne Rowing Club who is coached by David Ochert
Coxed Quad Scull - Megan & Sky will be joined by Peta Terrell (Yarra Yarra Rowing Club, coach Brenton Terrell) and Kathleen Hanson (Hawthorn Rowing Club, coach Paul Blanchfield). 

Male U17 - Bradley Pearsall
Single Scull - Bradley Pearsall - coach Robert (Dinga) Eyers
Double Scull - Brad is joining forces with Nathan Leckie from Nagambie Rowing Club who is coached by Neville Smith & Neil Lodding
Coxed Quad Scull - Brad & Nathan will be joined by Cameron Foreman (Corio Bay Rowing Club, coach Dick Garrard) and Ned Coleman (Hawthorn Rowing Club, coach Tim Cleary)

I will be posting daily updates during the Nationals

Good luck to all three of our club representatives

Great weekend of racing at Ballarat last weekend for the State Championships
Summary of medal wins
Saturday
Megan - 1st Open Schoolgirl over 2000m - GOLD
Brad - 2nd Open School Boys over 2000m - SILVER
Sara - 6th in Final Open Schoolgirl
Georgina - Did not make final
Matt & John rowed U21 double over 2000m as well

Sunday
Megan - U17 Single - SILVER
Brad - U17 Single - SILVER
Brad & Jack - U17 Double - SILVER
Sara & Megan - U19 double - SILVER
Rachel, Demi, Georgina, Paige & Tom - Female D grade Quad - SILVER

Sara - U19 Single - BRONZE
John, Macca, Matt, Josh & Riley - Male C Grade Quad - BRONZE
Matt - B Grade Single - BRONZE
Macca & Josh - D Grade Double - BRONZE

Other competitors:
D Grade Single - Macca & Jack
D Grade Single - Paige & Georgina
C Grade Single - Amy
C Grade Double - Julie & Amy
B Grade Single - John Raschke
B Grade Double - Matt & John
Female Master Single - Julie

Special Mention:
Amy Underwood who attends Geelong Grammar also rowed for her school on Saturday and won two GOLD medals - Open School 8 Div 2 and Female U19 8.
Tom Whitechurch had the opportunity to cox a female Essendon A grade quad to victory on Sunday as well winning a GOLD Medal.

Fantastic effort by all who attended this regatta.

I will post photos in the News & Photo section