Detroit Boat Club Crew's indoors
end with a boatload of medals
The Detroit Boat Club Crew completed its indoor winter season winning 16 medals at the Grosse Ile Island Sprints. The team also competed in two other indoor regattas, the Cincinnati Indoor Championships and hosted their own competition dubbed “Motown Madness” in February.
Like all indoor rowing events, the Island Sprints, hosted by the Grosse Ile Rowing Club, pits rowers against each other on ergometers, indoor rowing machines, which simulate a 2,000-meter course. DBCC rowers brought home 16 medals from the Downriver competition. Each ergometer carries an onboard computer that measures speed and distance, and that is what is compared at the end of each race.
The women dominated their competition, winning all the gold medals. Varsity women Janey Brennan, Casey Wisner and Laine Maher took gold, silver and bronze, respectively. In the women’s lightweight division, Emily Hughes beat her competition to grab the gold. Megan Shook beat out the host club's top rower to grab gold in the Novice Division. Her DBCC teammates Devin McKinley and Asha Sanford took third and fourth respectively.
Rounding out the women’s completion were the coxswains, who also swept all the medals. Colleen Rose took the gold followed by Liz Trudel and Anita Shah.
The men were led by gold medal winners Nick Wilson, Zachery Wiese and Jonathon Schlect. Wiese grabbed the Novice gold while teammate Christian Nemeh, took the silver. Wilson won the Varsity Lightweight, and Schlect and fellow teammate Dan Hass finished one-two in coxswain race. The Varsity men pair of Peter Cornillie and Connor Campbell took the silver and bronze.
The “Motown Madness” meet was held February 5 at their boathouse on Belle Isle. Teams from four Ann Arbor clubs, Grosse Ile, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Ecorse and Northville competed.
The women swept the medals in the Varsity and coxswain races. The Varsity was led by Alix Chrumka who grabbed the gold, followed by Brennan and Wizner. The sweep of the women’s coxswain race was led by Rose, with Trudel and Shah taking silver and bronze. The women also fared well in the lightweight races with Hughes and Maggie Sullivan earning the gold and bronze respectively in the under 125-pound and Chloe Walker and Devon McKinley taking silver and bronze. The women’s novice gold was won by M. Shook.
Men’s gold were won by Zach Jatkowski in the under 145-pound and Wilson in the under 155-pound. Cornillie took home the silver in the Men’s Varsity open weight race while Dave Trudel came in fourth in the under 165-pound class.
Between their home regatta and Grosse Ile, the Crew traveled to Cincinnati for the well-attended and very competitive Cincinnati Indoor Rowing Championships. These races are a feeder race to the National Crash-B Sprints that are held in Boston. They attract rowers from across the Midwest.
The women once again led the way, bringing three medals back to Detroit. In the coxswain race, Rose took top honors with gold. Varsity rowers Hughes and Brennan took silver in the lightweight and open classes. Varsity rower Cornillie placed highest among the men finishing just out of medal contention in fourth. In the Varsity lightweights Wilson and Jatkowski finished ninth and tenth out of a field of 53 competitors.
The team will hit the waters of the Detroit River the next four weeks to prepare for the outdoor season. The first stop will be in Columbus, Ohio, April 2 for the Golden Bear Invitational.
The next weekend the Club hosts its own regatta, the Dossin Invitational, in the waters off Belle Isle. Teams from Michigan and Ohio are expected to compete in match races held on the Canadian side of the island finishing in front of the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.
