In 2009, the "IRA boat" won the Men's Championship 8+ by a decent amount of time on top of riding a ripping current downstream. In 2010 (my freshman year), I got to stroke the boat to a second consecutive victory only this time by no more than 2-3 seconds. The conditions were definitely nowhere near the previous year but it was extremely cold. One of the reasons I believe we did not perform as well as we should have is because of the previous training, let me explain. Almost every piece, 6k, tech row, etc... was capped out at a 24 stroke rate, which was great for power but did not help with a endurance at a higher rate. A week prior to the race, we started to build rates up to a 32 but that was not enough for it to be comfortable during the Hooch, which is why I believe we averaged around a 29SR.
After that victory, we went down to Melbourne for one specific reason: see where we stood with FIT. FIT had just broken the course record and won the Men's Collegiate 8+ in Boston so we knew that they were a great standard to base ourselves off. On the 2-miler, we finished 22 seconds behind, but that was expected.
This year, the Hooch is going to be one of the toughest races in the fall for JU. After watching FIT finish 28th in the Championship event, I compared their time with the Collegiate event and noticed they would have only finished 3rd. Whaaaa?! I may say. But this is nothing compared to what's next. The third place finisher in the Collegiate event was Georgia Tech. Not only am I surprised they did so well but they also finished 6 seconds behind FIT. And right behind them, was the upcoming team Notre Dame with only a 2 second gap between them and Georgia Tech. Of course, both teams will be trying to take the Hooch title away from us this year.
Now at practice, things have been quite different. The line-ups have changed a few times as the coaches have been trying to find the right set of guys for this race. After great new 6k ergo scores from a lot of people including freshmen and sophomores, time trials, and seat races, the practice line-up has (in my opinion) found its current top boat. Today was the last time trial around the island (8km race) before the Hooch, and the top boat consisted of Andrew SOLOWAY, myself, Mick MAYER, Greg VANOEKEL, Bernardas VINGILIS, Parker LAWLER, Brian COSMILLO, Andre KLEIJN, and Matt OUTLAW. Mick and Andre have really proven their strength on the ergo and the water as well as technical focus. Greg is finally back to practice after a small week off for a lower back problem. And matt has demonstrated that he wanted to stay in his seat after last race. The reason I am happy after today is because everything I asked from them before going out on the water was accomplished. Being sick this morning I asked them to back me up 100% and help me beat our weekly goal (27:30). The race went well and was probably the most technically sound boat I've rowed in since we came back to school, the power was there and when it was time to have balls, everyone laid it down. The final time was 26:18, which made me extremely positive about the guys even if I didn't show it. The current was hard hard to go against and screaming fast in the other direction; on average the boat pulled a 1:38 average split.
I have good expectations for this entire team. The top boat needs to be faster, the second boat needs to be more confident even though they've gotten faster these last two weeks, and the frosh boat needs to simply kick some ass.
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