Great River Challenge of 2011, Day - II

(bow) Oliver Scholle '12 & Karnes (Lars) McCarrick '15

(bow) Peter K. Miller '12 & Santo Dettore '12

A million apologies for taking my sweet time to post Part-II of The Great River Challenge of 2011. The good new is that my basement is fully stocked with firewood for the winter.

Day-II was as picturesque, competitive and entertaining as Day-I. This time out we boated 4 doubles and 3 pairs. Sadly, Miller & Ditz were not afforded the opportunity for a rematch as MacGregor was unable to attend due to commitments that kept him on campus. Alas, despite the obvious disappointment from the gallery there was no shortage of confrontation. Bitter rivalries were revealed after having been held at bay throughout the fall as were pent up frustrations following a season of disappointment.

The first to strike was the double of Santo Dettore '12 and PK Miller '12 (no relation to PC). Following a sharp warm-up and some words of encouragement from the coaching launch, this duo put all their eggs into the one basket and shocked the field by taking the first piece in decisive fashion. This "bullet" was earned by the two men muscling the shell up river over the 4 minute course with a wire to wire performance. Believing strongly in the idiom "shoot first and ask questions later", Dettore demanded from his bowman to "Make the boat go straight and try to keep up." Miller, being a Geology major, was more than happy to comply but had a few baseball sized specimens of Maine's finest quartz and granite ready to hurl at any crew that dared challenge for the top spot. Dare I say, they had their bases covered?

In the second piece, the coaches made a slight error in judgment by sending the pairs ahead of the doubles. "Just trying to create some parody" was heard from a coaches launch following the failed piece. Two pairs, each containing a walk-on freshman and a really tall & skinny upperclassman (looking a bit more like a Father/Son regatta), had that certain magnetic attraction to one another. This fact, in and of itself, wasn't necessarily the problem; the surging doubles clawing for a piece of water to call their own, was. (Check your Strunk & White, I believe this sentence is grammatically correct).

The final piece was a terrific battle. Dettore & PK Miller had earned their 1st place finish for the day and appeared satisfied with that. As the final piece began to unfold two crews (both doubles) emerged from the field. One was made up of Ollie Scholle '12 & Karnes (Lars) McCarrick '15, while the other was Charley Carey '13 & Nick Flynn '15. It was when the two crews were clear of the field that they first noticed each other. About two minutes into the piece the race was on. The two crews began to size each other up. With a minute to go Carey was heard to call on his stroke man to "take a twenty here", the strategy being to move away and demoralize the competition. This strategy, to some measure, appeared to be working and they began to move through. But Scholle, knowing that his big freshman had more to give, waited to the final 30 seconds. With fifteen strokes to the line Scholle simply said "go", and that was the end of that. In 15 strokes they went from 1/2 of a boat down to 1/2 of a boat up and won the piece.

Congratulations to all the guys on a fine fall season. I hope you are all looking forward to spring as much as I am.

While I have you....
I thought we may take a moment to introduce our two walk-on freshman. Both complete novices to the sport these guys have really done well to pick it up and contribute to the program. Alex Hadiaris even made the Men's Varsity 4+ that competed in the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Matt Silverman '15

Alex Hadiaris '15