Several stories fill rowing championships

By Hugh Rist For the News & Messenger
Published: May 10, 2008

It was hard to tell which story was bigger at the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Championships Satur-day afternoon--the disappointing finish of the Woodbridge girls' varsity eight, the remark-able winning streak of the Woodbridge boys' varsity first four, or the overall performance of the Hylton Bulldogs, whose girls' varsity double and boys' varsity quad each took home gold medals.

The dark clouds overhead made the long, slow walk up to the boat slip seem even more like a funeral procession for the shell-shocked Woodbridge girls' first varsity eight. The "dream team" of rowers coach John Meehan had assembled, after finishing a disap-pointing fourth in its heat, had no chance to make the talent-laden final.

With a lineup that featured last year's Potomac News' Rower of the Year Paula Coughlin, stroke Laura Doody, who teamed with Coughlin to take gold in the varsity double last season, and one of the area's best coxswains in Danielle Woods, the boat could not over-come a strong headwind to reach the finals despite having one of its best practices of the season the day before, Meehan said.

"Disappointed doesn't even begin to cover it," a visibly shaken Meehan said. "It was an unbelievable collapse. I thought we had the talent to be in the finals and possibly medal. It is very sad for the seniors on the boat (Coughlin, Woods and Doody). This certainly isn't the way they wanted it (their high school careers) to end. They couldn't make the adjustments they needed to make to the conditions and they should have been able to. I am flabbergasted."

Hylton's girls' double, with stroke Kelly Bogart and bow Victoria Lazor, won the gold in convincing fashion, outracing runner-up Wakefield by nearly 12 seconds at 7:12.8.

"I am very happy (with the way we raced)," Bogart said. "Before the race, I thought we might do a lot worse because I really get nervous before races. But we managed to pull it off because of our team unity. At the last 250 meters, I thought there was someone ahead of us. When I realized we won, I thought 'What? How can this be?' When I am racing I never look out of the boat so I didn't realize what we had done quickly."

Hylton's boys' quad, stroked by David Drewett, took the gold with a time of 5:41.5, besting its second quad teammates by 18 seconds. Woodbridge placed third at 6:32.

Drewett, who had said his goal all year was to win the gold at states, could hardly contain his excitement following the race.

"I think we got off to our best start of the season," Drewett said. "There was a lot of wind and a very strong current. Once we got to the last 500 meters and went to a sprint, I thought it was our best race of the season and it felt amazing."

Woodbridge's boys' quad of stroke Tyler Dawson, Matt Doody, Val Stutz, bow J. C. Fisher, and coxswain Katie Garrity, won the final by nearly three seconds over Great Bridge, which had edged the foursome out for first in the preliminary heat by one second.

Vikings' coach Mike Malak said the boat executed his strategy for the finals perfectly.

"Our strategy was to come out fast and keep trying to catch them. I told Katie to attack them early and keep seeing where we were compared to them (Great Bridge) every 250 meters. That's why Katie has impressed me so much as a coxswain. There's really no per-son I would feel more confident in having as a coxswain. She executes and helps them stay fo-cused."

Among the highlights for Forest Park was a silver medal performance by their quad (6:33.8). Hyl-ton's boys' double of Scolaighe Gobert and William Cho added to the Bull-dogs' hardware haul with a bronze-medal performance. Woodbridge's boys' lightweight double finished second at 6:11.6.