State College Area Rowing, also known as SCAR, started its season at the Head of the Ohio Regatta on Sunday, Oct. 5. The Head of the Ohio is a competitive and prestigious event with many different competitors at various skill levels. State College showed that they belonged and could compete with anyone.
Preparing for an event like this is tough. There aren’t many bodies of water suitable for rowing around State College, so the team drives more than 30 minutes to reach their practice site at Bald Eagle Lake. Because of this, they alternate practices between rowing on the lake and erging on rowing machines at State High. Whether they can use the lake is also highly dependent on the conditions. If it’s too foggy, for example, visibility becomes unsafe and practice isn’t possible.
The team had multiple entries across various events, including the men’s novice single, men’s U19 single, men’s novice four, men’s U19 four, women’s U19 double, women’s novice four and women’s novice eight. With a regatta of this size, some nervousness is expected, but SCAR did a great job of facing the moment. Junior Kajsa Banks raced with senior Anna Herickhoff, and together, they finished third out of fifteen boats.
“Me and Anna, we were really nervous. We’re in the girls’ varsity double. We were really nervous going into it, but once we got on the water, our nerves settled a little bit. And then we did the race, so we felt really good about it,” Banks said.
Senior Isaac Tan, captain of the boys’ team, also turned in a strong performance.
“I got second. I raced the novice single, so the one event by themselves. Rowing is kind of considered like a team sport normally, but I had the honor to row the single, kind of be a little bit more independent. It’s a little tougher, mentally, but it’s good,” Tan said.
The girls’ novice four in particular had nine boats in its race. The team included junior Emma Raish, senior Madison Martin, and sophomores Elizabeth Fowler, Arden Avery, and Geneve LeMay at coxswain.
Coach Leard Huggins was happy with the team’s performance in their season opener. “It went really well, we had some good success. Our girls’ novice four came in third place in their race. And then our girls’ varsity double came in third in their race. So those were both really good results,” Huggins said.
Other strong finishes included a sixth-place finish out of thirteen boats in the men’s U19 four. Junior Derek Bowman served as the coxswain, with other juniors Liam Hickman and Andrew Baxter, sophomore Will Meehan and senior Frank Wolyniec rowing.
SCAR also notched an eighth-place finish in the men’s novice four, with sophomore Rosie Myers-Finnegan as the coxswain and senior John Razzano, sophomore Brody Sherwood, freshman Eric Tong and junior Theodore Schaeffer filling out the group.
SCAR will look to continue its strong start to the season during its next regatta in Philadelphia on Sunday, Nov. 2, at the Hidden River Chase Regatta.
