If it’s a rainy Saturday in March and there are as many dogs as there are people, it must be the Green Lake Spring Regatta in Seattle. Notorious for its consistently adverse weather conditions, this year’s event held true to form with a headwind leading race officials to shorten the venue’s usual half-course to just 500 meters — a mere quarter of regulation race length.
Winning nine, and medaling in 13 of the club’s 14 events on the day, Vashon’s signature blue blades cut through the rain and lake-water with authority.
Stand-out performances came from Ava Lorentzen and Aria Mildon, who took home three golds each; coxswain Hayden Rosen, who added four golds to his growing collection; and self-proclaimed “old guys” Bob (Bam-Bam) McMahon, Sam Williams, Gary Schoch and Fred Sayer, winning the club’s first gold of the day in the masters men’s quad. Other notable performances came from the masters men’s four, winning their race with three of the rowers from the quad and Robert Briggs in for Sayer; junior Malio Nelson coxing both that boat, as well as the winning masters women’s four, to their victories; and both the junior girls’ and boys’ under-16 eights, stroked to decisive wins by Sam Zeigler and Rohin Petram respectively.
As irony, and the Green Lake weather demons, would have it, the heavy morning rain gave way to welcome afternoon sun and stronger winds — resulting in the cancelation of all later-day novice racing, as well as the junior varsity girls’ four and the junior varsity boys’ quad events.
“Even though conditions were less than optimal, everybody, including parents, family and friends, enjoyed themselves and the efforts of the crews, both young and not-quite-so,” coach Richard Parr said. “And I continue to be really impressed with the maturity of one of the youngest junior teams we’ve had.”
As for the masters, Parr said they did a great job medaling in every one of their races.
“Both the men’s quad and four average age is 70 years old, so to see that amount of fun and determination from these guys is awesome,” he said.
Next up is an at-home scrimmage for the juniors with Burnaby Lake and Lakeside on Saturday. For those interested in heading to Jensen Point to watch, the racing begins at 9 a.m.
— Sarah Low
