October 2024
The new novice class of 2024 got their first taste of racing today during the 2nd annual novice scrimmage at Lake Lanier Rowing Club. The 4.5k event was held in Gainesville, GA and hosted by the University of North Georgia. There were two other schools who participated in the scrimmage, those being UNG and Emory. Georgia Tech was supposed to participate but unfortunately dropped out due to damage from the recent hurricane.
The first set of races went off at 10:00 and went great. The Men's Novice 8+ event was first, where UGA-A placed 1st with a time of 19:31 and UGA-B placed 3rd out of 4 teams. UGA barely squeaked out a victory in this one, only beating UNG by 2 seconds! The Women's Novice 8+ event was next, where once again UGA-A placed 1st and UGA-B placed 3rd out of 4 teams. The UGA-A Women's Novice 8+ was particularly impressive with a time of 20:52, beating 2nd place by 50 seconds and even beating 3 total men's boats!
Women's Novice 8+, First Place
c: Leila Hendrix
8: Abby Romano
7: Cate Grindel
6: Cassie Christiansen
5: Bailey Scott
4: Mo Burgess
3: Tori Lehman
2: Elle Krall
1: Anissa Ottley
The second set of races set off around 12:15. Here we got to see the 2nd Novice 8+'s take their turns racing. The 2nd Novice Men's 8+'s once again went first with UGA-A getting 3rd and UGA-B getting 1st with a time of 20:26. There was a bit of a struggle from the UGA-A crew with some equipment malfunctions and crabs ultimately costing them a good bit of time. The 2nd Novice Women's 8+'s rounded out the scrimmage with UGA-A getting 1st with a time of 23:19 and UGA-B getting 3rd.
Overall the novices had a great experience in their first ever race, however not without their fair share of crabs, lost seats, and blistered hands. While the novices were far from perfect, they proved that they were here to compete and here to win. When we see Georgia Tech again at Head of the Hooch our novices will hope to make them glad they never showed up to this scrimmage. Row Dawgs!
Stefan Korey holding coxswain Dash Duxbury
