Nisky Freshmen Sweep

The following narrative of the Shaker Invitational was written by Nick, six seat in the Dirigo. The Dirigo and Swift are the two freshmen eights used by Niskayuna rowing.

For the week leading up to the race, our whole team had been improving by leaps and bounds. Our timing was close to perfect, our technique was getting better, and we were all strong. The Swift was also frighteningly close to the Dirigo. In fact, on some of the short distance sprint drills, the Swift was faster.

Going into today’s race, we in the Dirigo knew we would beat Shaker. Coach told us up front he wanted us to demolish them. The real question was if the Dirigo still deserved to continue to consider itself the faster boat. The Swift was mostly lightweight rowers, but they gave it their all in every stroke. The Dirigo would never be able to slack off for fear of being passed by the Swift.

When we got to the start, we were very focused on beating the Swift. It was a little cold, but that would only make us want to go faster to warm up. The race started with all three boats flying. Neither Nisky boat left Shaker in the dust as originally planned. They stayed right with us… for maybe twenty strokes. After that, they just fell further and further behind the Swift and Dirigo. Two hundred fifty meters in, the race was between the two Niskayuna boats.

The Dirigo had a stronger start, but did not open water quickly. At one point, it looked like the Swift could start taking water back. Then the Dirigo hit the halfway point, and we took off. Our rating slowly increased, and we got faster with each stroke. We finally started opening water on the other boat. We crossed the finish line, most of us barely able to get through the last few strokes under the bridge. The Swift was maybe two or three boat lengths behind, and the Shaker boat was easily five boat lengths behind us. That race was the fastest we had ever been. For the first time in a race, our whole boat rowed together with all the lightness, power, and speed Coach had been trying to get us to achieve all season. We had a first and second Nisky freshman sweep.