St. Mary Academy – Bay View rowing crew continues competing in unique way
RIVERSIDE, R.I. (BVM) — With the onset of COVID-19 throughout the country, many schools and their sports teams have watched as their seasons have ended abruptly or were unable to even begin. With restrictions as to what athletes could do, where they could be and who they could be around, many teams have had little to no live experience in their sport. However, this has not stopped St. Mary Academy – Bay View’s girls rowing crew from working and competing at a high level.
Things are still certainly weird for the crew. There are no boats. There are no paddles. There isn’t even any water at their competitions anymore. Instead, the team is competing virtually. The crew’s typical boats have been replaced by rowing machines, specifically machines with Concept 2 ergometers, which track the racers distances and times.
The change came as a major surprise to Bay View’s first-year head coach Lisa Evans. Evans was excited and prepared for the newest season, helping to buy the team new four-person boats, a new trailer and even new uniforms over the winter, but due to the cancellation of spring sports, they would not be able to use the equipment.
But, with virtual competitions, Evans is happy to see the amount of participation in her program and how dedicated her team is to the unique way of training. Of the team’s 20 on-the-water participants, Evans said the team has seen participation from as many as 17 kids with experience from novice to seasoned with many being underclassmen.
“I really miss being on the water,” Evans said. “It’s hard to try to correct form on a computer screen, but I have to say I have been impressed with how many kids show up and how responsive they are. It makes my day to turn on the Zoom and hear the doorbell and have 17 kids show up.”
As one could imagine, virtual races are complex to complete, especially when it comes to determining a team’s final time. When an athlete completes the specified virtual distance, known as a “piece” in crew, they must take a picture of their results on the machine and it must be time stamped with either the day and time located on the ergometer or a picture of a phone with the day and time in the background to send in for the final tally.
“They did these pieces alone, in their basements, in their backyards, in their driveways,” Evans said. “It’s one thing to be in a shell on the water with the coxswain (the steerman of the racing boat) cheering you on and people on the shore and it’s a beautiful day and it’s another to go to your pain cave alone in your basement. It takes a lot of grit.”
The team virtually competed in the the Rowers Choice March Mania Tournament in April, the year’s first virtual rowing competition, hosted by Rowers Choice and U.S. Rowing. The competition consisted of seven rounds from a seeding round to the national championship round and had four athletes on each team.
“There were hundreds of teams that submitted their scores and then they took the top 64 into the A bracket and the next 64 into the B bracket. … Every few days there was a different challenge on the ERGs and what made it fun was the distance of the challenge mirrored a famous regatta,” Evans said.
Although rowing virtually either in their homes, on their driveways or wherever they could move their rowing machines wasn’t what the girls crew had signed up for, it still allowed them to participate in the sport they love, which is a rare thing to find in today’s COVID-19 impacted world. The Bengals team not only competed in the tournament, they made a statement.
The Bay View March Mania team was composed of sophomores Emma Leary, Lily Sarnowski and Victoria Tuchon-Miller along with freshmen Lindsey Williams. Following the seeding round of the tournament, the girls earned the No. 2 seed in the U-19 B Bracket and went on a tear from there.
The girls ended up advancing all the way to the championship round of the tournament, where they competed against Chicago-D, the No. 1 seed on the other side of the bracket, in a 2,000-meter race. Unfortunately for the girls, they were not victorious in the last race falling behind the Chicago-based crew by just one minute.
The result was a pleasant one for the team, which had found out about the tournament only hours before the registration deadline, when Williams approached Evans about the virtual competition.
“One of the athletes reached out to me and I got approval from the athletic director,” Evans said. “She put together the team and at that point I was allowed to coach them virtually.”
Although the crew didn’t win, the tournament was a valuable one for the girls.
“We were all ecstatic. We were ecstatic about that,” Evans said. “We have been texting, emailing, Zooming so we can kind of share in that celebration and we will have an end of the season celebration.”
The competition also helped the team to regain some of the focus it had lost due to the end of the spring sports season announced on April 20. With the announcement, Evans was allowed to do online workouts and training with the team over Zoom while some students even received ERG machines from the school to use at home, 13 in total. With their new equipment and training techniques, the team was also able to compete in “Friday Challenges” with nearby schools and clubs, specifically Narragansett Boat Club, East Bay Rowing and the Lincoln School.
“We sent (ERGs) home with any girls who asked for one. A typical week, we would have two to three ERG Zoom workouts, one Zoom body workout and then they would do two ERG workouts on their own,” Evans said. “I just enjoyed giving everyone a chance to participate in this and it was fun to see everybody improve over the course of a few weeks.”
During the regionals, the Bengals had five different boats across four different events and placed in each.
The team of Emma Leary and Lindsey Williams earned first place in the Women’s U17 2x race while Lily Sarnowski earned third place in the Women’s Youth Lightweight 1x and the team of Claire Topper and Jillian Nguyen earned third place in the Women’s Freshman 2x. Both of the team’s Women’s Youth Weight Adjusted “boats” placed as well with fourth and sixth place finishes.
The finishes allowed the team to earn placement into each of the events for the U.S. Rowing Virtual National Championships which began on May 25 and finished on June 12. Each event was a 2,000-meter race and team members could only participate in one event throughout the tournament.
The team trained six days a week up until June 10 when they completed their pieces together and submitted them for the finals.
During the nationals, the Bengals performed well. The boat Evans was most excited to see compete heading into the tournament, a two person boat of Leary and Williams, finished best of the Bay View boats with a second place finish in the U17 two person boat competition. Sarnowski finished ninth out of a possible 16 in lightweight single boat competition while the team’s freshmen two person boat finished 13th and their two weight adjusted four person boats finished 18th and 20th, respectively.
The girls worked to prove their placement in the March Mania Tournament was not a fluke and they certainly did. While other high school athletes were quietly awaiting for their next sport seasons to get under way, the Bengals crew was getting better, one stroke of the rowing machine at a time.
“They’re an adaptable group, they’re an enthusiastic group and they’re just a really hardworking group. They also really support each other, so even though these ERG scores are individual, they really support each other as a team,” Evans said. “I am very grateful to the rowing community for putting together these creative virtual opportunities. It’s inspiring to see our athletes competing and to see them supporting each other and the larger rowing community throughout this difficult time.”
Although they might not have been able to experience the beauty of the water or the joy of cheering crowds, Bay View’s crew was still able to enjoy the sport they love with the teammates they love.
