Despite weather NBRC duo fares well at Nationals

The first trip to the US Rowing National Youth Invitational was a memorable one for North Bay Rowing Club’s pair, Ryan Cardiff and Ben Holm.|

The first trip to the US Rowing National Youth Invitational was a memorable one for North Bay Rowing Club’s pair, Ryan Cardiff and Ben Holm. The duo went up against the fastest in the country and ultimately came away as the 14th fastest pair nation wide.

“It was really an exciting, but nerve-wracking experience. Racing was very competitive and every boat rowed well,” said Cardiff.

Wind was the word of the weekend on Mercer Lake in New Jersey. Strong gusts up to 30 mph and sustained winds of more than 15 mph halted all practice on Thursday before racing began and caused a long delay on the first day of racing Friday.

“There was a good amount of adversity to fight through in order to stay focused,” said coach Will Whalen. “The conditions were the same for everyone, but we slipped a bit in the heats and they canceled the reps so we were immediately relegated to the ‘C’ Final.”

The regular progression for the championship races involves “repechage,” or second chance, for boats to progress to the top finals. Due to the uncooperative weather and high winds, they were canceled to consolidate racing to two days, ultimately canceling racing on Sunday.

The fourth-place North Bay finish in the heats put it into the C final for places 13-16. Those that finished fifth or lower in the heats were eliminated altogether from further racing.

“It proves that you can’t make any errors at this level. We had a rough race in the heats and paid the price,” said Holm, a senior next year at Maria Carrillo. “It was too bad we could not row the reps to see if we would have moved up.”

North Bay finished second in the C final behind Norwalk River Rowing Association from Connecticut in a time of 7 minutes, 10.755 seconds. St Louis Rowing Club took the National title in the Men’s Pair category (2-) A final with NorCal Crew from Redwood City got silver.

“If you had told me at the start of the season that we would have a nationally ranked boat in June, I’d have been ecstatic,” said Whalen. “These guys represented our club well, learned a ton, and are bringing back home the experience and leadership for the rest of the squad. It was a great weekend.”

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