The season is unfolding nicely. After satisfying wins at Clemson and in the Raoul Cup race the last two weeks have given us a good idea of where we stand going into the Southeastern Regional Championships on May 13, at Langley Pond.

At the Cincinnati Invitational on April 22, McCallie took two boats up north to race the defending national champions, Cincinnati Juniors and to see some of our old friends from the days when we raced in the Midwestern Championships. We had a very productive day; McCallie’s Second Varsity 8, Tommy Thompson, Marc Best, Peterson Hostetler, Josh Mackler, Grant Hixson, Adam Kent, Gerry Wallace, Trey Strausberger, and Sumit Patel came home with bronz medals behind two Cincinnati 8’s. In the Varsity 8 final Mark Richmond, Prentice Stabler, Brad Stewart, Wayne McLemore, David Gardner, Taylor Banks, Chris Underwood, Anders Swanson and Ashby Graham finished second also behind the Cincinnatie crew and just ahead of Upper Arlington, at team we dualed repeatedly in the mid-1990’s.

The Oak Ridge Scholastic was held on April 29 with all the usual suspects from the Southeast in attendence. To summarize a long day of rowing quickly isn’t too tough. McCallie won; Golds – Novice 4A, Novice 8A, Lightweight 8, JV 8, Varsity 8. This is the first time we’ve won the varsity race at Oak Ridge. Silver – Novice 8B. Bronze – Novice 4B. We also won with GPS the ALL POINTS TROPHY for the second year. How sweet it is; just three years ago in 1997 we did not win a single medal up there.

Next week at the S.E. Championships our goal is to qualifty both our Varsity Lightweight 8 and Varsity Heavyweight 8 for the US Rowing Championships on June 10-11.