This past weekend, April 12-14, the Bainbridge Island Rowing squad traveled in two buses six hours south to Dexter Lake Reservoir near Eugene, Oregon, for the Covered Bridge 2019 Regatta. The weekend was cold and rainy, and due to record rainfall, the grass was not grass but mud. Rowers found themselves up to their ankles in the brown soup. Nevertheless, the team emerged all sunny smiles with lots of shiny gold, silver, and bronze jewelry to show for their efforts. They earned 26 medals overall.
Varsity
The biggest Varsity win of the weekend came near the end of racing on Sunday with the Men’s Varsity 8+ beating seven other teams and edging out Olympia Area Rowing by just four-tenths of a second to take first place. A BIR Men’s Varsity Quad team also nabbed first in their heat with a resounding lead over second-place Olympia, and one BIR Pair took first in their heat and another BIR Pair took second.
The Women’s Varsity 4+ teams got a silver finish in the B heat and a bronze in the A heat. A Men’s Varsity 4+ crew ended up third in the B heat.
Junior Varsity
The BIR Junior Varsity enjoyed the most big wins of the weekend. A Women’s 8+ crew grabbed gold, squeezing past Olympia by seven-tenths of a second. A second BIR 8+ team beat out Vancouver Lake for the bronze in the same race.
Men’s JV 4+ teams won the A and C heats and took third in the B. Women’s JV 4+ teams enjoyed second place in the A and B heats.
Men’s JV 8+ teams finished first in the B heat and second in the A heat. A Double team got third in their race.
Novice
The Novice teams gave solid performances all around. The Men’s 4+ snapped up second in the A heat and, in the D heat, second and third.
Women’s 4+ teams took solid seconds in both the A and C heats. Men’s Coxed Quad teams finished second in the A and third in the B heats.
The Novice Women’s 8+ got a bronze, and the Novice Men’s 8+ a silver in their races.
The rowers returned home late Sunday evening. Here are photos from the Covered Bridge 2019 Regatta:
Photos by Sarah Lane and Sam Bloom. The featured photo shows the winning Men’s JV 4+.