A successful season for the rowing squad

South Island Secondary Schools’ Rowing Championships

The South Island Secondary Schools’ Rowing Championships in March provided the St Andrew’s rowing squad with a great build-up to Maadi Cup, setting many of the crews up for later success. Racing in excellent conditions on Lake Ruataniwha in Twizel, the squad made 25 A finals and four B finals, placing sixth overall, after winning two gold medals, three silver medals, and two bronze medals.

The gold medal crews were the Boys’ U17 coxed four and Boys’ U17 coxed eight, which went on to win gold and silver medals respectively at Maadi Cup.

Freddy Todhunter (Y13), and the Girls’ U15 coxed quad (who both went on to become national champions at Maadi Cup) were South Island silver medallists, alongside the Boys’ U15 coxed eight, comprising Jonty Pye (Y12) (cox), Henry Tayler, Harry Pitts, Timothy McLaren, William Gilray, Oliver Barker, Jonty Moorhead, Tadhg Molony and Hendrik Todhunter (all Y10). Bronze medals were won by the Boys’ U17 coxed four #2 (placing St Andrew’s first and third in this race), and the Boys’ U16 coxed eight.

St Andrew’s fielded a Girls’ U18 eight for the first time, making St Andrew’s the only co-ed school in the South Island to have a boys’ and girls’ boat in the U18 eight events.

Other regattas

The St Andrew’s Rowing Club’s season kicked off over the summer holiday, participating in a number of camps and regattas.

The squad of 80 students (58 in Years 11–13 and 22 in Year 10) enjoyed exceptional weather for each of their camps at Twizel, with senior rowers putting in the hard work to row around 160km in each of their two camps.

The first camp in early December was for the whole squad and gave the novice rowers their first taste of a regatta, as the camp coincided with the Otago Rowing Championships. During three uninterrupted days on the lake, the squad made 23 A finals and 10 B finals, with three first, three second, and three third placed crews.

The second camp in January coincided with the Canterbury Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha. Director of Rowing, Guy Williams, was impressed at how well the rowers had kept up their fitness over the holiday break, saying it was one of the better efforts by a team returning from the break in his 20 years in the sport. This put St Andrew’s in good shape for the regatta where crews competed in 25 A finals and two B finals, with two first, one second, and two third place results.

In late January, the squad went into camp again, and competed at the South Island Club Rowing Championships. This is one of the championship regattas and at its end, St Andrew’s had crews compete in 24 A finals and six B finals with one first, four second, and six third place results. This was a great way to finish off the holiday events and prepare for the business end of the season at the South Island Secondary Schools’ Championships and Aon Maadi Regatta.