Some of the teachers who attended the August 29th event at Newnan’s Lake were also interested in becoming a Master Rower. Gary Gookin, president of the Master’s Rowing Club, and his team helped out with this event and will follow up on the teachers’ interest in rowing with his team.

Thanks to all the coaches, rowers, parents and board members for making this a fun event! We look forward to getting more of our teachers involved to support our rowers!

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 17

There was a subtle difference in the GAR Masters team that just raced at the Halifax Summer Regatta in Daytona Beach. Nothing big or outstanding. It just felt different. There were a few more rowers and entries. The team seemed a little better prepared, a little fitter and, possibly, a little more determined. The usual “hope to do well” appeared to give way to “expect to do well”.

In the first hour of the regatta four GAR boats medaled. The early races were highlighted by GAR’ first Masters women’s 8+ in a year leaving open water and the rest of the field behind.

The middle part of the day saw four more GAR boats medal.

The last three races brought three more medals. The Mixed 8+ has been chasing the HRA (Halifax) boat all year and getting closer with each race. This time we almost caught them. There was a single horn at the finish for the two boats with HRA coming in .7 seconds up. There was never more than a few seats separation for the entire race. ORC felt GAR’s presence, as well, coming in a mere 5.6 seconds ahead with GAR closing at the end. Even the hastily reworked Mixed 4x won bronze and rowed a very respectable time.

The boats that didn’t medal were either in the top three in raw time and missed out due to handicap or extremely close to medal winning time.

In all 13 GAR Masters, 2 alumni and a varsity rower completed. 14 boats were entered and all raced, winning 11 medals. All three GAR sweep boats medaled. Notably, EVERY GAR member, who raced, won at least one medal, many brought home three, and one member can boast four. Coach Justin commented, at the awards ceremony, this was GAR Masters’ best ever performance at The Halifax.

Here’s a summary of the results:

Men’s Novice /Rec 1x – Silver
Women’s Junior 1x – Silver
Women’s Masters 8+ – Gold
Ltwt Masters Men’s 1x – Gold
Men’s Open 1x – fourth
Men’s Masters 4x – Silver
Women’s Masters 1x – Bronze
Women’s Masters 4+ – Silver
Men’s Masters 2x – Gold
Women’s Masters 4x – fourth
Women’s Masters 2x – fourth
Mixed Masters 2x – Gold
Mixed Masters 8+ – Bronze
Mixed Masters 4x – Bronze

You can find the official race results at https://www.regattacentral.com/index.jsp?tab=results.

Thank you to our teammates who came to the race in support. Thank you to Coach Justin for taking a day of leave to tow the boats and coach and for putting together the preliminary lineups. Thank you to Jen F. who was outstanding in coordination and conduct of all of the details involved in getting us to, through, and back from the race. She spent a lot of time and effort producing a final lineup, shuffling rowers and equipment, that gave everyone great opportunity to participate, succeed and enjoy. Of special note, GAR did not scratch or DNS a single entry at this race, which speaks to the skill with which Jen and Justin did their jobs.

Masters’ rowing in Gainesville just keeps getting better. I wouldn’t want to row with anyone else