Head of the Potomac
The first regatta made for a solid start for ODBC rowers.  After two years of cancelled regattas due to poor weather (hurricane-related) the HOTP was held.   ODBC men took the top spots in a field of 6 boats in the Youth Eight event.  With winning times of 16:19.4 and 16:58.1 the two crews beat the competition decisively.  Georgetown University and TBC crews came no closer than 17:19.1, the finish time of the lead GU crew.   The first-place ODBC women beat the top TBC crew with a winning time of 18:38.3 over 18:59.2  The fourth-place ODBC women were 7 seconds behind the second TBC crew with a time of 10:37.5.  Seven crews raced in the women's event.  The women also competed in the Youth Four event, finishing second to Annapolis Rowing Club.  The sculling side got in some good racing but without the advantage of youth competitors from other teams.  Abby Martin and Chelsea Finnegan raced each other in singles and then doubled up against themselves at the end of the day. Fabio Camacho raced in his first singles race, finishing second. Fabio teamed up with Zach Link in the open men's doubles event.

Head of the Christiana
Maggie Hickey and Katie Fishbein made their racing debut as scullers.  Sunday in a double at the Head of the Christiana in Wilmington. This was not a scheduled ODBC regatta, but the girls accompanied Coach Rubini Jaime whose ACR crew were also competing.  Maggie and Katie finished second, beating two boats.

The Occoquan Challenge
The challenge at The Challenge is a 180 degree turn in the latter part of the race course.  ODBC met the challenge with good results.  First the sweep crews...Men’s Junior Eight – 2nd and 3rd of 7 entries, finishing only behind a Northern Virginia Juniors crew (2nd place ODBC “A” Boat 15:09; 3rd place ODBC “B” Boat 15:17)...Men’s Lightweight Eight – 2nd of 2, finishing behind a University of Delaware crew (ODBC 16:03)...Women’s Junior Four – 1st of 5 (ODBC 18:42)...Women’s Junior Eight – 2nd of 6, following Annapolis Rowing Club crew  (ODBC 17:53).... Women's Lightweight Eight -1st of 2 (ODBC 17:00).  On the sculling side of the ledger:...Zach Link won the men's junior 1x (19:14)...Fabio Camacho came in third in the 1x (23:07)...Zach and Alex Lovo won the men's junior 2x (18:13) and set a course record for that new event...Abby Martin won the women's junior single (20:41), breaking the course record by 65 seconds...-Chelsea Finnegan finished third in the single (23:51)....Abby and Chelsea won the women's junior 2x (19:49), breaking the course record by 88 seconds...Katie Fishbein and Maggie Hickey came in second in the 2x (22:39)...Abby, Maggie, Katie, and Chelsea won the women's quad (19:36), also setting a course record for the new event. (Photos below)

The Occoquan Chase
In their second appearance on the Occoquan, the ODBC rowers confirmed their prominence among the region's crews.  Sweep:  In the Junior Women's Eight event, ODBC took the 1st ( 16:45.71) and 4th (17:29.38) place spots out of 14 crews, beating TBC, NVA and other teams.   The men finished 2nd (14:24.87) and 6th (15:12.47) out of 13 crews, with the NVA top boat finishing 1st (14:10.43).  Sculling: In the junior men's 1X, Zach Link was 2nd (19:12) and Fabio Comacho was 5th (22:03) of 6 athletes competing.  Alex Lovo raced against himself in the novice single event (21:39) (and he then and raced in one of the sweep boats). The ODBC men (Daniel Muir/____) competed in a double as well, completing the course in 2nd (16:57.42) place.    The ODBC women finished in the top positions--Abby Martin in 1st (21:12.82) and Chelsea Finnegan in 2nd (22:56.39).  Maggie Hickey and Katie Fishbein teamed up for the Junior Doubles event later in the day and those novice scullers finished in 2nd place (22:04.97) out of 3 boats.  

The Head of the Charles
This is the first year in which ODBC competed at the famed Head of the Charles.  Two boats raced from our program.  The Junior Men's Eight raced to an impressive finish of 29th (18:13.321) out of 61 crews. Their event included college freshmen crews from major rowing programs.  Scullers Abby Martin and Chelsea Finnegan also raced for the first time on the Charles.  Their double crossed the finish line in the 12th (24:12.159) of 14 positions.  Zach Link also raced at HOCR in the men's club open event and did well against the wide ranging ages of the open competition (43 of 51).

The Head of the Schuylkill
Conditions: The water was sloppy all day, with a strong current. The fours raced early in the morning when it was especially cold. It was warming when the eights launched, but they experienced some chop. The wind started kicking up as the doubles raced, with crosswinds, chop, and a building tail wind. By the time the singles were on the water around noon, the wind generated white capping on parts of the course, obscuring the buoy line.  With the tailwind and current, the races were fast. ODBC crews raced in scholastic (under 19) events. Sweep: The Men's Four arrived at the line in 14th place (15:06.33) of 21 (top time was 14:0.09).  The Women's Four was 11th (16:18.94) of 48 crews (top time 15:22.83).  The Men's Eight race saw ODBC finishing in 35th (13:34.28) of 88 crews (top time: 12:26.69).  The Northern Virginia Juniors finished 3rd and 24th and TBC was 17th.  The Women's Eight event saw the ODBC boats finishing 13th (14:43.93) and 34th (15:27.86) out of 83 (top time: 14:06.64). TBC's boat was 3rd, Northern Virginia Juniors finished 11th, and their developmental program crews finished 43rd and 53rd, respectively.  Sculling: The Men's Double (Mike Noll and Fabio Comacho) finished 15th(15:54.32) of 25 (top time: 14:05.75).  The Women's Double (Katie Fishbein and Maggie Hickey) were 15th (18:01.90) of 20 (top time: 16:43.32).  Zach Link sculled his single to 4th place (16:33.29) out of 21 (top time: 16:24.11).  Racing in their single sculls, Abby Martin finished in 4th (17:41.86) and Chelsea Finnegan 9th (18:50.20) out of 13 (top time: 16:53.56).  Thanks to Virginia Drewry for that report.

The Head of the Occoquan
ODBC finished the season in top form on a bright autumn day. Congratulations to the rowers for a strong head race season.  Sweep:  The men's eights took 1st (17:19.41) and 5th (18:04.11) places out of 21 crews.  Boats from Northern Virginia Juniors, TBC and Gonzaga took the positions in between.   The women's eights placed 2nd (19:27.39) and 6th (20:12.50) with TBC winning the event (18:46.78) and 28 crews participating.   The women's four finished in 8th place (23:56.06) out of 15 crews, with Taylor Allderdice HS from Pittsburgh taking the top spot (22:07.33).  Sculling:  In the men’s youth singles event the winning time was 19:57.40 and ODBC scullers finished as follows: 3rd Zach Lynk (20:07.47), 6th Mike Noll  (21:46.01), 11th Alex Lovo (22:50.99), 14th Fabio Comacho (25:18.45).  Note that Mike has had to split the fall season between band and sculling and his race on the Occoquan was Mike's debut in his new Mission single – an ORANGE one no less!  His 6th place finish is all the more notable.  In the women's youth single event the winning time was 20:45.43.  Out of the 11 entries, In  Abby Martin was 2nd (22:41.49) and  Chelsea Finnegan  was 8th (24:21.06).   In the women’s championship doubles event (there were no youth or open club categories in at the regatta) there were15 entries.  Winning time was 20:01.90 and Maggie Hickey and Katie Fishbein  finished in 10th place with 25:42.0.  In the open mixed quad four scullers (Finnegan, Martin, Noll, and Lovo) finished the season racing against themselves...and they won!   Not to be deterred, four ODBC female sweep rowers saw their chance and subbed into the North Ridge quad and raced the course in the masters women’s quad event.  Hey, why not!  Someone had to do it!