Head of the Grand

9/16/2011–The Michigan Men’s Rowing team traveled to East Lansing, MI  this weekend en-masse for the Head of the Grand Regatta. The full varsity and freshman squad, consisting of 95 oarsmen and coxswains, lined up against a full slate of competition from all across the state of Michigan. Crews from as far north as Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan University joined the usual competition of Grand Valley State University and Michigan State racing the Wolverines down the Grand River all morning long.

The varsity squad saw a number of races throughout the day. The morning began with the Men’s Open Four event, where the wolverines entered six boats and finished with first, second and fourth place performances. The only small boat racing of the day for Michigan was in the Men’s Double in which Frank Sedlar and David Caldwell took first by a 17 second margin. The racing concluded with the Men’s Open Eights finishing first, third, fourth and fifth resulting in medals for nearly the entire varsity squad.

The Head of the Grand Regatta marks the first regatta of the year for the freshman squad as well as the first time they have rowed at a stroke cadence higher than 24 strokes per minute…an eye-opening experience to say the least. The freshmen fielded 6 novice eights and a novice 4 which placed first in their event by 25 seconds. Freshman Head Coach Russ Giacobbe was pleased with the squad’s first regatta: “We had a solid outing this weekend with the frosh team. Our goal was to go down the course, row well, and row our race. Rowing 5 to 6 beats lower than most of the other teams, we were still able to push up on a few crews and maintain our race plan.”

Next weekend Michigan will be sending a Championship 8 entry to the Head of the Charles in Boston. The entire squad resumes their fall season October 30 at the Head of the Eagle in Indianapolis.