Green Racing Project Rowers at C.R.A.S.H-B. Sprints

Last Updated: 18.Feb.2019

When as much of your year is spent with ice covering your body of water as our Green Racing Project athletes, you obviously spend plenty of time on the ergometer over the course of the year. The men on our GRP Rowing side of the team headed down to Boston this past weekend to join in on the pinnacle of erging, the C.R.A.S.H.-B. Sprints 2,000m race with almost a thousand other participants of all ages and categories. 

This was the first year in a new venue, the Boston University Indoor Track and Field arena with a full crowd of spectators reaching deafening volumes towards the end of each round of 2ks. C.R.A.S.H.-B. format, for anyone unfamiliar, is a one-and-done 2k for each age group and division. Each category sits down together and when the buzzer goes off, it’s a mad dash to the last meter on each person’s monitor. A “live-stream” of each race is up on a couple jumbotrons behind the ergs for the spectators to see the relative position of each boat as they proceed through each virtual meter. They also have some fantastic announcers that give insight into each race for the crowd to really get invested in the results. The paramedics have to work overtime at this event as well with countless people reaching the point of vomiting or passing out by the end of their 2k throughout the day. It’s quite the spectacle considering it’s just a bunch of people erging.

Our men all sat down at 2:15pm for the Open Men’s category with Wes Vear, Lucas Bellows, Andy Raitto, and Kevin Meador, the newest member of the GRP Rowing team, all representing the Cedar Leaf. Bellows led the race for the first hundred meters and then was overtaken by Connor Corwen of Bucknell Crew Association for a few hundred meters. Then Vear took the lead and held onto it until the end, finishing with a 5:59.2 over Corwen’s 5:59.7. Meador finished third with a 6:02.0 and then Raitto took fifth with a 6:05.9. Bellows rounded out the GRP with a 6:09.9.

You can find full results here.

It was some great racing from the men and now they head south for their weeklong training trip to Peachtree City, Georgia to start to get the feel back for the water. Keep up with their training via the GRP blog over the next week!