Last Updated: 09.Nov.2015

The Green Racing Project Rowers were down in Princeton, New Jersey this past weekend for USRowing’s East Coast Fall Speed Order.

The two-day event includes a 6000-meter test on the Concept2 ergs on Saturday, with a Sunday time trial water piece of about 4000 meters. Starting order for the Sunday piece is determined off the finishing order of the Saturday erg.

The GRP had eleven athletes competing in three events: the women’s single, the men’s single and the men’s pair.

In the women’s single Maddie Lips (Parker, Colorado) had the fastest GRP erg Saturday morning, placing sixth. Liz Vogt (Trout Lake, Washington) finished 11th in the erg and Maggie Fellows (Warwick, Massachusetts) was 13th.

Starting with corresponding bow numbers the next morning, Lips stormed the field to placing second overall on the water with a time of 17:42.8. Fellows went down the course in 18:28.5 finishing 10th and Vogt got 12th with a time of 18:38.8.

Among a large field in the men’s single, Erik Frid (Madbury, New Hampshire) had the fastest GRP erg, giving him bow number four for Sunday’s water piece. Ben Dann (Pound Ridge, New York) had the next fastest Craftsbury erg placing seventh. Ben Davison (Durham, England) was right behind Dann in eighth. Hugh McAdam (Hollis, New Hampshire) was 21st on the erg.

The Sunday water-piece for the men’s single was a Craftsbury sweep, with all four GRP rowers placing in the top four. Winning the event was the young Davison with a time of 15:40.8. Second place was Dann, posting a time of 15:50.1. Just over two seconds back was Frid in third, with a time of 15:52.3 and in fourth was McAdam, who, from the back of the pack, went 15:57.1.

The two GRP entries in the men’s pair stood out among a field of Princeton Training Center crews. One GRP pair was Parker Washburn (Andover, Massachusetts) and Andrew Reed (Wayland, Massachusetts), the second being John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio). With the fastest overall erg piece for the GRP on Saturday, Washburn was 19th in the highly competitive men’s pair field. Behind him was Reed in 21st, Peter Graves in 23rd and John Graves in 24th. Start order for the men’s pair was based off the erg average of the two rowers in each crew. This seeded the Washburn/Reed pair 10th and the Graves pair 12th.

On the water the GRP showed that erg times aren’t everything, beating several pairs with higher erg averages. The highest finisher was the Washburn/Reed pair, who placed sixth with a time of 14:42.7. About six seconds behind them were the Graves in ninth, with a time of 14:48.9.

The Fall Speed Order marks the last racing opportunity for the GRP this Fall.

The team will stay in New Jersey for a couple of days to take advantage of the milder New Jersey weather. Soaking up the last weeks of water in Craftsbury, the team plans to transition to indoors training and skiing.