Our seniors were honored at last night’s Lowell High School Senior Athletic Awards. Every single one of the 20 graduating seniors were awarded college scholarships from the crew team parents.
Additionally, Cameron Crockett won the John J. Beaulieu Award for outstanding Male athlete of the senior class, and Nathan Montminy won the John Abraham Award for the highest ranking senior male athlete (Nathan is the Class of 2010 valedictorian!).
Cameron Crockett (left) and Nathan Montminy (right) with their awards.
Rachel Walsh, Eric Rojas, Cameron Crockett, Ashley Price-Dyment and Olisa Adigwe were given medals of recognition for their achievements as tri-varsity athletes.
From left to right - Cameron Crockett, Ashley Price-Dyment, Alcia Blais, CJ Valcich, Nathan Montminy, Aly Hall, Eric Rojas, Rachel Walsh, Dan Marasa, Natali Soto, Lauren Dubois, Joe Larocque, Arianna Rogers and Rhady Sorm.
LHS Crew won the first ever MVC championship for rowing, placing first over Andover, Chelmsford and Westford Academy. The team picked up five gold medals, four silvers, and two bronze, with the girls squad winning every single event in the regatta.
The LHS Girls’ Varsity Four, MVC Champions. (The girls’ also raced in the varsity eight, and won gold in that event as well!) From left to right, Arianna Rogers, Ashley Price-Dyment, Head Coach Kendra Bauer, coxswain Natali Soto, Rachel Walsh and Haley Clarke.
At the State Championships, Lowell continued to impress, with the 7 of their 8 entries qualifying for the grand finals. The boys’ varsity four won a silver medal, placing just 1.5 seconds behind first place Duxbury. The girls 2nd varsity eight won a bronze medal, edging out fourth place Boston Latin by .5 seconds. The girls 3rd varsity eight placed fourth, just missing the medals stand.
By Lynn Worthy, lworthy@lowellsun.com
Updated: 05/16/2010 06:40:54 AM EDT
LOWELL — Rowing as a metaphor for life. That’s deep. Really deep for an 18-year-old who hadn’t even rowed up until three years ago.
When Rachel Walsh sat down to do her college applications, what came out was the experience of being out on the water struggling alone, and eventually with help from others fighting the water, a unit comes together in a boat.
The Lowell High School senior likened succeeding in rowing to succeeding in life, combining skills with others in pursuit of perfection on the water on in any other endeavor.
Lowell High interim head coach Kendra Bauer explained that notion of chasing perfection, saying, “You’re pulling your own weight in there, but you’re having to move in perfect synchronization with the other rowers in your boat. So that perfect stroke is what we’re always looking for, that perfect togetherness to be able to move your own individual body so that it’s perfectly in line with everybody else’s body.”
LOWELL — You may not have realized the City of Lowell has become a growing center for rowing. Well, this weekend the Mill City and the Merrimack River transform into the regional hub for a sport that appears to grabbing hold of the Merrimack Valley.
US Rowing, the national governing body for the sport, will hold the Northeast Junior District Championships in Lowell on Saturday and Sunday. At least 1,500 rowers are expected to compete. This event serves as the regional qualifier for high school/club teams in New England seeking a berth in the US Rowing National Junior Championships.
This year marks the first time the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Districts split their regional national qualifying events. Combined regional championships usually meant teams from New England traveling to New Jersey to compete.
This past weekend in Saratoga was a great day of racing. We made great
strides as a team and saw huge improvements over our first race times
against Essex and Wayland Weston. We are beginning to see great rankings
among the other MA public schools.
The Women’s ltwt. 8 placed 2nd in their flight and 6th out of 9 boats
beating Wayland Weston by 10 seconds with a time of 7:44.37 seconds.
The women’s first varsity 8 placed 1st in their flight and 12th out of 20
boats. We gained 11 seconds on Essex from the last time we raced two
weeks ago.
The men’s first varsity 8 placed 3rd in their flight and 13th out of 16
boats. The boys gained 15 seconds on Wayland Weston from the first race
this season.
The Women’s varsity 4 placed 17th out of 26 boats. Notably winning over
Chelmsford and Newton Country Day.
The Men’s varsity 4 placed 11th out of 17 boats. They placed 6 seconds in
front of Essex and 2 seconds in front of Northhampton whom they will race
again at the Lowell invitational.
The Women’s 3rd Varsity 8 placed 3rd out of 5 boats to pick up one of two
medals over the weekend. These girls placed in front of Boston Latin’s D
boat by 25 seconds, and their C boat by 6 seconds.
The Men’s Lightweight 4 placed 4th in their flight and 8th out of 12 boats.
The Women’s second varsity 8 placed 3rd in their flight and 10th out of 15
boats. They placed 2nd out of the Massachusetts public schools, and only
1 second behind Wayland Weston. This was a 26 second gain over the last
race against Wayland Weston, and a 30 second gain over Essex.
On Sunday, Arianna Rogers and Stephanie Beaudry stayed behind and raced
the pair. They placed 3rd and picked up our second medal of the weekend.
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LHS had it’s first race of the season today against Essex and Wayland-Weston. It was a solid start to the season. Click here for the full results.
The Lowell Girls’ 2nd Varsity Four (C.J. Valcich – cox, Lauren Blazon, Bryanna Laughlin, Kayla Montanez and Jordan Chamberlain) just ahead of Wayland-Weston.
Today the entire team participated in our spring fundraiser event – an awesome erg-a-thon. Athletes competed on teams, racing for the most meters rowed in an hour, best style, best theme, and more! We raised over $7,000, and had some great fun in the process!
Today was by far the most beautiful and warm day we’ve had yet! We awoke early and after eating another great breakfast, we jumped on the bus for our ride back into the city. Our first stop was the Coliseum. We had an amazing guide who walked us through the crumbling remains of the travertine structure. I assumed the chunks missing from each column were there because of age, but it turns out the pieces of each column were originally held together by steel, which was looted after the fall of the Roman Empire – hence the reason why the vast majority of chinks in the structure were along the seams of two pieces.
After our tour of the Coliseum, she led us to the ruins of the Roman Forum. We stepped inside the first Catholic Church allowed to be built within the walls of the city; the ruins of the old court; and spaces where people from all walks of life in the Roman Empire gathered to socialize and do business.
When we were finished out tour, Jesus walked us through more of Ancient Rome, including a stop at the Pantheon. I was so happy to finally be able to go inside after missing out the last time I was in Rome! Originally a temple to the Roman gods, it eventually was turned into a Catholic Church, and is the final resting place of the great Renaissance painter, Raphael. Though it was constructed over 2,000 years ago, the dome of the Pantheon is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.
We stopped for lunch, with most of us getting pizza and taking it back to the fountain in the square and listened to a local musician belting out beautiful opera. After lunch we made our way to the Spanish Steps – Piazza di Spagna – that connect the square to Trinità dei Monti, the church above. At this point, we split into smaller groups to enjoy free time in Rome.
Most of the kids went shopping, while Kendra, Jenn and I headed to a local restaurant and enjoyed pasta, bread and cheese at an outdoor table. Our waiter was a friendly, older gentleman who kept us smiling.
We met back up for dinner, and enjoyed yet another Italian meal of pasta and chicken. Our last event of the night was a beautiful bus tour of Rome by night. We stopped at all of the major sights and had the opportunity to spend some time taking pictures at each one.
Tomorrow we fly back to the U.S. – most everyone is glad to be going home, but there is no doubt we’re going to miss our days in Europe! I can’t wait until the next trip! Until then, here are the pictures from today!
Today we woke knowing that it was going to be a very busy and exciting day since it’s the last day of our trip. We woke up with the sound of the alarm clock going off everywhere and soon we were down in breakfast. The breakfast was very different from all the other breakfasts that we had. There was a range of food from eggs, ham, and cheese to having dessert for breakfast! After breakfast we headed out of the hotel and into Rome.
The first thing we did in Rome was we went to the Colloseum. The Colloseum was very unique; I have never seen anything before like it. We walk around the Colloseum for about an hour learning about the different parts of it. Everybody took great pictures of the entire Colloseum since it was such a nice day out; it felt like it was late summer. I’m sure everybody really enjoyed the weather since it was raining the past couple of days.
After leaving the Colloseum we headed out to the Forum, which is walking distance from the Colloseum. The Forum was very cool; there were still many parts of it that are not yet discovered. We walked around the forum seeing churches, monuments, and many other places that words cannot describe. It is really fascinating to see the details in all the structures around the Forum. Everywhere you turn you see very interesting things surrounding you and every time you look away and look back, you seem to notice something that you didn’t notice before.
The Forum was very beautiful, but we had to leave. The next thing we did was we went to visit the wishing fountain. At the wishing fountain everybody broke up in small groups and went shopping or went to eat. We had about 4 hours of free time, and everybody met up at about 5:45 pm to have dinner. The dinner was pasta with red sauce, chicken, bread, and we had flan for desert. After dinner we had a tour around Rome, “Rome at night.” Everything was very different at night, there were lights everywhere and everything looked so nice. The tour covered some of the areas that we visited in Rome during the day. We ended the tour with gelato, which everybody loves! Then we headed back to the hotel and it was a very fun day and a good ending to a wonderful vacation!
