Dangerous wind brings an early end to Carroll crew’s last fall race

Archbishop Carroll’s crew team was among dozens of teams whose Frostbite Regatta races were canceled because of dangerous weather.

The race, which was the last of the crew’s fall season, was slated for Saturday on Mercer County Lake. Part way through the day, weather officials reported that the wind speed was going to pick up to over 45 miles per hour, which forced officials to cancel the remaining races. All of the varsity rowers who had been waiting for their races to begin were told to row back to the docks.

The JV girls and boys four-boats were the only boats that raced. These rowers did not race in ideal conditions. After an almost 40-minute delay, the Carroll girls JV four-boat raced around 11:50 a.m. The girls raced the entire 2,000 meters through headwinds and a rough current.

“It [the regatta] was so badly scheduled with the weather and I feel like it should have been postponed before we started any of the races because of the forecast,” said sophomore rower Bridget Sheridan.

Other rowers and coxswains had a hard time figuring out where to go and what to do because of miscommunication. The area where the rowers were positioned in the lake was vast and the winds were strong, making it difficult for some crew teams to move around.

“It could have gone better with a more organized way of getting the teams to line up instead of making us all stressed and not know where to go,” said junior rower Michayla Amalfitano.

When boats were finally able to position themselves into the race course area, traffic and the strong wind caused many boats to crash into each other. Some boats, which were going the wrong way down the water, caused a traffic jam of boats in the middle of the lake.

“It [the race] was scary and unorganized,” said the coxswain of the JV girls four-boat, Reaghan Grobe.

“It [the race] was really stressful and very unorganized,” said Gabriella Breault, a rower on the JV girls four-boat.

Even though the varsity girls four-boats were not allowed to race, before their race was canceled they were able to row on the lake and do their warm-ups. Unfortunately, the boys varsity four-boats never even made it onto the lake.

“Despite the promise of what could have been a good race we, unfortunately, could not row due to weather,” said varsity rower Connor Archbold.