Crew Competes Virtually with Central Catholic, Wins Shrewsbury Cup Regatta

On Saturday, April 25th, Gonzaga Rowing was scheduled to compete in its annual regatta with Pittsburgh's Central Catholic High School. Held every year since 2009, this event has come to be known as the Shrewsbury Cup Regatta and is traditionally run on Lake Marburg in southeastern Pennsylvania.

 

However, with all on-the-water events for rowing cancelled across the world for the entire 2020 season, the two Catholic high schools decided to compete virtually. The coaches got together, created a schedule of varsity and freshman events and coordinated a Zoom event where athletes would log in and row ergometer machines at home simultaneously, compile and average results, and determine winners in each of five separate categories.

 

It was a rather chaotic morning of multi-screen 2000 meter ergometer racing, but it all came off more or less on time and results were successfully compiled. When the dust settled, Gonzaga had successfully defended its titles in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Varsity Eight events, with Central taking both the 1st and 2nd Freshman events.

 

Both teams ended the day with a shared prayer via Zoom, congratulated each other for the hard and lonely efforts in garages and basements all over the DC and Pittsburgh metro areas, and promised to try to race again on the water if lockdowns are lifted before the summer is over.

 

Results were posted on the national Row2K.com website here.

Hail Gonzaga!