The Damascus College Rowing Program is now in full swing for the 2022 rowing season! We started the years rowing with a senior & intermediate training camp in Nagambie, unfortunately covid had other plans for a few of our students & staff which meant we had to adapt our plans to suit. Luckily, all students who attended had a wonderful time and responded well to the challenges presented.

Over the camp week the rowers participated in rowing training, stand up paddle boarding & bush walking. A big thank you to Hamish Walsh, Georgia O’Leary & Brad Beutel for your assistance in running this camp, with out your efforts the camp could not have been a success!

Following on from the rowing camp we participated in the Ballarat Regatta held on Lake Wendouree, all crews performed extremely well coming off the back of a hard week of rowing. The intermediate crew (pictured below) won both the Open Schoolgirl Division 2 and the Girls Under 19 Quad Sculls events! Well done!!! The senior rowers competed in single sculls at this event, all scullers rowed very well.

One week later we competed at the Barwon Regatta held on the Barwon River in Geelong. The Senior Girls Four (pictured below) won the Open Schoolgirls Division 2 Sweep Four in an amazing display of great technical rowing! The senior boys four of Cooper Reid, Rohan Shillito, Josh Matheson, Alex Western and Maddie Milikins raced in the Open Schoolboys Division 2 Sweep Four making the A Final but placing second to Caulfield Grammar by 0.43 of a second! It was an amazing race and the result served as inspiration for the crew to train harder in preparation for Head of the Lake.

The Intermediate crews also came together to compete at this regatta, this was their first race back in their selected crews since late last year. All crews performed very well and had some very competitive rows.

This past weekend the entire Damascus College Rowing Squad competed in the Wendouree-Ballarat Regatta held in Ballarat on Lake Wendouree. The Senior crews and Intermediate Division 1 crews raced on Saturday with all other crews racing on Sunday afternoon. A BIG shout out to all the non-rowing teaching staff who came along to support our students! It was fantastic to see you all there.

Daisy Simpson-Kerr raced her single scull in the Open Schoolgirls Division One event and placed 2^nd in the final with her best individual performance yet! Daisy has only recently begun racing the single scull and this is an enormous achievement for her!

On Sunday afternoon the Year 9 Girls 1^st crew won their division with an amazing row! The junior crews on water training sessions have been negatively effected recently by poor weather conditions making it difficult for them to complete their allocated training program. The Year 9 Girls 1^st crew and all other boys and girls Year 9 crews performed very well and have remained resilient through the recent weather challenges. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress that can be made in preparation for Head of the Lake!

UPCOMING REGATTAS & EVENTS: