History of Corowa Rowing Club: 1863-2013
Chapter 5: 2000-2013
2009/10
In October 2009 we catered for the Lions Club convention dinner and we had 200 people attend, this was done by club members as a way to thank the Lions club for all their past help.
November saw another cox box arrive this one cost $1100. We also brought another kind of rowing simulator for the gym, this one cost $1850 and is an oartec slider.
We travelled to Dimboola again, this time we were lucky enough to book the only cabins in the caravan park (lucky as it was wet and very windy). We had quite a few wins with Doug, Rhylee, Angus, David & Robert along with cox Demi winning medals.
John Webb, Lewis McCrum, John Raschke, Jake Kruen and Harrison Borg (cox) started their rowing year with a win in the Male D grade coxed quad over 7km at the Head of the Goulburn in November, Angus Smith won his D grade single and our D grade female quad coxed quad consisting of Cherie Collins, Jill McCrum, Sally Maclean, Bronwyn Collins and Demi Whitechurch (cox) won.
That year at the MRA regatta our Master 8 had a win in our new sponsored 8 – John Atkin, Wes Canny, Nigel Goodall, Jamie Webb, Jim Eyers, Ross Maclean, Tony Langdon, Robert Eyers and coxed by Demi Whitechurch, the male C grade 8 also won in it with Cedic Melin, Ryan Person, Angus Smith, Jono Vale, Ross Maclean, Tony Langford, Rhylee Deas, Doug Shelley coxed by Demi Whitechurch.
In 2010 another young rower that tasted instant success was Georgie Goodear after rowing under Wes Canny for only 6 months. Georgie was only in year 8 and 13 years old at the time winning the Year 9 single scull division at the Victorian Junior School Girls State Championship.
The five boys John, Lewis, John, Jake and Harrison competed at the Victorian Junior School Boys State Championship in which they won the Year 9 Division One Coxed Quad Scull
This year we decided to slightly change the point score system to eliminate masters and school only rowing regattas as not fair to other club rowers.
At the February meeting it was decided to order a swift elite quad scull $15,400, this boat was christened ‘Stacey Whitechurch’. Also had to buy some oars for $116/pair due to the number of new boats. We also got rid of two old timber boats to make room.
Corowa once again travelled to Nagambie to compete in the 2010 State Championships. Again we won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.
The club won 2 gold.
Winning crews were:
Female D grade coxed four – Cherie Collins, Jill McCrum, Bronwyn Collins, Sally Maclean cox Olivia Stones.
Angus Smith and David Landgren won the D grade double scull.
Silver medals went to:
Male 8 (Robert Eyers, Tony Langford, Simon Withers, Ross Maclean, Jono Vale, Nigel Goodall, Lewis McCrum, Cedric Melin cox Tom Whitechurch)
and
Male C grade coxed quad scull (Doug Shelley, Rhylee Deas, Luke Prescott, Ryan Person cox Demi Whitechurch).
Bronze medals were awarded to:
Male D grade 8 (Doug Shelley, Rhylee Deas, Luke Prescott, Nigel Goodall, Lewis McCrum, Angus Smith, John Webb, David Landgren cox Lexi Horwood)
and
Female D grade coxed quad (Georgie Goodear, Ashlei Molnar, Sara Williams, Brittany Stones cox Harrison Borg).
In March the rowing club in conjunction with the Corowa High School travelled to Geelong to compete at the Victorian State Secondary School regatta.
Georgie stood out winning both Year 7/8 single and Year 9 single. Of the 20 crews representing Corowa High they had 4 wins, 10 seconds and
3 thirds – this allowed us to take out the most successful school as well as the best performing school at the regatta. Winning crews were
Male Year 9 Quad (John Raschke, Lewis McCrum, Matt Vogel, Justin Roach cox Harrison Borg);
Year 9 Double (Jake Kruen & John Webb);
Female Yr 9 Double (Megan Leahy & Rachel Hansen) and
Female Year 7/8 quad (Demi Whitechurch, Sara Williams, Hannah Cannell and Lexi Horwood).
The club was also successful in the on land ergo races.
March 2010 saw life membership awarded to Wes Canny.
After the end of our official rowing season in 2010, a group of dedicated masters started to train and compete to be ready for the State Championships & Nationals. This was started off by Robert Eyers competing in Mildura/Wentworth over the Easter weekend, he then competed in Melbourne at the Banks regatta and at Geelong.
The club had a group of rowers travel up to the NSW State Championships – Ross Maclean competed in a composite D grade Quad and Bronwyn Collins, Sally Maclean and Cherie Collins competed in a composite A grade quad (in a coxless boat) but did not have any success.
At the Victorian State Championships the club was represented by Robert Eyers who got 3rd in his age division in the single scull. He then teamed up with Geoff Lowe from Footscray to get third in the double scull.
Robert was selected in the Victorian state quad as an emergency for the Nationals that were held in Perth in June 2010. Robert travelled to Perth and whilst did not get a call up as part of the state quad, he was successful in rowing as part of a composite and mixed composite crews with Footscray rowing club – he came away with a gold in the C Grade quad scull and a silver in the A/B Grade quad scull.
Robert also competed in his age group in a single (coming 6th) and in a composite double with Geoff from Footscray. Tony Langford & Ross Maclean also competed in the double but did not make it to the final.
That year in Perth also saw a male four entered – Ross Maclean, Simon Withers, Tony Langford and Will Day coxed by Demi Whitechurch also showed great presence in winning a silver medal in the Male C grade coxed four. Ross, Simon, Tony and Will also competed in a coxless quad scull C division but had no success (after 3 weeks of training in sculling).
Tony rowed in a D Grade Male 8 with Perth club ANA which he won a silver medal for and Ross & Simon also joined ANA club to win a bronze medal in the C Grade Male 8.
So in total Corowa won 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze at the Nationals.
Once again Corowa was invited to the Rowing Victoria award night where this year Wes was awarded for his Outstanding Service to the Sport of Rowing – by winning the Club Person of the Year award.
Doug Shelley and Rhylee Deas also took out equal second place for the Male C grade rower of the year, finishing a close 2 points behind the winner.
2010/11
This season saw the club through allocating a coach, Robert Eyers, focus on a dedicated crew of 5 young men that travelled all over Victoria in the lead up to the Nationals that were held at Adelaide that year. The crew was made up of John Webb, John Raschke, Jake Kruen, Lewis McCrum and coxed by Harrison Borg.
We received a RSL grant this year for $1895 that we put towards an elliptical trainer for the gym.
December 2010 the club christened 3 new boats – Racing Quad Scull ‘Stacey Whitechurch’ and two training sculls ‘Little Red Rocket’ and ‘Big Red
Rocket’.
2011 State Championships were held at Nagambie in February in which the club brought home 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals.
Winners were:
Male U17 quad (John W, John R, Lewis, Jake and Harrison);
Lewis & John R teamed up for the Male D Grade coxed pair with Jordon Eyers as cox;
Silver medals for:
Male D Grade 8 which missed gold by 1 second (Doug Shelley, Rhylee Deas, Lewis McCrum, John Raschke, Angus Smith, John Webb, David Landgren,
Matt Vogel coxed by Demi Whitechurch); Female D Grade quad (Bronwyn Collins, Cherie Collins, Sally Maclean, Sarah Cannell coxed by Olivia Stones)
were only 1.7 seconds behind first place;
John Raschke and Lewis McCrum in the Male D grade double
Bronze medals were for:
John Webb & Jake Kruen in the Male D grad double;
Male D grade quad scull (Jono Vale, Jake Kruen, Josh Cooper and Andrew MacDonald coxed Charlie Langford)
Georgie Goodear defended her Year 9 Single scull title at the Victorian Junior School Girls State Championship.
In February 2011 the club ordered an Elite Double and a Club A Heavy weight Quad for total price of $19,000. This will arrive in time for next
season.
This is also the month that the club finally sorted out the shed hire problems. New insurance means that the club can be hired out. The committee
drew up a matrix that will be used to determine price and availability of hire.
That year at the Victorian State Secondary School Championship Georgie Goodear took out the Year 9 and Year 10 single scull.
Our Female Yr 8 quad won (Hannah Cannell, Hannah McDonald, Ashleigh Cavill, Demi Whitechurch cox Megan Holmquest);
Male Yr 10 quad won (John Webb, Lewis McCrum, Matt Vogel, John Raschke cox Harrison Borg) and Male Yr 10 Double (John Raschke and Lewis McCrum)
also won.
At the Victorian Junior School Boys State Championship the club was represented by Andrew MacDonald, Josh Cooper and Matt Vogel – Andrew won gold in the Yr 9 singles with Josh getting silver. Andrew then doubled up and competed in the Yr 10 singles which he got Silver behind Matt Vogel who won gold.
March 2011 saw the 5 boys (John Webb, John Raschke, Jake Kruen, Lewis McCrum & Harrison Borg) along with coach Robert Eyers and families travel to Adelaide for a week of rowing at the Nationals. There were 16 people that made the trip.
Corowa also supplied a cox (Demi Whitechurch) for the Essendon rowing club’s U17 female quad to compete at the Nationals, this crew had come 2nd at the States only weeks before. Unfortunately the girls were not successful at the Nationals getting knocked out in the semi finals.
The boys rowed in the quad, but also split down to doubles and singles to ensure lots of rowing each day through heats, repecharges, semi finals
and finals.
Single Sculls were on first – all boys went through repecharge, only John Webb and Lewis McCrum making it to the semi finals – both boys needed
to come 1st or 2nd to make it into A final, unfortunately John got 6th and Lewis came 5th in his semi.
Quad –In the heat they came fourth meaning repecharge, which the boys stamped their authority and proved their heat was a bad row by winning the repecharge by over 7 seconds. They then came 2nd in the semi to make it into the final. The boys then did everyone extremely proud by winning a BRONZE medal. Distance was 1st then 5.8 seconds to Second then only 1.24 seconds to us, then only 1.48 seconds to fourth.
Double – John W & Jake teamed up and John R & Lewis teamed up – John R & Lewis made it straight to semis whereas the other crew missed by 1.46 seconds forcing them into the repecharge, they came 2nd ensuring both crews were in the semi’s. Both crews were put in the same semi with the top 3 going into the final – our boys came 4th and 5th so just missing out on a spot in the final.
This year saw Georgie Goodear compete at the Head of the Schoolgirl regatta in Geelong – Georgie won the Year 9 Division 1 single scull by 7 seconds.
Over the winter this season we purchased more gym gear including 4 spin bikes, punching bag & speed ball, ab machine and another treadmill
to further enhance winter off water training.