Past postcards from the Sarasota series
• Ingrid Erickson -- Tuesday, May 24
• Audrey Rekedal -- Wednesday, May 25
• Practice Day Photo Gallery (May 26)
Hello,
This is Natalie Korolenko from the varsity eight crew.
The varsity 8 crew poses with the SPU banner
Today we had two practices on the course with many new and exciting experiences.
Our first morning practice started at 8:00 a.m. and it was already very humid and hot. It definitely was hard to adjust from Seattle weather that is about 40 degrees when we row in the early mornings to the weather here which was about 90 degrees and very humid.
Our first practice was the first time we used a boot for our start. It took a little bit to figure out how to get our bow ball in the perfect position to be put in the boot. The boot looks like a three-sided glass case. This was a totally different setup then last time we were here earlier in the season. It was also completely different from other races because we don't have to worry about our bow being off centered in the start.
Our first start with the boot went really well, it was very exciting to be able to do a practice start with Division I schools next to us. Last time we were here a few months ago it was a lot of club teams and now it's all college teams, which is such a cool experience to be around all the top rowing schools all in one place.
Natalie (left) poses with her varsity 8 teammates
It was definitely an advantage to already be familiar with the race course from earlier in the season and know which way the wind might take us.
Overall our first practice of the day was an exciting experience.
After our first practice ended we all went back the hotel and rested and stayed out of the heat and sun before our next practice. Going to the second practice was challenging because we were all tired from the heat, but the second practice was still successful. We were able to get the last few practice strokes on the course before we start racing tomorrow. After we got off the water our coaches surprised us with new NCAA backpacks that we all got which made the day even better.
We are all feeling nervous but very excited to race in a lot of our first NCAA nationals race.
-- Natalie
This is the third in a series of daily "Postcards from Sarasota." Check back Friday to see what Hannah Miller has to say about the first day of racing at Nathan Benderson Park before NCAA racing begins on Friday.
