The Head of the Gorge is a 5K nail biter with narrow, roiling rapids that necessitate an ‘Angel’ on the rocks to coach each boat through to the starting line and back again during the race. VIJC Men’s Junior 8+ coxed by Olivia Sayvetz and rowed by Kiyo Egashira, Steven DeWalt, Will Kicinski, Avio Brooklyn, Clint Amstrup, Charlie Hoffman, Cody Turner, Tim Hanson, finished 4th in the first flight of races when the tidal stream was nearly slack. Racers later in the day, however, weren’t so lucky. The Women’s Junior 8+ and Men’s Open Varsity 2x navigated an eight knot current complete with whirlpools. Coxed by Sage Doble, the Women’s Junior 8+ rowed by Lizzy Corliss, Meaghan Connors, Shelby Gale, Alex Bosworth, Marissa Samuelson, Marja Haflinger, Avalon Koenig, and Allison Saathoff, placed 6th with the Men’s 2X rowed by Eli Hoyt and Thane Gill finishing 7th in the Open Varsity race. Both boats came through the Gorge with flying colors. 

"After we made it through, I heard the Angel say we looked really good,” said first-time Head of the Gorge participant Allison Saathoff. “But we waited for 2 ˝ hours for the start while they coached all the boats through,” remarked Lizzy Corliss, stroke for the Junior Women’s boat. “We were freezing and hungry and thirsty. It was a long wait.” Cox Olivia Sayvetz described the experiences as “intense.”  

The dry, cold weather held for the next day’s races in an 8K circumnavigation of Elk Lake fifteen minutes north of the Gorge. With the same boat line up, the VIJC joined the armada of more than 60 boats preparing to race. The Men’s Junior 8+ again placed 4th, but felt better about the second day of racing. “We rushed yesterday, but today were more settled in,” explained Kiyo Egashira, the stroke for the boat and one of VIJC’s captains.The other rowers agreed. “We felt good,” said Charlie Hoffman. “We just felt good.” 

The Women’s Junior 8+ raced against tough teams in the long distance race that gets into shallow water around the lake’s four islands. “It was hard, but we weren’t dying. I didn’t feel I couldn’t do it,” said first- season rower Avalon Koenig. The Men’s Open Varsity 2x also felt good about the race. “We feel great doing as well as we did against such experienced varsity teams,” beamed Eli Hoyt. Race results for the afternoon have yet to be posted.

Head Coach Lucas Ridinger was pleased with the weekend of racing. “It was good conditions—good weather, good water—and most of the team haven’t raced such a challenging course or an 8K race. Vashon’s Junior rowers are getting better and better. They are racing against really large and experienced clubs. The team is definitely going in the right direction.”

VIJC, a collaboration between the Vashon Rowing Club and the Vashon Parks Department, is planning a 24-hour Ergathon for Spring season 2008. Using the stationary erg (rowing) machines, rowers will collect donations in order to purchase new equipment and maybe even take a shot at a world record. The team’s next races are the Frostbite Regatta at Greenlake and Head of the Lake at the University of Washington on November 10th and 11th.