The winning ODBC novice girls.
The October heat was an unexpected obstacle at this year’s Occoquan Challenge 2018, but the humidity didn’t keep the men from the Old Dominion Boat Club (ODBC) in the upper junior eight from winning the 5,000 meter race against a field of 11 boats on Oct. 7. They took the gold with a time of 14.39.33, 1.85 seconds faster than Prince William and 12.17 seconds ahead of Dematha Catholic High School.
“Just when we were taking the challenge turn, UVA was cutting the turn really tight, and I was afraid I was going to have to go on the outside of them,” said coxswain Clare Williams. “But at the last minute we took the turn really tight, cut UVA off and we were flying.”
The ODBC men’s lower junior eight topped two teams from Dematha Catholic in a field of five boats. Their winning time was 15:54.35, 43.03 seconds ahead of DeMatha. The second DeMatha boat, which was third, had a time of 17:08.43
The ODBC women’s frosh novice eight topped a field of four, with a winning time of 18:59.85, 2:02.8 ahead of James Madison University, and 9:5 ahead of River City Crew. “I knew we were going to do well at the first 500, when we passed the two boats that were ahead of us,” said Maddie Glanz, of the high school team that topped college competition. “The scariest moment was at the last 500, when I could tell we were starting to fall apart, because we had worked so hard.”
In the women’s upper junior eight, the ODBC boat came in second to Resilient RC, with a time of 16:14.50, 4.92 seconds behind Resilient. The ODBC team was 52.2 seconds faster than Prince William CA.
The ODBC men’s novice eight were also on the podium, in third place with a time of 17:54.26, in another race that saw the high schoolers competing against college teams. Washington College won the race with a time of 17:48.41, and University of Virginia was second with 17.49.14.