Hingham Soars at Iceberg Classic
Freshman Geoffry Hewett rowing for his team “Collin Ambulance”
February 9, 2016
Even though snow days served as bookends for this past weekend, the Hingham High crew team managed to battle its competitors in the snow. Rather than race outside on the frigid Hingham Harbor, the team hosted its third annual indoor competition: the Iceberg Classic.
In teams of four, the rowers have
one hour to accumulate as many meters as possible, usually switching off about every thirty seconds in pieces rightfullynamed blasters. On a large screen in the front, all the rowing machines and their scores could be seen as the boats sped along against each other. Reebok Crossfit at Bare Cove serves as the venue for the competition each year.
This year the older division, called masters, rowed in the first wave. Many teams consisted of Hingham alumni and Crossfit coaches. Even Abi Cornett, the boys novice coach, helped lead her team to a victory in the coed category. During the first races, many rowers came early to warm up and cheer on their favorite teams. After the masters race, the high school competition began. Once again, Hingham squared off against Milton as it has in past
years.
Boasting five boys teams and three girls teams, Hingham took a numerical advantage in number of entries. However, Milton appeared to send only its top teams from each gender. After a false start (when something goes wrong in the beginning) all teams got off to a blistering start. Hingham’s third Boys Team named “Collin Ambulance” (for their Senior Collin Parker) jumped out to an unexpected lead in the beginning, but slowly settled down.
Milton’s team slowly crept into third, and then overtook Hingham’s second boys team, “The Barbarians” for second place. Although Hingham’s first boys team, appropriately named “Money Team” soon dominated the field, leaving every other team hundreds or thousands of meters in its wake.
On the girls side, Hingham’s first team, “The Key” dueled Milton, keeping a tight race the entire time. In the end, Milton just edged out “The Key” by seventy meters. “The Firing Squad” and “The Guppies” also remained competitive throughout the race, keeping Hingham’s reputation intact.
In the middle of the pack, a team named “Provolone Watermelone” clutched 5th place. Made up mostly of Hingham wrestlers, the team chose to affiliate with the Hacky Sack Club instead. Closely followed by Hingham’s “3 ½ Memes” and Hingham’s novice team “El Jefe” (the boss), even the fourth and fifth Hingham teams kept fighting.
Despite utter exhaustion, the teams still managed to stand and receive their awards. Hingham claimed first and third place on the boys’ podium, and second and third on the girls’. Head Coach Leonard Manning appeared pleased with the results, congratulating his team. The Hingham rowers also demonstrated their sportsmanship by congratulating the Milton rowers on their race, even inviting them out to eat after, to which they respectfully
declined.
Although the crew team received one day off, the rowers returned to practice the day after to resume training for the indoor rowing world championships. The championships take place on February 28th in Boston at Agganis Arena. Until then, you can find the team either rowing at Wompatuck State Park, or lifting weights at Crossfit. We hope many of you can come and support us on the 28th.
