St Andrew’s College over all winners of first Settlers Sprints Regatta

St Andrew’s College, in Grahamstown, hosted the first regatta of the season on Saturday. Settlers Sprints Regatta at Settlers Dam. With a full program of sprint racing across all boat classes on the 4 lane 750m course as well as Four Henley Knock out style events over 1000 metres.

The U14s had a very successful first outing with Jason Thomas placing 1st and Richard Southern 4th in the U14A single Scull. The U14s also took 1st and 3rd in the A quad. 2nd in the B quad, 2nd and 3rd in the C quad as well as convincing wins in the A and B Oct.

The U15 squad saw some close racing taking a marginal win against Selborne in the A Quad, Selborne had redemption in the Oct with St Andrew’s College settling for a narrow 2nd. William Counsel showed great form taking the gold in the A single scull.

Our U16s also saw very close racing with brutal competition from the three competing schools. The U16s narrowly missing out on the win to Selborne in the A Eight and Four, however closing margins from previous regattas. U16A sculler James Waddle took 3rd in a race that saw all three boats staying in contact from start to finish.

The opens had a very successful day with Gold Medals in the 2nd Pair, 3rd Four, 2nd Four, first Coxless Fours and 2nd Eight as well as many minor placings.

The Settlers challenge saw the 1st double scull of Zahn and Warneke knocked out in the heats to Grey. Oliver Keiser in the single scull made the semi-finals missing out on the final through a photo finish

The f1st of Torr and Holmes and 2nd Pair of Thomas and England progressed well and met each other in the final with Torr and Holmes taking the win.

The 1st Four saw some crews from university and club take most the spots in the semi-finals however St Andrew’s College managed to keep good form to progress and win the final.

The 1st Eight was an exciting race with five crews lining up for the 750 metre sprint although a very disjointed start saw St Andrew’s College have to regather early on, they manged to find a solid rhythm and high tempo to take a lead 250 metres into the race. St Andrew’s managed to extend the lead to clear water and won by eight seconds to Selborne and Grey. St Andrews College 2^nd Eight and Rhodes all finishing with in one second of each other. St Andrew’s College took eight out of the twelve open events.

St Andrew’s College where deemed over all winners. 

Caption: Marcus Zahn (right), Rowing Captain, received the overall Points Trophy and Timothy Cleary, Vice-Captain the Kudu Shield for the 1st Eight.