Shell-shocked, Crew duo fights back to win heat at Sculling Championships

The rowing competition at Nathan Benderson Park on Saturday and Sunday felt a little different. Maybe it was all the dogs parading about, or the smell of Caribbean food in the air, or the complete lack of cloud cover.

This weekend featured the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association Sculling Championships. With the FSRA Sweep Championships at the end of the month, and everyone in the area prepping for the World Rowing Championships in September, it was a great time to get reacquainted with the sport, or be introduced to it for the first time.

I’m somewhat familiar with rowing, but I would put myself on the side of the “newbie.” One of the things I like about rowing, to me, is its unpredictability. Usually that unpredictability comes in the form of wind or currents, which in turn can affect who wins. This weekend, though, I witnessed something I did not think I would ever see, especially at a state championship-level event.

Keely Radloff and Lauren Feaster, sophomores at Lakewood Ranch High and members of Sarasota Crew, have been rowing for two and four years, respectively, and they both said they had never seen it happen either.

As their Girls Junior 2x qualifying race on Saturday, Radloff and Feaster took their first stroke in the water — and felt their shell, colored a bright shade of red that helped it stand out to the crowd, go completely diagonal, invading the adjacent lane. The official immediately yelled something at them, but they could not hear what he said. They ceased rowing. They did not know what else to do, and frankly, I would not either. They also had no idea how their shell ended up in that predicament, and still did not when I caught up with them after the race.

All the other shells moved out in front. They were all alone, still at the start, still bewildered, when they realized they still had an opportunity to race.

“We were freaking out,” Feaster said. “We just said, ‘We are still in this.’”

Radloff admitted the inexplicable start made her nauseous for the rest of the race. It did not affect her performance: The only thing more unbelievable than the race’s beginning is its ending.

The duo righted the ship — literally — and started to do the only thing they know: row, and row hard. Radloff said she had never rowed with as much intensity in her career. Feaster, too. Slowly but surely, the red shell started walking on (or passing) every boat, and did not stop.

The pair came all the way to win the heat, qualifying for Sunday’s final in the process.  

“I’m still shaking,” Feaster said, rubbing her folded arms as confirmation. She then said it again, this time quieter. She could not believe what they had done. They always had smooth starts, she said, including the previous week in the district championships.

You cannot predict rowing.

Radloff and Feaster finished third in the final. It was not the win they were hoping for, but it’s a place on the medal stand. Considering the start to the weekend, the pair will take it.

If the youth championships featured this kind of excitement, imagine what will happen when the world’s best descend on Benderson Park in September. I, for one, cannot wait to find out.