1996 NSW AAGPS Head of the River
Shore-ly the best (Peter Kogoy, 24 Mar 1996, Sydney Morning Herald)
Shore left no doubt it is the premier rowing school in the country with an emphatic GPS Head of the River win at Penrith Lakes yesterday.
Stroked by Aaron Marshall-McCormack, Shore covered the Olympic 2,000m course in a sleek 5mins 42s, helped by a strong tailwind. Newington were more than a boat length behind, ahead of Grammar. A week earlier, Shore had claimed the Australian Schoolboys title, again from archrivals Newington.
Yesterday’s win gave Shore back-to-back Heads of the River. “it was a superb row,” jubilant cox Carter Mullins said before taking a traditional dunk from his winning crew. Winning coach Gary Uebergang was surprisingly subdued after the race. “I was more anxious going into last weeks’ national schoolboy final than today,” said Uebergang, a member of Australia’s eights crew at the Montreal Olympics.
“I knew we could handle the strong headwind conditions we faced last week, while rowing with the aid of a tailwind made it more of a lottery.
“In the end, the crew handled the conditions as well as expected and rowed a tremendous tactical race.”
Stroke Marshall-McCormack had his crew rating at better than 37 from the moment they let go/ St. Joseph’s Hunters Hill provided the early pressure, but fell quickly behind Shore’s slick blade work at the 500m mark. It was left to Newington and Grammar to chase the winners home.
Senior 1st Eight
Major Rennie Trophy
Time: 5:42.60 (course record)
1st Shore – Bow: Jonathan Marsh, 2: Evan Sturrock, 3: Nick White, 4: Nick Smith, 5: Michael Irvine, 6: Alex Koch, 7: Andrew Waite, Str: Aaron Marshall-McCormack, Cox: Carter Mullins, Cch: Gary Uebergang
2nd Newington
3rd Sydney Grammar