2025 South Australian Schools' Head of the River
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The 2025 regatta was conducted on Saturday 15th March and was hosted by Loreto College. It was held in hot conditions.
Phil Mangelsdorf reported on the regatta as follows.
Princes and Seymour win SA Schools 2025 Rowing Head of the Rivers.
Prince Alfred College ended Saint Peters nine year winning dynasty of the SA boys first eights with a hard fought win in the most testing conditions at West Lakes Saturday.
The girls first eights title was won by Seymour for the third year in a row, all coached by former World Champion, Jo Francou, in a close battle with a brave Wilderness crew.
Racing all morning in uncomfortable hot conditions against an ever increasing head wind made race times longer and more brutal than usual, contributed to a crowd pleasing spectacle with many events close fought and exciting viewing.
Winning PAC coach, Nathan Bowden, summed up the race this way to me:
“Scotch, Saints and Princes were battling side by side for much of the first third of the Gosse Shield race for the boys first eights when Saints moved to the lead at the half way mark.
Princes raised their stroke rating after half way and powered past Saints leaving Scotch alone in third but well ahead of the rest of the eight boat field.”
The Saints crew bravely lifted for bursts of power several times but could not regain the lead and Princes were moving further ahead in the closing stages as they crossed the finish line in a huge celebratory shower of spray winning for the first time since 2014.
Wilderness and Seymour girls have had several close races all season and that rivalry started again as these two swiftly moved away from the other five boats in their race for the Florence Eaton girls first eight cup.
Seymour steadily ground out a lead which they gradually increased despite several spirited attempts by Wilderness to catch them with their obvious efforts of increased rating speed, but to no avail the Seymour crew held good shape, form and style to win by 6.73 secs.
Seymour also won girls second eights by a massive 29.57 secs from Wilderness with Scotch third.
St. Peters enjoyed some victories winning the Wallman trophy for second eights by just over a length from Princes whilst their first four won the Cudmore Cup ahead of Norwood International School.
The Pembroke school won the girls first fours by 9.4 seconds from Seymour, Norwood third.
The under age races saw a series of shared results between the competing schools with Loreto, Unley, Princes and Saints winning the A boats divisions.
The full 2025 regatta program can be found through this link.
Full results can be found through this link.
Regatta Referee - Paul Knight
Regatta Control - Dianne DeBellis, Annsley Kerr, Caroline Rowe
Finish Camera - Jeff Erikson
Officials - Paul Knight (President of Jury), Barny Cundell, Vicky Knight, David Lascelles, Paul Logan, Cameron Miller, Toni Milne, Christina Morner Steve Pennington, Geoff Playford, Kati Ritchie, Richard Sawers, Greg Starkey, Peter Young
Commentary Team includes Nick Anderson, Alexandra Bull, David Freeman, Amber Halliday, Phil Manglesdorf, Matt Nielsen, Andrew Southcott, Hannah Sexton & Natasha Tunney
Regatta Operations Bec Lannan
Rowing Coordinators Committee - Jo Malcolm (AHS), Alex Meates (CBC), Dario Sportelli & Stefano Balosso (LC), Talitha Benson (NIHS), Tim Hennessy (PAC), Sally Martin (PS), Daren Potts (PGS), Andrej Pistotnik (SC), Amanda Tidswell (SEY), Holly Peters (STIG), Wade HallCraggs (SPSC), Brynley Millward (SPGS), Daniel Ralph (UHS), Scott Rowe (WALF), Nicki Plucinski (WILD)
Regatta Directorate - Lisa Sexton, Assistant Principal (LOR), Lauren Brooks (STIG) Rowing SA Referee
Sources
Regatta Manager for results and program - https://rowingmanager.com/regattas/6634
South Australian Head of the River website -https://www.saheadoftheriver.com/