A Look Back At Fall 2024!
As we enter winter training, we have many stories to share about our Fall season. With some varsity athletes racing four back-to-back weekends, it was a hectic few weeks full of memories and competition. This season was one of growth and learning for novices and varsity alike. This fall, we’ve been lucky enough to welcome Peter Filice to our coaching staff as our new head coach.
Athletes preparing boats at the start of the season
Starting back in August, we had one of the best recruitment periods in recent years, bringing in a large novice class. Novice Introductory Period, as always, was full of challenges, but we ultimately ended with a great batch of novices who were both passionate about the sport and motivated to put in the work for their teammates. We are also so grateful to all our varsity athletes for their patience and help in teaching the novices everything there is to know about rowing.
Novice rowers helping paint walls at the Farmer City Community Center.
One week before racing season began, the team held our first ever volunteering day in Farmer City. Rowers and coxswains from both varsity and novice crews helped out at homes, shops, and the town community center. Athletes completed jobs such as painting, moving heavy objects, and cleaning. We are so grateful for the people of Farmer City for providing our athletes with food, water, and donations to the team while we spent the day volunteering. The team had a great time helping out; we are so lucky to have such a great town that hosts our lake. We want to emphasize the importance of giving back to our community and we hope to make this a team tradition continues for many years.
Rainy weather at Head of the Rock.
Our first regatta was on October 13th, way up in Rockford, Illinois. It had been a good two years since we had seen the Rock River, and our rowers were excited to be back. For an entrance to racing season, Head of the Rock was quite competitive, with some of the best teams in the Great Lakes region making an appearance. Our novice eights got a taste of competition as they took on their first head race with the team. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions, the novice four events were canceled, but the rowers from those boats remained positive and helped support the team for the remainder of the day. Our varsity women’s crews had a successful day of racing, with multiple crews making the podium or coming very close. The varsity men’s boats also pulled as hard as they could in water conditions that were not ideal and had success, with our men’s eight having one of their fastest times in that specific lineup.
The W4+ coming down the Charles on race day
Just four days later, our two varsity fours headed up to O’Hare to fly out to Boston for Head of the Charles. Friday was the swing row, which gave our crews a chance to practice the course and get a feel for the regatta as a whole. This was especially helpful for our first-time Charles athletes who had yet to experience the course. We concluded the day with an alumni dinner, at Antonio’s Cucina Italiano where our rowers and coaches got to reunite with many beloved former teammates and coaches. Saturday was a day full of racing, just not for the Illini. Our crews enjoyed watching other events and our coxswains finalized their race plans for Sunday. Race day came next, with a lot of nerves and a lot of excitement. It was a challenging course for both rowers and coxswains, and we are so proud of all our athletes who competed. We also want to thank former coach Mike Nute and his family for housing our rowers, coxswains, and coaches during our time in Massachusetts.
The M2x launching at Music City.
Racing didn’t slow down because less than a week after Charles, the team traveled down to Nashville, Tennessee for Music City Head Race. After a successful run at Music City in 2023, our varsity team was thrilled to make their return for some fast-paced competition on the Cumberland River. Our novice crews showed up with some strong performances on the water, the pinnacle being our women’s novice eight ‘A’ placing first! Our other novice crews also had great performances, improving significantly from Head of the Rock. Our varsity team also had a positive experience in Nashville, with our women’s double placing third! After a long and exciting weekend at Music City, our athletes headed home, ready to rest up and prepare for one last race.
The WV8+ receiving their medals at Bald Eagle.
The next week, duck hunting season began at Clinton Lake, and the team began practicing in the evening rather than in the morning, to avoid overlap with the hunters. Truth be told, this was tough, as the afternoons in Farmer City that week were filled with high winds, leading to a few canceled practices. Fortunately, we were able to get a couple of water practices in before the race. Bald Eagle Collegiate Invitational finally arrived on the first Sunday of November, and although we faced some difficult competition, it was a great way to end the season. Both our varsity women’s eight and our novice women’s eight ‘A’ placed third in their categories and our varsity women’s pair came in second. With that being said, our other boats also made significant strides since the start of the season; both the novice women’s eight ‘B’ and the novice men’s eight had their fastest times of the season. We want to emphasize that success doesn’t necessarily mean a medal; it means putting in a little extra effort every day to become better than you previously were. We could not be more pleased with this novice class’s work ethic and positive attitude and are beyond excited to see their rowing skills develop as we head into the spring.
Head Coach Peter Filice driving the launch boat
On December 3rd, we held our annual Giving Tuesday fundraiser to raise money for a down payment on a new team truck. The current team truck has been out of commission for the past two years. This has been a major challenge for the team, as we used the truck on a daily basis to move equipment at practices–not to mention its additional purpose of towing the trailer to regattas and other team events. In recent years, the team has taken several routes to combat this issue including using personal vehicles to tow launches and renting trucks for regattas. This year, we decided that we needed a sustainable solution to this ongoing problem, which led to our most recent Giving Tuesday campaign: raising $20,000 towards our new truck. With the incredible generosity of friends, family, and alumni of the team we were able to surpass our goal, raising a total of $20,100. We would like to give a major shoutout to the ILRA board, as well as our team’s executive board, for their various efforts in making this fundraiser a reality. Thank you to those who donated or spread the word about our Giving Tuesday initiative. The team would not be where it is today without the support of our community, and we could not be more appreciative of the generosity our donors continuously show us. We look forward to updating the community on the impact of their contributions soon!
We’d also like to recognize all our alumni, parents, and other friends who supported the team this season. To every single person who either attended a regatta, provided food, gave encouragement, or just supported from afar: we want to thank you. Your support means so much to this team and we could not do it without you. We want to give a shout out to Iulian Ghiorghias, one of our regatta dads, who took some incredible photographs of the crews at all of our full team regattas. We really appreciate his kindness and dedication.
One final view of the lake after removing the dock for the winter.
Now we begin the long journey of winter training. As we trade carrying oars for rolling out ergs and move from lifting boats to lifting weights, we will not lose our ambition. This was a great season for our new and returning athletes alike. Although we are sad to be leaving the water, Illinois Rowing looks forward to training hard, having fun, and returning in March better than ever before.