On Friday Dec. 11, at 4 p.m., 20 athletes from the Vero Beach High School rowing team embarked on a 24 hour erg-a-thon to shatter two world indoor rowing records and promote one of the fastest-growing and most physically demanding sports currently on the local high school scene.
Lacrosse holds the title for two decades running, but rowing is catching up rapidly. It has exploded in popularity with established, award-winning programs at St. Edward’s, Sebastian River High, and now VBHS.
The crew program at VBHS is a joint venture with the Indian River Rowing Club. VBHS provides the rowers, and the IRRC supplies the equipment and facilities. Philip Gravinese is the rowing coach for the VBHS girls and Casey Dalal coaches the boys.
This was actually the idea of Philip Gravinese,” said Gary Marra, IRRC Director of Rowing. “He was looking for ways to make winter training for the girls more interesting, and to make an impact in the rowing world as a new program. We started by having a girls relay team go for the record. Then we decided to bring the boys into it as well. They were in the mixed group.”
Six boys and 14 girls participated in the event at CrossFit Vero Beach.
“Our program started two years ago and last year was our novice season,” Gravinese explained. “We had 12 girls on that team in the spring of 2015 and won the scholastic state championship in our inaugural season. Now we are rowing up at the varsity level and our training must be elevated if we want to maintain a winning program.
“We spend a lot of time on the rowing machines for fitness, conditioning and strength training. So keeping a rowing machine spinning for 24 hours fits right into that training program.
“And why do this for any other reason than earning a world record?”
The VBHS team was actually started after several girls expressed an interest in learning how to row. Three of the founders remained with the team and they participated in the record-breaking venture.
“We decided to do this about a month ago,” senior Greysen Pensch said. “We wanted to get some publicity for our school because we’ve only been into this for two years. Setting world records will bring some publicity to our sport and get more people involved.”
Pensch rowed in the mixed heavyweight category. Classmates Mary Garavaglia and Katie Kolb, also original pioneers, were on the girls lightweight team.
“I was actually the second person to commit to the sport,” Garavaglia said. “It was a completely random thing for me. I tried it out and in our first season we had only one boat with eight girls. It was definitely a learning experience for everyone.
“We’ve come a really long way since our first year. Now this has transformed into the type of thing that has a community built around it. Parents got involved. We now have a guys team and a middle school team. We won the scholastic state championship and set two world records. It’s amazing to see the dedication behind this since the days when we had one boat with eight girls.”
The 24 hours of constant rowing was exhausting for the participants. Some could be seen catching a quick nap between cycles on the machine.
“Each rower had to do 12 one-minute pieces, then two 10-minute pieces, then four 20-minute pieces, then two 10-minute pieces and 12 one-minute pieces again,” Kolb detailed. “We all worked hard to pull the team and keep the flow going.
“I joined the team in the spring of my sophomore year and have been working hard ever since. Last year the team really took off and became official. We went to regattas, went to states, and hopefully we will take another state title next spring.”
The rest of the rowers on the mixed heavyweight team were senior Marcello Duong; juniors Donraj Johnson and Garrett Norman; sophomores Ellie Weibel, Joaquin Ares and Justin Mohney; and freshmen Catie Castle, Regan Tadrowski and Sam Deegan.
The girls lightweight team also featured juniors Caroline Granitur; sophomores Stella Buckley, Emma Brownstein, Sarah Garavaglia, Iris Hollinger and Olivia North; and freshmen Grace Dooley and Casey Turner.
They all now have a share of a Small Team Concept 2 Ultra Distance Record for 10 rowers or less. The mixed heavyweight team rowed 340,868 meters and the girls lightweight team rowed 315,220 meters.
“It was an exciting finish for both teams,” the coaches said in a joint statement released afterwards. “Our rowers learned that this was more than a measure of physical fitness as the hours passed. Many said it was the hardest mental test they had ever experienced.
“Our rowers definitely learned that they can push their bodies further than they ever imagined.”
