Upper Arlington Girls Win Crystal Lake Rowing Race




Saturday, May 5th, was a windy day on Crystal Lake.

White cap weather.

Gray skies.

Starting the girls’ high school rowing race was difficult.

At least there was no competition from the fair weather motor and sail boaters.

Lining up the skiffs was probably the hardest part of the race, as you can see from the photographs.

There were taken from the Country Club Additions Property Owners Beach at Gate 21.

I had to climb up on two concrete blocks to be able to shoot over the chain link fence on its eastern edge.



After the race had started, I ran to my car to drive to Gate 13, one of three subdivision association beaches where one can see the lake from the road.

The next three shots are take from the beach called Gate 13.

The lake shore is highest here.

The race appeared pretty tight.

In the second photograph, you can see some boys rowing to the starting line in the background.









Then it was on to Gate 7.

The black boat was in the lead by then, as you can see from the first photograph in this series.

Its girls seemed well ahead.

But, one white boat seemed to be pulling up.

South Shore Drive at Gate 7 is closer to lake than at any other spot.

The road is almost at lake level, so I had a good view.

I stopped twice to take pictures.

I think I got pretty good shots of all the skiffs.

You can enlarge them and get much better views by clicking on the images.







By the time I and a bicycler got to Gate 3’s beach, the black skiff was still ahead.

You can see the black skiff with the officials’ motor boat at the left hand side of the shot.

But the one in second place was trying to challenge the leader.

The man yelled, “Go UA! Go UA!” several times.

Having seen a room reserved for Upper Arlington at the Holiday Inn, I assumed he was referring to that team and asked which was its boat.

It was the black one.

Come to find out, he had a real reason for cheering.

The Upper Arlington girls were in the black boat leading the pack.

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All of the photographs of this Chicago Junior Rowing Championship can be enlarged.


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