There are just four entries in this year’s men’s U21 eight, compared to the 31 at the New South Wales Championships last weekend. But all four made the final, with a strong electrical storm preventing a full preview of this weekend’s race. The final eventually ran on Sunday morning, but the two school crews had already headed back south by then.
We’re left then with the results from the two club crews in the final and the heats and semi-finals for the two school crews – question is, who’s going to win this weekend?
Melbourne University
The men from Melbourne University were the only crew to race the three other entrants last weekend. They finished behind Scotch College but ahead of Xavier College in the semifinal, before finishing sixth behind Mercantile in the final. It’s very similar to their results at the recent Nagambie Regatta, so the question for William Ball, Charlie McClure, Matthew English, Max Boykett, Adrian Marro, Charlie White, James Forsyth, Patrick Hanley and Pippa Kluge is whether there’s any extra speed rattling around the shell somewhere.
Mercantile
They returned to Boathouse Drive with the New South Wales bronze medals in their bags; can Mercantile now upgrade them to gold? Maxwell Findlay, Luke Vallely, Joe Lee-Conway, Henry Reinehr, Eric Wiseman, Harry Pollock, Joe Collingwood, Fletcher Douglas and Nicholas Bogdan already have a Wendouree win after taking out the Wendouree Ballarat Regatta; they’re yet to beat Scotch College this season, though. That six-second loss at the Nagambie Regatta showed there’s plenty of ground to make up.
Scotch College
It wouldn’t surprise to see Scotch College come away from the weekend with Schoolboy and U21 golds. While they were missed in the U21 final last weekend, Zeke Roufail, Auguste Baudens, James Temple, Will Richards, Lewis Lamont, Thomas Simpson, Clancy McLaughlin, Clancy Jelbart and Sebastian Pagnin showed plenty of speed in the semi-final to finish just 0.7 seconds behind Sydney Rowing Club. They came away with the New South Wales schoolboy title to position themselves as early favourites for the national title.
Xavier College
Finalists in the schoolboy and U21 eights at the New South Wales Championships, Xavier College have positioned themselves in the top tier of Victorian school eights this season alongside Melbourne Grammar. They were a little off the pace in the schoolboy final but got within a couple of seconds of Scotch in the U21 semi-final. What have Oliver Reynolds, Ned O’Sullivan, Anders Spralja, Joseph Dwyer, Hugo Pawlik, Harry O’Flynn, Bill Reynolds, James Glass and Jeffrey Liu got left for a potential upset?
Our predictions
It’s a shame we didn’t get to see these four crews race in the U21 final last weekend – but we’ll get to see it this weekend. We’re tipping Scotch College to finish ahead of Mercantile and Melbourne University.
