State’s rowers converge on Newcomb Park for Moose Nuggett Regatta

WASILLA — Of the three main races on the calendar for the Alaskan rowing teams, the Moose Nuggett Regatta at Wasilla Lake is not only the biggest, it’s the fastest.

And in the closing 200 meters of the women’s 800, the team from the Anchorage Rowing Association showed their fellow rowers, as well as locals enjoying a sunny, splashy day at Newcomb Park, just how fast and intense rowing can be.

Trailing the team from the Kenai Crewsers Rowing Club into the stretch, ARA coxswain Janeece Higgins cajoled her team into taking it up a notch, as they passed their rivals from Seward just ahead of the finish line.

“That was incredible,” said Higgins, usually a rower, called up to coxswain for this run. “We had juniors with adults on the boat. They saw the other boat, and I said, ‘let’s do it.’ I called it up another stroke and they did it — it was awesome.”

Higgins wasn’t sure her crew of 8 had it in them.

“Some had just come out of other boats and others were just going in, so people were getting pumped, but that’s what’s nice about having youth in the boat,” she said.

The other two races that bring the state’s three established teams — the ARA, the Crewsers, and the Midnight Sun Rowing Club, from Soldotna — are at Bear Lake, hosted by the Seward contingent, and the Big Lake Regatta on Sept. 10. Both long-course races. The other two teams have a difficult time competing in the head-to-head competition with the much larger Anchorage squad, but as Kenai Crewsers veteran Harold Faust reminds, it’s not about the competition so much as the camaraderie.

“They’ve got so many folks it’s tough to keep up with them, but we beat ‘em on a few races,” Faust said. “We practice five times a week, and when a race is coming up we do a lot more planning, more technique and building fitness. But it’s fun. Once in a while we get together and drink beer, and it’s a good community.”

As the Soldotna team, which brought 11 rowers to Anchorage’s more than 30, pointed out, rowing is a sport that doesn’t discriminate against the old and keeps it fun and interesting for all. Rowing incorporates a handicap system based on age that helps level the field, as demonstrated by Midnight Sun rower Karen Hurd, 70, who was able to get the win over her 47 year-old opponent in the singles race thanks to that handicap.

“There’s a nationwide handicap, so if you’re 75 you can still row with a 30 year-old,” Karen’s husband, Jim Hurd, explained. “You take the average age in the boat and the youngest boat gets a zero — a no handicap.”

Midnight Sun coach Nancy Saylor said her club is seeking to developing younger generations of rowers, too.

“Last year we had Tanner Best who’s rowing at Oregon State and he’s doing really well, and Mika here is going to row at Humboldt State. It’s starting to catch on with the juniors, which is really exciting,” Saylor said. “We’re still trying to get the word out, because no one really knows about rowing, and to recruit kids into rowing is tough because it’s a summertime sport and there’s no school. We’re working to see if we can somehow coordinate with the school system to make it a school sport.”

Higgins said that of all the sports she’s participated in, rowing is one that requires the most teamwork.

“In baseball you can be in the outfield, or play here or there, the same with hockey or soccer, but (in rowing) you have to be matching your body swing with hand height, your seat moves, your oar moves, your body moves, so if you’re not a team player and you want to do it all yourself, usually you don’t do well,” Higgins said. “We do a fund-raiser every year where we get businesses and put their people in after two practices. It’s only 300 meters, so it’s small, but one year we had a group of pilots who all wanted to be in the charge and they didn’t do very well. But we had a yoga team that swept the whole thing. It’s all about timing and working together.”

The Mat-Su Valley currently doesn’t have its own rowing team, with its residents typically joining forces with the Anchorage group and practicing on Sand Lake, not nearly the size of the waters available in and around Wasilla. Higgins said they’re looking to change that.

“We’d love to see a team out here,” she said. “Obviously there’s great water.”

The Moose Nuggett Regatta concludes today with races starting at 10 a.m. and concluding at 3 p.m., with the conclusion of the last of 45 weekend races called the Ham ’N Egger with Bacon scheduled for Lane 1, Eggs for Lane 2, Toast for Lane 3, Jelly for Lane 4 and Coffee for Lane 5.

“It’s pretty casual for these events and it’s kind of fund because you see people on other teams you haven’t seen all year,” Saylor said. “There’s a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ at these things. There’s always this much time before a race and then, ‘omigosh, I’m on the water.’ It’s just kind of nice to get to meet people and see people you haven’t seen in a while.”

Contact editor Matt Hickman at 352-2268 or matt.hickman@frontiersman.com.