Friday was the last day of classes for Brent Eastes at Mountain View High School. With all of those tests and projects behind him, he hurried to the lake.
But he wasn’t at Vancouver Lake on Friday to bask in the glow of accomplishment, or to reflect on reaching one of life’s early finish lines. Eastes has another finish line in mind.
This week near Cincinnati, Eastes and Daniel Mudge will become the latest in a string of Vancouver Lake Crew rowers to compete in the U.S. Rowing Junior Nationals, a three-day competition among top high school crews from around the nation.
It is an opportunity Eastes has dreamt about almost since the day he joined Vancouver Lake Crew in the fall of his freshman year.
Mudge, a junior at Columbia River High School, took up rowing in middle school and stuck with it because of the friendships that developed over his first summer at the lake. He looked up to older rowers such as JC Russell — who made three trips to the junior nationals and now rows for the Naval Academy.
“Nationals had almost felt out of my reach,” Mudge said. “When it finally hit me that I was going to go to a place that (Russell) went, it was really stunning.”
It’s hardly stunning that Vancouver Lake Crew will be represented in Cincinnati. The club has been represented at the junior nationals almost every year since its founding in 2002.
But qualifying for nationals — by winning a varsity-level race at the Northwest regionals — isn’t a breeze. It takes, rowers explain, the right combination of drive, teamwork, and at least a little luck to qualify to compete against the nation’s best.
In the case of Eastes and Mudge, it was a chance pairing over spring break that set the course for Cincinnati. It was at a competition near Eugene in April that they were paired for the first time.
“We were moving the boat so well, I knew we had to stick together,” Eastes said.
Alan Stewart, who coaches the junior rowers for VLC, said it was not insight that led to the pairing, just the usual process of testing and competing and opportunity. The speed, which Stewart attributes to Mudge and Eastes having similar rowing styles, came as a pleasant surprise to both coach and rowers.
“When your strokes match up, it makes a world of difference,” Eastes explained. “You still have to work to move the boat, but things go more smoothly.”
Eastes credits the entire VLC family for helping him and Mudge reach nationals. It is a family that lost its founder in the fall, when founder Bill Kalenius died after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Stewart, who helped Kalenius launch the team, reworked Eastes’ stroke this spring, giving him a new perspective on rowing and more speed.
Eastes and Mudge put in the work to make something special from the coach’s suggestions.Their preparation has included daily 5:30 a.m. sessions on the lake and more rowing after-school. It was to such a training session that Eastes hustled at the end of his final day as a Mountain View student.
Such are the choices for athletes with big dreams.
Instead of receiving his high school diploma with his Mountain View classmates on Thursday, Eastes will be preparing for Friday’s first races at the national rowing championships. His twin brother, Brian, will represent the Eastes family in the graduation ceremony.
Brent Eastes and Daniel Mudge hope to make VLC proud in Ohio. But they aren’t making any bold predictions. Neither the rowers, nor their coach, want to jinx what has been a successful short-term partnership.
Mudge said they will enter the nationals — where if all goes well they will race the 2,000-meter course at least once a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday — focusing on being fast, not worrying about their competition.
“We have a stronger confidence knowing that we’ve come a long ways,” Mudge said.
Paul Danzer covers Community Sports for The Columbian. Reach him at 360-735-4521 or paul.danzer@columbian.com.
