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Due to attrition the Newburyport Erg 2 Kilometer Championship has been left as the premier New England Erging event other than the CRASH-B's. Now in its 5th year the no-frills extravaganza drew 21 hardy souls for a gut-wrenching good time.

1. Trevor d Koekkeok 45 6:39.8
2. Mike Van Beuren 55lwt 6:47.6
3. Rick Martin 52 6:51.8
4. Paul Flack 51 6:52.8
5. Will Haskell 41lwt 6:54.6
6. Chad Goss 45 6:54.7
7. Gary Passler 53lwt 7:04.9
8. Jonathon Moore 39 7:05.2
9. Doug Snell 39 7:05.4
10. Fred Dickie 52 7:09.3
11. Ron Pellitier 49 7:10.7
12 Frank Knight 62 7:15.3
13. Rick Bayko 60lwt 7:21.0
14. Bill Burke 50lwt 7:23.2
15. Jim Keating 60 7:29.3
16. Carla Stein 47 7:29.9
17. Gene Burnham 33 7:55.7
18. Kinley Gregg 43 8:09.0
19. Dave Nock 69 8:12.0
20. Yvette Knight 62 8:51.8
21. Mary Van Beuren 50lwt 9:05.2

The day started early with Doug Snell getting a special dispensation to come by at 7:00am and do his race. To the reverberating sounds of Meatloaf singing 'Bat Out Of Hell' Snell blasted a PB 7:05.4 to establish the time to beat. When Heat 1(a) went off on time at 9:00am there was the full complement of four for the heat, and a second PB with Bill Burke (kipkeino68) stroking a 7:23.2.

Heat 2 had some serious action as Jonathan Moore, age 39 same as Doug Snell, grabbed the lead in his division by a skinny 0.2 second with his 7:05.2. When informed that he had beaten Doug he commented "I never even saw the guy." Further down the line Will Haskell took over the lead for lightweights with a 6:54.6 to beat Gary Passler's 7:04.9 from the previous heat, and Trevor de Koekkoek (tdekoekkoek)
hammered out a 6:39.8 to take the fastest time of the day lead.

In Heat 3 Chad Goss (chgoss) knocked off a 6:54.7 while Frank Knight (FrankJ) continued his NE2KC dominance in the 60+ division. Young Gene Burnham (youngest competitor of the day at only 33) broke 8:00 for the first time ever.

It was the Women's turn in Heat 4, and more fireworks. Once Carla Stein (seat5) got the monitor off elapsed time and onto the average/500m that she was looking for she smoked a new Newburyport Women's record of 7:29.9, breaking her own 7:32.6 of last year and setting up for another good CRASH-B's next month. Kinley Gregg (kinley) rowed with the monitor set to Watts and finished strongly with 8:09. Yvette Knight won her division for a third straight year.

The Big Boys in Heat 5 featured a lightweight for the first time in the person of Mike Van Beuren. Fresh off his fine showings in the French and European Opens last month Van Beuren spanked everyone in his heat and came out with the second fastest time of the day. The 6:47.6 also set a new all-time lightweight record surpassing Will Haskell's 6:50.6 from 2006. Rick Martin finally found a way to beat the legendary Paul Flack (three sledgehammers) but alas they were both off the pace for the biggest prize.

Coveted NE2KC ice scrapers for winning their division went home with de Koekkoek, Haskell, Van Beuren (X2), Bayko, Moore, Martin, Knight (X2), & Stein.

The Bridge Street Toys Mini-Sledge for the fastest Women's time of the day was won by Carla Stein
The Bridge Street Toys Tackhammer for the fastest lightweight time of the day was won by Mike Van Beuren.
The PaulS Sledgehammer award for the fastest time regardless of age, gender, or weight went to Trevor de Koekkoek.
The hammers were awarded during the playing of Giuseppe Verdi's loud and exciting Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore.


Trevor de Koekkoek

Later a few competitors and spectators retired to the world famous Agawam Diner in Rowley, Massachusetts for late breakfasts. As in past years it was a darn good day.

Rick Bayko,
Grand Poobah of the NE2KC

Rick: MANY THANKS!!! had a blast, looking forward to next year.

Damn, I wish I could've entered. Can you hold it nearer to the Crash-B's next year?

Great row again by Mike VB.

And by your good self Rick, well done!

The sleepy sunday atmosphere of Newburyport was interrupted abruptly by the clouds of moisture-laden vapors pouring out of the door of The Yankee Runner, running store extraordinaire turned erg 'sweat-shop". You couldn't even see in through the water-beaded windows ~ it was a veritable laundromat!

Mary and I arrived late as first time attendees to this must-see/must participate in event.

What better way to spend an early Sunday in frigid New England... And we got to meet many who, to us, had previously only been screen names!

Thanks to Rick and all his willing and able helpers such as Frank Knight.
Hope to be back next year.

Great report, Rick. Thanks for posting it. It was good to see that both you and Carla came through with excellent performances. Will we be seeing more pictures?

It is getting close to deadline time for me. My season finale is less than 6 days away. I am scheduled to head south for L.B. Tuesday morning. I just hope that the predicted snow for the valley doesn't have our roads blocked. Though it wouldn't hurt to take off a day later. I just like to have a little time there to recover from the long drive and maybe take advantage of being at sea level to try to improve on one of the other ranked pieces, specifically the 1K.

Bob S.

Wonderful report, Rick...sounds like a fun time for all. Congrats to everyone on the great rowing (yay, Mary VB!). Yes..more photos would be appreciated.

Glad to hear you're making the drive to Long Beach, Bob. Season finale? Ruled out CRASH-B's?

Joanvb wrote:
Glad to hear you're making the drive to Long Beach, Bob. Season finale? Ruled out CRASH-B's?

The C-B is always sort of anti-climactic for me and whether I go or not depends very much on how well it goes for me at LB. For one thing, I have to qualify. My one attempt here was too slow to qualify, but I never really know how I will do at sea level.

Bob S.

A few pictures of the event I took are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebolton/se ... 761064498/


Ed

Thanks for the fun event Rick!

Only wish I knew about the breakfast afterwards! It was great to put some faces with names. Hopefully I'll see many of you again at Crash-Bs.

Good luck and erg hard!

-Trevor

Thanks everyone. More pictures will follow over the next week or two.

I'd be remiss (as I was in the original write up) to fail to mention the great help of Ken Taylor and Dan Edson for handling most of the orginizational chores during the event. Once the day starts I have been able to just enjoy it all because of their unselfish work. Thanks guys.

Also, we were flush with ergs due to the many competitors who brought their own to offer for either racing or warming up. Atracing the NE2KC there have always been more than enough ergs for everyone to erg as often and as long as they would like. This year we had the two middle ergs with PM4s set to race venue mode with the CRASH-B's count down of 'Sit Ready' 'Attention' 'Row.' I think that's good for preparing for what we will see on the monitors at Boston. The event is always a group effort, and we've always had a good group of people at it.


Bridge Street Toys Mini-Sledge winner Carla Stein (seat5) in the red with Kinley Gregg (kinley) in the green and Yvette Knight in the white


Bridge Street Toys Tackhammer winner Mike Van Beuren (Mkvan52) in the flesh.

Bakes, Well done. I remain covetous of one of those hand engraved ice scrapper deluxe trophies. Looks like a nice turn out and still time to see the Pats. As per usual and according to expectations a great job at the premier race north of Boston. You da man. take care, be safe. live well, live strong. d

Next year I want in on the breakfast, too!

BobS--hope all goes well for you at the Long Beach Sprints. I'd like to meet you in Boston!

It was great meeting Mike, Mary, & Trevor--seeing the usual gang again--a few PBs (good one Bill!) Anyone within an hour really ought to come along and join in next year!

Joan, Bob, Dennis, it would be great to have you all at a future NE2KC. If you can just get to Logan or Manchester NH airports I can get you the rest of the way.

More pics:


Rick Martin (6:51.3) in green takes out defending PaulS Sledgehammer winner Paul Flack (6:52.8) in white. Paul Jr watches from under his hood.



Will Haskell (6:54.6) in the green, flanked by Trevor de Koekkoek (6:39.8) in the stripes, Jim Keating (7:29.3) in white, and Jonathan Moore (7:05.2) at the end. Jim had generously donated Nelson Sennit keyrings from his Marlinspike Sailor of Marbleheaad, to be awarded as 2nd place prizes.



Chad Goss (6:54.7) in the bandana and Frank Knight (7:15.3) with the sweatband perspiring up a storm.

I changed the sizing on these photos and like this size better. I might go back and resize the previous photos.

Looks like as much fun as a 2K can be! Send your results into row2k.com, Rick - yours was the first event of the season.
We're next in Long Beach, this Sat. ( )

Mary, it's good to be first at something. Best wishes for a good day at Long Beach.

More photos:


Gary Passler (7:04.9) in the middle as a model of consistency. Two years ago at this event he did 7:04.1, and last year 7:04.8. Struggling in his wake are Rick Bayko (7:21.0) to the left and Bill Burke (7:23.2 PB ) to the right.



Jonathan Moore (7:05.2) taking the 30+ division by 0.2 seconds.


Doug Snell (7:05.4 PB ) going solo at 7:00am in order to make it to Church on time. The time took the early lead but was swept aside by Moore later.