Gross, girls 8 gain Shoebie Cup
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Abby Gross’s first three years with the Mercer Junior Rowing Club have ended with trips to the national championships.
Her final year has started with even more promise.
The senior from West Windsor-Plainsboro High North was part of the MJRC girls eight varsity that won its first Shoebie Cup on Lake Lenapie near Atlantic City on Apr. 7.
”It’s definitely a big confidence booster,” Gross said. “The team is the deepest I’ve seen it in the last four years I’ve been at Mercer. The goal is to make the Mercer boats fast, so this was a good confidence boost.
”It also sets a statement. There were some top teams there. Mount St. Joseph, they’re one of our rivals. It sets the bar for the rest of the season.”
The Mercer boat beat Mount St. Joseph in the first meeting between the two. They could see each other again this Friday and Saturday when MJRC hosts the Mercer Lake Sprints on Mercer Lake in West Windsor.
”It’s huge,” Gross said. “We host something like 58 teams and over 2,000 athletes. We have a team from the UK coming this year.”
It’s still early in the spring season and Mercer and other teams are still working out their best lineups, but the Shoebie Cup win is significant for the MJRC.
”We’ve been competing in (the Shoebie regatta) since 2008,” said MJRC girls coach Sean McCourt. “We finished second before, but never won.
”It was definitely a big deal,” he added. “It’s something we can build on.”
Topping a Mount St. Joseph team that had already finished third at the prestigious Head of the Charles in the fall was a big step.
”It’s a good test for us,” McCourt said. “They are a really good team. They’ve had some strong results this fall. It means we’re in the mix. I don’t want to base our whole season on this one weekend. It puts us in some good company.”
Joining Gross in the winning boat were: WW-P South junior Laura Foster, WW-P South senior Samantha Woo, WW-P North junior Vicki Jorgensen, Princeton High School senior Daisy Wu, the coxswain, PHS senior Emily Goodman, PHS senior Reina Gabai, PHS freshman Rena White and Hun School eighth grader Cate Porter.
”I think they’re a very young team,” McCourt said. “I think they’ll definitely grow over the course of a year.
”You never know what can happen. That’s why we have to continue to work hard. If someone goes down, we have to have someone else pop up and take their place.”
This year, finding a replacement won’t be a problem. There are plenty of options. The eight that won the Shoebie had been rowing together less than two weeks. It’s what is keeping Gross and her eight teammates plenty motivated.
”We have a lot of girls that are fast on the erg,” Gross said. “They’re fighting for spots in the boat. It’s all about making our boat the fastest on the water. Our coach, Sean, is an expert at that.
”We’re always looking for the fastest combination,” she added. “I always have it in my mind that my spot is never secure. It’s the kind of atmosphere you want. It’s the kind of atmosphere that Coach Sean will try to nurture and develop.”
The goal is to be racing their fastest come nationals. Gross is a veteran of the toughest fields in the country. She has twice gone with a lightweight four boat and last year went in a lightweight pair.
”Being in the eight is really exciting,” Gross said. “I’ve been in the lightweight four the past three years. And then last year, it didn’t qualify so I went with a pair. The light four has been a later spring thing. I don’t race in the light four until late in the year.”
She’s hoping to have a chance to stay in the open eight boat this year when Mercer looks to qualify for nationals, where Gross expects a big finish.
”The girls in the boat, they’re all very aggressive,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be a good boat. I’m excited to be in the varsity eight. That still could change.”
Being in the open eight is good practice for Gross, who is taking her rowing skills to the U.S. Naval Academy. She will do her plebe training less than two weeks after WW-P North’s graduation before joining the Navy crew program. Gross had wanted to row in college not long after taking up the sport as a freshman with MJRC.
She has been hoping to go to Navy since she was a sophomore, and soon she’ll be joining a Division I program in a sport that she’s come to love.
”I used to play softball,” Gross said. “Crew is the ultimate team sport. There’s really no other way to say that. It demands a hard work ethic and it’s all about being physically fit. It’s in the branch of running and swimming. It’s not a game, it’s a race. It takes a lot of trust in your teammates. You’re only as strong as the weakest person in your boat.
”It just clicked. I started freshman novice, trained with varsity over the winter, and I went back onto novice in the spring and Coach Sean pulled me up to the light four at the end of the spring season.”
Gross has grown right along with the Mercer program. This year, there is talent everywhere and it’s helped the rowers push themselves every day.
”Our times are lower and closer together this year,” Gross said. “Last year, we had more super low scores and standout scores. This year, we have a lot of girls that have really good times.”
The solid scores along with the early results are reasons for the excitement around the boathouse this year.
”Just the fact we’re putting up faster erg scores, it builds confidence,” Gross said. “Erg scores can translate to the water, but they don’t always. The fact that we can be fast on the water and have solid erg scores makes us a solid team.”
Added McCourt: “We’ve got some good new girls. Even the girls that have been there, they’re coming into their own. Emily Goodman is probably 20 seconds faster than she was last year. She’s really starting to hit her stride.”
It’s helped the MJRC girls eight get off to a fast start. They don’t want to rest on their Shoebie Cup, and they can’t with the Mercer Sprints coming.
”It’s just one confidence booster along the way,” Gross said. “If we lost it, we’d say it’s just one bump on the way. It’s great because we never won it before. This is Mercer’s 10-year anniversary as a club. Mercer Sprints is pretty big. We host it. It’s our turf.”