This was the 4th year of the New England Whitewater Triple Crown on the Farmington River in Connecticut. What another great event that was put on by the organizers and volunteers. It’s a downriver race, slalom, and freestyle competition, and and you get points based on how you place in each event. Saturday is the qualifying day, with individual prizes, and Sunday is the day the Triple Crown gets awarded.
Laya, our fat cat, kept us up all night meowing and scratching at my face for pets. We wanted to cook her like a chicken!
There were not as many competitors this year, so the event moved a little faster than last year. The event started at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday with the downriver race. A few of us were so fast that we beat the timer to the finish line and had to race again! After downriver racing, you hop into a slalom boat and run the course twice, and you are crazy tired! Then you squeeze yourself into your playboat for two freestyle runs. You are officially cooked at that point – and guess what, you get to do it again tomorrow if you qualify! Ten men moved on from Saturday, and since there were only four women, we all moved on to Sunday.
Saturday night we tried to get a good night sleep in the RV, but Laya, our fat cat, kept us up all night meowing and scratching at my face for pets. We wanted to cook her like a chicken! Anyway, Sunday morning arrived and we got to the race put in around 8 a.m. I was feeling good and wanted to better my time from Saturday, which I did by 1 second! Not what I was hoping for, but it’s better than being a second slower. Emily Jackson of course beat me in the downriver race by a lot. She was 4 minutes 12 seconds, while I was 4 minutes 30 seconds. Rachel Thomas came in 3rd, and Courtney Kerin from New Zealand came in 4th. It doesn’t seem like a hard race, but when you know it’s only 4 something minutes, you go all out and it hurts.
The next event is slalom, and I was lucky enough to borrow Andy’s sweet slalom boat on Sunday, which helped improve my time by like 40 seconds from Saturday. I had two good slalom runs. My second run was clean,154 seconds, and I came in 3rd. Emily of course crushed the slalom with 122 seconds, coming in 1st. Rachel, a slalom boater, also did really well and came in 2nd; her best run was 132 seconds. Courtney came in 4th with 168 seconds. When the slalom race was over, a bunch of the competitors went across the river to help take down gates before we started the freestyle event. It was a huge help to get the gates down so the volunteers wouldn’t have worry about it.
The last event of the day was freestyle. Since it was the final round, you had 3 runs and your best run counted. The water level was good, but you crushed the bottom on your loops, or at least I did. Emily of course killed it in freestyle with 600 points coming in 1st. I had a 180 point ride with my most signature move, the mcnasty flush, for a 2nd place finish. Courtney came in 3rd for freestyle with 90 and Rachel in 4th.
The Triple Crown results for women is Emily, me, and Rachel. In the men’s class was Eric Jackson, Danny Stock, and Nick Troutman. The men’s class was super close this year, and Jordan came in 4th in C1, which was pretty awesome.
I had a great time again and am looking forward to next year! I left CT then headed to FL to drive my mother-in-law’s car and dog back to MA. Now I’m hanging out at my sister-in-law’s house in DE. I’ll be back home tomorrow after I drop her car off. Then it’s getting ready for the big trip out west!
Here are the official results:
Men’s Champion: Eric Jackson
2nd Place: Danny Stock
3rd Place: Nickolas Troutman
Women’s Champion: Emily Jackson
2nd Place: Elaine Campbell
3rd Place: Rachel Thomas
Top C-1: Jordan Poffenberger
Single Boat Men: Andrew Krammen
Single Boat Women: Rachel Thomas
Till next time,
Elaine Campbell