Men’s Champ Doubles

Craftsbury Finishes 1-2

By Katherine Isbell – Posted on October 21, 2018

It was Craftsbury’s day in men’s championship doubles on Saturday, their two boats coming first and second. Nathan Lado and Wesley Vear, who started the race in bow position 4, won in 17:02. Tom and Peter Graves, who began the race in bow position 9, finished in second, with a time of 17:07.

“The results kind of were different than what our expectations were,” Lado said. “We were thinking that the Irish double was the one to beat.”

That Irish double was Skibbereen’s Mark O’Donovan and Shane O’Driscoll, who represented Ireland in the pair at last month’s World Championship. Switching to the double here, O’Donovan and Driscoll were seeded first, but ended up finishing in seventh place with a time of 17:33.

Lado said that once he saw that he and Vear were closing on the Irish boat, he knew that they were in good shape. During the race, Vear said, their main focus was “putting the blades in together and trying not to mess it up.”

The pair said that while they started the race strong, they didn’t think that they finished it in that same fashion.

“We thought the last thousand meters were the worst during the race,” Lado said. “We thought that we got a big lead and were fending people off in the last thousand meters, but it turns out that we were slower in that last stretch.”

Vear and Lado, who are both 25 years old, have been rowing as a double for about six months. Each rowed in college, Lado for Middlebury and Vear for the University of Michigan.

The race was without a defending champion. Penn AC’s Justin Keen and Erik Frid, winners the past two years, both opted to compete in the men’s championship singles race this year.

Vear and Lado promise next year’s race will have a defending champ.

“Oh, absolutely,” both said, when asked if they’d return.