Oscoda Nationals, Saturday, August 14 “We were a little heavy in the stern so we had to get out and run for about 50 yards. “We had been riding the wake of four or Þve boats and they got away from us.” The Hewitts, who regrouped for a 10th place Þnish among 17 teams in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 41 seconds, didn’t Þgure to catch the leaders any way. The Hugus father/son team, which lost last year’s marathon by 0.1 of a second, coasted to victory in 53 minutes, 17 seconds. “Oh, my God! They were ßying!” said Chuck. “I couldn’t believe how far ahead of the competition they were.” The Hugus team put together one of those perfect races. “We didn’t mess up,” said Ben, 12. “We didn’t hit any logs, tip over, we didn’t get hit by anybody, we didn’t break any paddles,” said John, 48. “I don’t understand it. We didn’t have any glitches today.” The winning team started in a tight group, but by the Þrst bridge at River Road, they took over the six-mile course. “We had opened a little gap and we felt pretty good in shallow water which there was a lot of going upstream,” said John. “We were able to get the boat up on every turn and kept cruising.” Karen Levitt, of Keene, NH, and Cale Tuszynski, of Michigan, won the woman/youth marathon in 1:10.29. In the other short races of the day, Olympic kayak hopefuls Joe Carrillo, 16, and Dave Cohen, 17, of Gainesville, GA. ran 1-2 in the K1 ICF Junior Barton race. Carrillo Þnished in 51:18. Cohen was a second back. Gail Kowsky, of Morris, IL, won the K1 ICF Woman Junior Barton (2:10.08). “I was dead tired yesterday afternoon after the longer run,” said Carrillo, who teamed up with Cohen last week to win the U.S. national team trials. “But I got a good night’s sleep and I feel a lot better today. It was the same river, but it seemed a lot shorter and didn’t take as long.” Carrillo and Cohen worked together all the way up and down the river. “We rode together and tried to work together so we don’t get too tired by ourselves,” said Carrillo. “We’ve got the stroke down,” said Cohen, who looked a little bit out of his element earlier in the week paddling in a canoe race with Carrillo. “Today was a little more enjoyable.” Matt Streib, of Bristol, IN won the K1 Downriver Man event in 1:41.46 while Emily Wright, of Fairport, NY, lone woman entry in the same event Þnished in 2:15.01. In the four-person (or was it Þve?) in the six-paddler Outriggers race, Team No. 2, captained by Australia’s Tony Bond, defeated Team No. 1, by 24 seconds. Team No. 2 Þnished in 1:48.39. The 4-person teams became 5-person teams at the turnround. It’s a shame there wasn’t enough support for this intriguing class to make the full complememnt of six paddlers per boat. For the Hewitts, they’ll have to work on their balancing act before next summer’s 120-mile, non-stop marathon. “We launched Chris‚ paddling career today, but we’ll need to get some more equalization by next year,” said Chuck Hewitt. “I’ll have to slim down and Chris will have to put on a few pounds or bulk up.”
Canoe News, 2004 Nationals Issue
44
Emily Wright.
Joseph Carrillo with David Cohen off to the right.
Matt Streib.
Mike Herbert.
All photos on this page © 2004 and courtesy of Will Arts & Tech – available for purchase: see their ad on page 9.