In an effort to keep student-athletes active and to fuel competitive fires, Coach Maddie Hopkins and the student leaders of the rowing team set up a series of 5k runs for the broader Gordon Rowing Community, the first of which was this past Saturday, April 4. The racing is open to everyone who in one way or another affiliates with the collegiate team or the Gordon Juniors (high school club racing team). The rules are simple: run 3.1 miles near your home and track in via GPS, then submit your time and proof of distance (either a mapmyrun or Strava course). The first series' winners were crowned at midnight last night, and prizes will be mailed out across the United States on Monday! 

Stephen Kaelin, member of the class of 2024 at Gordon (and the first recruit Coach Hopkins spoke to in her head coaching role), led the pack with a time of 18:37, which averages out to a six minute mile. Kaelin's spring rowing season, like most of the worlds', has been severely adjusted to accommodate social distancing, but that doesn't mean he's sitting still! Second overall (and first among the U18 men) was Sam Sirois, the 14 year old younger brother of Gordon Junior Nathan Sirois, who finished the race with a time of 21:04. Nathan is working hard to establish a rowing program out of his high school, Covenant Christian, and has raced with the Juniors at the Head of the Charles and the Head of the Fish. This spring was supposed to be the first proper Covenant season for Nathan, but Corona has pushed that date to his senior spring in 2021. Asher Hopkins finished seventh overall, but led the U12 category with a time of 24:23, a minute behind sixth-place racer Ben Colaneri of the Gordon Juniors. Asher is the 11 year old younger brother of Coach Hopkins, and was one of seven Hopkins to race on Saturday—the youngest, seven year old James, finished 19th overall with a 31:34 time. 

On the Women's side, rising Gordon freshman Lucy Hopkins joined her future classmate on the podium, winning the overall women's race with a time of 25 minutes flat. Her time beat out former summer rowing teammates Ginger Hubbard and Ellie Pitkin for the U18 spot. L. Hopkins, like Kaelin, has found herself without her typical spring racing schedule, but is pushing to stay moving and training. Tim Tripp, GCR crew dad extraordinaire, crossed the line right behind Lucy, winning the parents' race with a time of 25:13—despite being an Iowa family, the Tripps have been spotted on the shore cheering on the GCR Lights and daughter Naomi Tripp in Philly and Boston!  Coach Hopkins finished at 25:18, rounding out the Open Women's side of things. Race timing was a little unfortunate for some of the Collegiate varsity girls—Madeline Schoenfeld, who would have been a strong contender, was moving out in preparation for a flight back to her home state of Kansas after being in quarantine for several days following her return home from a spring break trip to Europe. 

The next Quarantine 5k is Saturday, April 25 from 12 a.m.-11:59 p.m. EST.

Racing is open to our extended Gordon Family, so if you're interested in running, email rowing@gordon.edu for registration information—the more the merrier (and the faster)! We'll run an Open, U18, and U12 category for each gender, unless the U18 or U12 category of either gender has more than eight runners, in which case we'll break it down further by age. The parents category (as in, those who wish to avoid the open category and can claim at least one progeny) will follow the same pattern—more than eight entries, and we'll break it into Moms and Dads. Prizes will be mailed to the winners of each category. 

The complete results are available on Facebook and Instagram on the Gordon Rowing and Gordon Juniors Rowing pages.