A BACKBREAKING effort at this year’s GPS Head of the River saw historic victories for St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace.
For the first time ever, the team – averaging 187.9cm (6 foot 2) in height and 90kg (14 stone) in weight – won both trophies in the event held at Kawana Waters last month.
They took out the open age O’Connor Cup, which Terrace hadn’t held since 1996, and triumphantly claimed the premiership Old Boys Cup for the second consecutive year.
Terrace rowing director Damian Wright described the outcome as “absolutely sensational, extremely exciting, over the moon, just absolutely joyous”.
Mr Wright said Terrace wasn’t traditionally strong at rowing, but that the team’s talent and work ethic was what pulled them through.
“They trained for about six months, doing 10 sessions a week of 5am starts on the water then weights and cross training in the afternoon,” he said.
“They took two weeks off over Christmas but basically trained the entire holidays.”
Four seat Dom Gallagher said the rigorous training helped build team spirit and made their victory even more worthwhile.
“You put so much work in and it’s such a long season so we were really proud of our achievement,” he said.
Mr Wright hoped next year Terrace would successfully defend the O’Connor Cup and make it three-in-a-row for the Old Boys.
Eight GPS schools competed at Head of the River, a 90-year-old annual event, which draws about 8000 supporters.
