St. Albans crew team cruises in first VASRA event Before Saturday's Charlie Butt Regatta, St. Albans rowing Coach Ted Haley hadn't yet raced his team in an official Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association event, opting instead to row against opponents around the region and as far south as Florida. With the meat of the Bulldogs schedule arriving over the next three weeks, St. Albans began its tuneup Saturday on the Potomac River in its first VASRA regatta of the season with a victory in the boys" first eight. "We had a sense that we'd be able to win if we rowed our race, and it looked like they rowed a good strong race," Haley said. At one point, the boats were fairly even and then we had a big solid move in the middle, which separated us from the rest of the pack, and then a good sprint. So I was real pleased with a complete race. Despite close racing early, St. Albans finished the race with a time of 4 minutes, 30.2 seconds, six seconds clear of second-place Yorktown. Madison rounded out the top three in the race with a time of 4 minutes 40.8 seconds. In the girls" first eight final, Madison kept its undefeated streak alive by finishing first with a time of 5 minutes 3.08 seconds. The Warhawks faced perhaps their stiffest challenge of the season though in second-place National Cathedral, which finished close behind Madison with a time of 5 minutes 5 seconds. T.C. Williams's girls" first eight (5:13.49) finished third. Competition for St. Albans will ramp up in earnest beginning next Saturday when the Bulldogs will face Gonzaga, which features one of the top boys" eight boats in the region, in the Foley Cup. The Virginia Scholastic Rowing Championships will follow May 12 and the Stotesbury Cup, the biggest regatta of the spring, will be held in Philadelphia May 19. "We usually spend the first half of our season or so off doing other stuff," Bulldogs junior Woody Atwood said. I think we're pretty confident that we're coming in in a good position. We did well today and I think we're expecting to do pretty well in two weeks. Haley said next week against Gonzaga would be "a very telling race," as his team prepares for back-to-back championship regattas beginning with the VASRA championships in two weeks. Earning a victory Saturday, he said, would give St. Albans some good momentum moving forward. I like where we are. We still have some things to work on. We're developing our sprint, and we had a pretty good sprint today," Haley said. I think we're developing a sort of racer's mentality and a consistency that I haven't seen yet so far. Today was very good. I liked what I've seen today.