And while that jolt came at exactly the wrong time for the St Patrick's boys, for Clarendon College's Girls Open Division, a shock loss in the last match-up with Ballarat Grammar was all it needed to set a course for Head of the Lake success.

In a Head of the Lake unlike any other we've seen before, College was quick out of the blocks, taking the lead by the 250 point and holding that across the finish line of the 2km course ahead of Ballarat Grammar, with Loreto College third.

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For boats captain and cox Holli Williams, it was a dream come true after a year unlike any other.

"We weren't ahead right at the start, but the time we got to 250m we were ahead and just managed to stay ahead," she said. "It means everything, we've worked so hard for this day, nearly a year of training, to finally win is amazing."

Williams said last week's lockdown had come at exactly the right time for the crew which was given an extra bit of time to work on its deficiencies that were picked up from the shock loss to Grammar just three weeks ago.

"We worked super hard through lockdown and as soon as we could, we got back on the water and started training again," she said.

"When we were in the big lockdown, we obviously couldn't do anything together, but the girls worked just as hard as they normally would during the time you'd normally be at school. To finally win it is amazing after all our hard work."

The win was College's first success in the Girls Open Division since going back-to-back in 2015.

Coach Nicki Plucinski found it hard to hold back the tears straight after the race.

"They've been winning all year, but they lost the last race we had against Grammar, but that gave us stuff to work on, and they've just rowed the perfect race In think," she said.

"We just did everything right, we tapered, we worked on anything that might have been a little bit off and they all banded together through the lockdown, they all did the right stuff, they didn't complain."

She said the side lane had meant the crew could focus on its own race.

"We were saying at the start being out on the side that might have helped because everyone else can have their own race, and we could just row," she said. "We had half of our year 10s that won last year and two from our crew last year that had a really bad run with illness, they've come together really well."

She said while state and national titles were still ahead, this was "The one we wanted".

"This is huge for the school, we haven't won for a few years now, it'll be huge, everything has gone right this year, yes, everything's gone wrong everywhere else, but for us, our girls and guys have done everything right," she said.