Ballarat Clarendon College rowed to Head of the Lake glory in dominant fashion

The win secured back-to-back titles for Clarendon for the first time since 2014-15, stroke Ruby Lovel and three seat Ellie McClure a part of both crews.

READ MORE SPORT:

Lucy Richardson (two seat) and Katie Jackson (bow), both year 11 students, and Baeley Tucker (cox) rounded out the crew.

Ballarat Grammar School and Loreto College fought out a tight battle for second, Grammar just crossing the line first.

Damascus College rounded out the field in fourth.

Entering Sunday's race on Lake Wendouree as heavy favourites, coach Nicki Plucinski said there were some nerves to deliver the result they wanted.

"It was really good to actually do what we were hoping for," she said.

"It's all well and good to do it in the lead up races but to do it on the day is a different story.

"That's what we were nervous of, just to get it done on the day."

It was an even start to the race, all four crews jumping out of the blocks strongly.

Captain of boats and three seat Ellie McClure said as the race progressed the crew managed to pull away and start to put distance between it and the field.

"It was a pretty calm race ... everyone had a good start," she said.

"We just slowly chipped away and by the 500 (metre mark), we got a little bit of (a lead) so just kept pushing away and tried to control the race which were lucky enough to be able to do."

The crew crossed the finish line in an impressive time of 7:29.70, just over four seconds behind the race record set by Clarendon in 2002.

With three wins by over 20 seconds in lead up regattas, Clarendon knew it would be the hunted crew come Head of the Lake.

For Plucinski, the race plan was based around focusing on their own boat and not worrying about what other crews threw at them out of the start and during the course of the race.

"For us, like it's been all year, it hasn't been about anybody else in the race, it was very much about bringing it in and rowing our own race," she said.

The win caps off a stellar Head of the Lake partnership between Lovel, McClure, Tucker and Plucinski, who have been together since year 10.

Plucinski coached the trio in year 10 to a Head of the Lake win and backed it up with Lovel and McClure last year in an open division one victory.

That has been capped off by coaching all three to an open division one Head of the Lake win on Sunday.

"It's unbelievable, it's more than you can hope for," Plucinski said.

McClure was full of praise for her coach.

"We couldn't do it without our coach Nicki, she's just an unreal coach," she said.

"The strength and the technique to get us to this point, it would be hard to get without Nicki."

After finishing second at the Australian Rowing Championships last year, the crew is now looking to go one better at this year's regatta.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.