Head of the Lake 2023: Ballarat Clarendon College ready to clinch both boys and girls crowns

On February 26, both crews will be hoping to wrap up their strong seasons in style as they turn their attention to the Ballarat Associated Schools Head of the Lake.

The girls have their sights set on a third-consecutive crown, while the boys are red-hot favourites to claim their first title since 2016.

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Ballarat Clarendon College co-Head of Rowing Matt Olver said it had been a really positive year for the program.

"I think the kids have been really resilient this season, I'm a little nervous and excited to see where we come out of it in the next few weeks," Olver said.

"Hopefully our preparation has meant that the program as a whole will perform well and that as coaches we've done our jobs to give these kids their opportunities and get them out on the water."

Olver is also the coach of the Open girls crew, which comes into Head of the Lake off the back of some almighty wins against their rival schools.

"We had a really strong season right from the start," Olver said.

"We were lucky to have the two girls who represented Australia come back into the crew which was fantastic which also caused some hard-fought selection there as well.

"I'm really happy with the crew that we've ended up with and we'll keep working hard towards Nationals and not just Head of the Lake."

The crew boasts Australian-representatives Katie Jackson and Lucy Richardson, who were a part of Ballarat Clarendon's triumphant crew in 2022.

"Katie and Lucy are coming back from a Head of the Lake win for Ballarat Clarendon last year," Olver said.

"So they will be looking to go back-to-back and see if they can make it two-from-two which I'm sure is just as nervous as it is exciting for them."

Ballarat Clarendon will be hoping to take home both the girls and boys crown on February 26, with the boys crew just as dominant as the girls throughout the season.

Boys' First crew coach Ian Peele said the boys and their winning ways have made it a "fun" season.

"We've had some good results so far so the boys have been happy," Peele said.

"They just go out and row their own race and have been coming home with good results."

Some familiar faces line up in the Open boys crew as Jock Quartermain, Lachlan Clark and Tristan Nijhof prepare for their second Head of the Lake campaign.

"We've got a pretty good crew this year, they've done a lot of hard work particularly over the summer," Peele said.

"It has put themselves in a really strong position to perform well on the big day."

The crew heads into Head of the Lake in the box seat, following a convincing win at the Schoolboys' Regatta.

"We are pretty happy with how things have progressed, I think the boys have a little bit of confidence behind them thanks to their recent results," Peele said.

"We had a really strong row at the Schoolboys' Regatta.

"I just sent the boys out to make sure that they performed well and concentrated on their own boat and got our fundamentals right."

Ballarat Clarendon finished 15.44 seconds ahead of St Patrick's College in the Coxed Four Open Division 1 event at the Schoolboys' Regatta.

Stay tuned to thecourier.com.au/sport as The Courier previews all schools ahead of Head of the Lake.