Ballarat Clarendon College ends Grammar's Head of the Lake reign in proud day out

The crew, consisting of Jock Quartermain, Lachlan Clark, Tristan Nijhof, Alexander Grove and James Tippett overcame a valiant St Patrick's College on Sunday, winning by 3.95 seconds with a time of 7:14.72.

Firsts crew coach Ian Peele was proud of how his crew handled themselves throughout the race.

"We knew Ballarat Grammar and St Pat's would come at us pretty hard over the first 1000 metres," Peele said.

"We just needed to make sure that we stayed on top of that and that the boat was moving well."

Clarendon came into Sunday as red-hot favourites, following a dominant rowing season to date with big wins against Ballarat associated schools over summer.

"The boys are a pretty good bunch but when the pressure is there everyone feels it," Peele said.

"They were a little bit quiet this morning but generally they're pretty happy boys, especially now."

Peele's older brother, Andrew, was a part of Clarendon's victorious 1981 crew, the last time the school won both boys and girls open division one races.

"It (the double) was a great one to get for us," Peele said.

"It came up about a week ago that it could be a possibility which is really good.

"It has been a long time coming with a couple of near-misses, I don't know if it has fully sunk in yet."

The boys were full of emotion when they crossed the finish line, with stroke seat Jock Quartermain finally getting redemption after last year's defeat.

"It was disappointing last year but we came back and it's ours and it's great," Quartermain said.

"St Pat's really drove it home for the last kilometre but we just stayed out there and stuck to our process."

Quartermain and Clark both rowed for Clarendon at the 2022 Head of the Lake, with the pair admitting last year's result had been on their minds for 12 months.

Clarendon held off St Pat's in second and Grammar in third to clinch its first boys' open division one title since 2016, while Clarendon's girls' crew made it three-straight wins on Sunday.