The Southport School have had their best performance of the GPS rowing season with two seconds in the third regatta on Saturday

Brisbane Grammar remains the school to beat although the Southport School’s First VIII are closing fast following their best GPS regatta performance of the year on Saturday.

BRISBANE Grammar remains the school to beat although the Southport School’s First VIII are closing fast following their best GPS regatta performance of the year on Saturday.

BLISTERING ROW PUTS TSS FIRMLY IN HEAD OF RIVER FRAME

After a mixed bag of results last regatta, highlighted by the fact they were missing year 12 rower Mackenzie Branch due to a sudden hospitalisation, TSS bounced back on Saturday to finish second in both division one open eight rotations at Wyaralong Dam.

TSS Rowing First VIII Representative and coxswain Lockie Mactaggart. Photograph: Jason O'Brien

First VIII coach Cameron Kennedy said that his crew still had ground to gain on a dominant Grammar outfit though TSS looked to have finally locked in their preferred seating combination.

“We’re closer to Grammar than we are not,” he said.

“It looks as though that when we’ve got a full team, the seats are starting to become regular and the current combination is the one that seems to work best.

“It’s never too late to do some experimenting but we’ve got the right group of people.

“Becoming consistent allows them to become confident in their ability.”

SCOTLAND TO WYARALONG: CALLAGHAN NOT TAKING FIRST VIII SEAT FOR GRANTED

The boys from Southport finished just over three and a half seconds off the pace in race one after gaining ground late before backing up their performance to finish just over four seconds behind Grammar in the second race.

“We had a bit of fun with it (the second race) and tried to push themselves earlier and I think they really surprised themselves with the fact they’re fitter than they thought they are,” Kennedy said.

MEET THE MAN BEHIND TSS HOR TITLE PUSH

Two more GPS rowing regattas remain until Head of the River on March 14.

In other results, TSS finished second in both the division one and two year 11 VIII races in the first rotation and first in the year 11 division one second rotation.