On July 26, 2015, Steinmühlen rower Lucas Schäfer achieved his greatest success to date on the international stage. The lightweight four, which had qualified directly for the final, secured an outstanding second-place finish behind the dominant Italian boat. In the end, they managed to fend off the challenges from the French and British boats.

According to the World Rowing Federation’s minutes, the sequence of events was as follows:

“Japan and Italy qualified directly for their A-final from their respective heats, but it was France that posted the fastest qualifying time in the repechage. In fact, every boat in the repechage was faster than the boats in the heats.

Italy was in the lead in the first quarter. They reached the 500-meter mark at a rate of 39 strokes per minute. France was in second place and Germany in third.

“At the halfway point, Germany had moved up to second place, while France had fallen back to fourth, and Great Britain was in a position to potentially win the bronze medal. Italy’s lead was clear-cut, and they remained untouchable. Germany held off the British crew to take silver.”

Results: ITA, GER, GBR, FRA, JPN, USA

Together with the sixth-grade choir , the two wind instrument classes performed together to mark the end of the school year.

The entertaining concert evening, featuring international songs, was opened by the 6-member choir: “Vois sur ton chemin,” “Unicorn,” and other songs were performed with strong voices and precise intonation.

The 6th-grade wind ensemble, under the direction of Ms. Wilmsmeyer, then performed with rhythmic precision and tonal sensitivity, ““Rainbow Connection” and “Accidentally in Love”. Another high-quality contribution came from the Flute Section of Wind Instrument Class 6. The Swing & Sing Club danced and sang with great joy and carefully crafted choreography.

A particular highlight was the impressive closing performance:“Skyfall” featuring over 80 active musicians, inspiringly conducted by music teacher Daniel Sans.

Fynn Konnertz and Jannik Anfang from the 7th Grade They performed their own arrangement of “Wonderworld” and enchanted the audience with a masterful rendition of Mozart’s “It sounds so wonderful” on glockenspiels. Afterward, the 7th-grade wind ensemble performed the pieces with enthusiasm and vigor “Gangnam Style” and “May it be”.

All in all, the summer concert was a wonderful musical finale to the school year. The audience showed their appreciation with a round of enthusiastic applause.

State Finals in Hanau on July 18–19, 2015

At the state rowing championship, held as part of the “Youth Training for the Olympics” competition program, the Steinmühle’s quadruple sculls team (born in 2000 and younger) achieved a second-place finish that no one ever thought possible.

After the training week at Lake Eder, the guys were actually pretty exhausted, since they’d once again completed a fairly intense program there. But you could tell just by looking at them that, as a close-knit team, they were determined to give the big guys a run for their money.

In the final, the boys put on a sensational performance and gave the favorites from Limburg a thrilling race. Their bow crossed the finish line just behind the state champion. A great result! If this team stays together, under coach Martin Strohmenger it will develop into a crew that can compete at the very top at the national level in 2016—or at the very latest, in 2017. Another reason for this optimism is the fact that the competing rowers were, on average, one year older.

Dustin Brömmer, Bennet Meier, Jonas Neirich, Carl Nagel, Leon Vielhaben

The results of the other Steinmühlen boats

– Boys’ GIG Four: This four is easier to row than the racing boats. Only this type of boat is used in beginner classes. The boys showed promise, left one boat far behind in their race, and will continue to improve.

Luca Hahn, Leonard Hüttinger, Lasse Jakob, Moritz Mägerlein, Johannes Vollhardt

– Girls’ Quadruple Sculls Born in 2000 and later: After just a few practice sessions in the racing boat, the goal for these rowing newcomers was simply not to finish in last place—a goal they achieved with ease. The potential of this team—which was by far the youngest in the field—is enormous. If this four-person crew stays together, they’ll be the ones to beat in next year’s championship.

Sophie Bartsch, Kaija Feldmann, Tara Michels, Marie Unsicker, Louisa Bietz

Conclusion: There’s a lot going on in the rowing scene at Steinmühle. It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next few years.

Leon Sauer (9c) from the Rudern und Sport Steinmühle Marburg (RuS) club proved by winning the bronze medal in the Junior B eight at the German Youth Championships in Cologne that you can achieve great things when you give it your all! After just eight months of serious training, he capped off this season with a selfless race and won a medal with his team from Kassel, Hanau, Limburg, and Wetzlar.

The rowers led by RuS coxswain Dustin Brömer (7c). In the lightweight coxed quadruple sculls in the U17 age group, they rowed with great determination and crossed the finish line in 9th place. The German rowing community knows that these young, technically skilled, and ambitious athletes will be ones to watch in the coming year.

Lukas Drösch (12e) had an unlucky day Lukas Drösch (12e) and his team in the U19 junior lightweight eight. After strong performances in the heats, the combined team from RuS/Treis-Karden/Frankfurt/Giessen/Koblenz/Bernkastel got off to a poor start in the final, and despite a strong comeback, they ultimately finished “only” in 6th place.

In total, his team—which also included athletes from Hessian clubs partnering with RuS—brought home 2 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze medals—crowned by the fact that five athletes from their ranks alone were nominated for the World Championships. – Once again, it was an absolutely successful weekend for the RuS coach and rowing instructor at the Steinmühle boarding school.

The games played by the Steinmühlen soccer team (Division III), made up of 7th and 8th graders, were marked by constant ups and downs in this year’s competition. After a clear victory in the city tournament, the team faced district tournament only to be initially eliminated following a questionable interpretation of the rules, but was ultimately admitted to the regional finals after filing a protest.

The regional finals took place in Schwalmstadt. There, on May 6, 2015, our team secured a well-deserved victory with three wins and ultimately finished with a clear five-point lead.

With a 2-0 opening victory over the team from Kirchhain, our team solidified its well-deserved advancement to the district finals. This was followed by two more decisive victories against the teams from Frankenberg (2-0) and Felsberg (3-0).

Buoyed by great team spirit and strong team unity, the Steinmühlen team played beautiful, attacking soccer for long stretches of the game, which was ultimately rewarded with a 7-0 victory.

At the Hesse championship in Grünberg , the bar was set a bit higher. In the preliminary round, the team won their matches against Limburg and Kriftel and put up a good fight against the eventual overall champion, the Carl-von-Weinberg School from Frankfurt, losing by a narrow margin (1–2). In the semifinal against Wiesbaden, however, the team made a few lapses in concentration, resulting in a decisive 0:3 loss that meant they didn’t make it to the final but did qualify for the third-place match against Darmstadt.

In the third-place game, the Steinmühle soccer team quickly took a 2-0 lead but, despite their dominance on the field, were unable to hold on to their 4-2 lead as the game went on. The classmates who had traveled with the team were already in high spirits, but then they had to watch as the Darmstadt team tied the game and went on to defeat Steinmühle 8–6 in the ensuing penalty shootout. This meant fourth place for the Steinmühle soccer team.

Conclusion: Looking at the four rounds of play as a whole, this 4th-place finish in Hesse is a great success. The fact that the teams from the “soccer schools” in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt took the top two spots was well-deserved and deserves recognition. It’s unfortunate that we lost the last game and thus “blew” third place, but perhaps this can still be counted as a gain in the “valuable experience” category.