After winning the Head of the River open eights for the first time for their school in 24 years, the Scotch women's team qualified for the nationals final, placing first in their repechage.

The eight comprises of Millie Duigan, Olivia Willows, Alecia Jepson, Charlotte Loane, Lindsay Calvert, Amy Florence, Jessica Finnigan, Heidi Schouten and Lily Cleeland (cox) with coaches Ali Foot and Stuart Guest (pictured right).

Mersey's Jack Pears and Harrison Nield qualified for the men's double scull, with North Esk's Roberto Ojeda, Robert Wrigley being eliminated in the same race.

Scotch's schoolboy quad of Joseph Lawrence, Harry Birchmore, Will Gray, William Hurd and Harriet Lynch (cox) will need to enter another repechage after falling 1.68 seconds shy of second place to their Victorian cousins.

Launceston Grammar's under-17 boys eight of John Gray, Finn Billing, Gabriel Collette, Thomas Carins, Ted Peck, Mac Mitchell, Ned Adkins, Keanu Glynn and cox Hugo Barrenger qualified for the schoolboy's coxed final.

However, Grammar's Angus Farquhar, Lachlan Pohan, Lachlan Dean, Archie Ralph and Grace Robertson (cox) fell just over four seconds short of qualifying for the coxed quad scull final.

The PR1 men's single scull event raced alongside the PR2 men's single scull event, seeing five-time world champion and two-time paralympic silver medallist Erik Horrie racing against Simon Albury, newly selected into the Australian PR2 mixed double scull with paralympic silver medallist and multiple world champion Kathryn Ross, and a PR1 competitor from Queensland, Ned Sparksman.

Within the race, Horrie and Albury seemed to pace each other through the first 1500m, however it was the Torrens Rowing Club sculler who put on a burst and finished first, though both were Australian champions in their respective class.

Saturday morning will see finals of quads and eights throughout the day with semi-finals and repechages of school and club events.