Local Rowers Race the Country's Best

At the USRowing Mid-Atlantic Championships held the end of May, Annapolis Junior Rowing (AJR) Men’s and Women’s rowers competed against the best High School rowers in a stacked Regional Division for a shot to race the country’s best at the USRowing’s Youth National Championships this past weekend. Varsity and Junior Varsity rowers in Eights and Fours and singles raced hard and two crews qualified: Women’s Singles and the Under 17 Men’s Fours with Coxswain.

Following the Regionals, these six athletes applied themselves to an additional three weeks of training in preparation to race at Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park, the country’s premier racing venue: Ella Aherne in the Women's Varsity 1x coached by Jack Baney and the U17 4+ of Santi Cingolani, Max Henceroth, Lex Lauer and Ethan Cabucana was coxed by Hunter Labandeira and coached by Steve Hall. Training to race without others to train against is a test of personal desire to get faster…and both teams did just that!

Youth Nationals is an “Invitation Only” regatta, so all entries come from various rowing regions across the country, and they are all FAST – the top tier of each region. The U17 4+ had 25 entries invited with notable rowing programs of elite rowers and the Women's Varsity 1x entered with 22 other entries, also representing the best of each region. USRowing has a filtering method to push the fastest crews against each other. This begins with the Time Trial for all crews – held on Thursday.

The 1x single scullers started the morning off with Ella driving a good solid push through her time trial, finishing in a solid 18th place, beating the 19th place rower by only 0.7 seconds. This placed her into the C level final raced on Saturday morning.

The U17 4+rowed onto the course in position #12, following 11 other ranked crews. Our crew pushed hard down the course and when the timing was done, they initially reflected 9th with 13 boats still coming on the course. The top 12 finishers move on to two Semi-Finals sending the top three of each into the “A” finals and lower 3 finishers of each into the “B” finals. Positions 13 – 18 move on to the C Finals and positions 19 – 25 move into the D Final. The goal of this team was to finish in the top 12 and parents and coaches were glued to the live time results, watching the result change to 10th – then 11th with just two boats to go!

As the last boat’s time came over, our lads were in 13th position out of the 25 qualifiers – with a great time that was only 0.6 seconds away from qualifying for the top 12 spots. That’s about 20 inches shy of being in the Semi-Finals. But rowing is about resilience. It’s about learning, about determination and grit. It was not their best race, and they knew they were fast racers and set out to prove this in the C Final. They were seeded into the fastest lane for the “C” finals on a sultry Sarasota Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning, Ella in the C final for the Women's Varsity Singles was positioned in Lane 7. They set off down the course in a head-to-head 2,000m sprint race. In the first 500 meters, Ella was battling with the rower from Narragansett in lane 8 to her left. This dog fight vying for 5th place was brutally close with both Ella and the Narragansett going back and forth several times. With 750 meters to go, the other crew was able to give Ella the slip and pushed past her with Ella still fighting to not let her get away. After all the crews crossed the finish line, she finished in 8th, but not without a fight.

Said her coach Jack Baney: "After the race, she was asked how she felt about it. She responded with some disappointment having finished last in her final, that she didn't feel like it was her best possible finish. But she was reminded that she was a first year rower; a sophomore, and having only raced the 1x a few times this spring with this race today being her 6th time down the course in a single scull. Additionally, she was racing girls who were older, at least Juniors and Seniors in high school, and likely 2 or 3 years rowing the boat constantly as well as being the most gifted rowers in their club to be chosen for this boat class. That comparison seemed to make her realize that she raced amongst and held her own against people who in all reality were older and more experienced than her. That still put her 20th overall in the nation, very well done Ella!"

The U17 4+ did not disappoint in what is likely one of the best races of their young rowing careers. With a quick and powerful start, AJR built a full-length lead over its five head-to-head competitors. Through the halfway mark and into the final 250 meters, the lead shrank but was held by their toughness. When the finish horns sounded, they had been nipped at the finish line by North Bay (Petaluma, CA) by 1 second but held off two other sprint challenges in a photo finish over the 2,000-meter course for a great 2nd place finish in an exciting race. In fact, the top 4 of the 6 boats all finished within 1.5 seconds of each other over the 2,000m course: North Bay, AJR, South Jersey and OARS from Orlando. AJR's finishing time would have beaten two boats in the B finals held that same morning.

As the coach for the U17 4+, it was important to know how they felt about their race – and they were indeed proud of the effort, left all that they could on the course and were satisfied with the result while being excited about the quality of the race. They became the 14th fastest boat in the country…well done crew!

In all, the parents, rowers, and coaches felt the Youth Nationals ended on a high note for AJR as this was a very positive and improved result for its young rowers.