Northville Rowers Make Their Mark at Leelanau Chase

The Northville Rowing Club (NRC) traveled to beautiful Lake Leelanau to compete in their final regatta of the season on Sunday, October 30. Twelve high school teams participated in the 2016 Leelanau Chase, hosted by Fountain Point Resort and the Traverse City Tritons, where rowers and families alike enjoyed the vivid fall colors and cool temps that formed the perfect backdrop to this year’s event.

Northville’s first medals of the day came in the sculling events. In the Women’s Doubles event, junior Belle Cureton and sophomore Sara Bennett partnered to earn a medal for third place, with a time of 14:48. Senior Frank Williams quickly added a medal of his own with a third-place finish in 14:37 in the Men’s Singles event.

NRC's remaining medals were earned by four-person plus coxswain crews. In the Men’s JV four-plus event, juniors C.J. Daniels, Aaron Shute, Brett Somerville, sophomore Mitchell Encelewski and sophomore coxswain Nicholas Bhandari claimed a medal for second place in a time of 12:18. The Women’s JV four-plus crew of seniors Zoe King, Bella Wood, junior Rachel Winfield, sophomore Bennett and sophomore coxswain Elyssa Daguanno captured a medal for third place with a finish time of 14:09.

In the Women’s Varsity four-plus event, the NRC crew of seniors Jackie Cole, Maya Sankaran, Kylie VanLoo, junior Cureton, led by senior coxswain Bethany Holub, also earned a medal for their third-place finish time of 13:29. Finally, in their first competition in a four-plus boat, the crew of sophomores Ashley Garnett, Maddy Kwiecinski, Erinn Reinert, Megan Roth, with junior coxswain Sophie DeClue, finished third to medal in the Women’s Novice four-plus event in a time of 15:44.

The strong and consistent rowing by the NRC women’s crews also earned them third place in the Women’s Overall team points competition.

Northville entered sixteen boats in the regatta and those that didn’t medal still put forth great effort in their events. In the Women’s Varsity eight-plus event, the all-senior crew of Cole, King, Melissa Pearson, Sankaran, VanLoo, Shivani Vishwanath, Kate Westphal, Wood and coxswain Holub garnered fourth place. In the Men’s Doubles event, seniors J.T. Kerns and Williams finished in fourth place, while juniors Shute and Somerville paired up for a sixth-place finish.

In the Men’s Novice eight-plus event sophomores Nick Cemalovic, Owen Darnell, Devin Mangru, Vineet Raju, freshmen Waldo Guzman-Barrientos, Karthik Muruganand, Christian Ozog, Ian Pattwell and sophomore coxswain Jordi Brownlow placed fourth. Later in the day Cemalovic, Darnell, Guzman-Barrientos and C. Ozog, led by sophomore coxswain Bhandari, matched that effort with their own fourth-place finish in the Men’s Novice four-plus event.

The Women’s Novice eight-plus crew of sophomores Garnett, Kwiecinski, Reinert, Roth, freshmen Abby Dunn, Allison Dunn, Chloe Sargent, Helaina Motts, led by senior coxswain Kerns, placed fifth in their event. The men and women of the Mixed eight-plus crew of senior Camden Esposito, juniors Zach MacKinnon, Maddie Ozog, Katie Sturtz, Winfield, sophomores Brownlow, Ian Danaher, Sydney Kawakami and senior coxswain Andrew Robinson also placed fifth at the regatta.

In the Women’s JV four-plus event, seniors Pearson, Westphal, junior Sturtz, sophomore Kawakami and junior coxswain DeClue placed seventh. NRC’s crew in the Mixed Novice eight-plus event, sophomores Mangru, Raju, freshman Abby Dunn, Allison Dunn, Motts, Muruganand, Pattwell, Sargent and sophomore coxswain Bhandari, finished in eight place. The Men’s Varsity four-plus crew of seniors Esposito, Robinson, junior MacKinnon, sophomore Danaher and sophomore coxswain Daguanno placed eleventh.

The Leelanau Chase marked the end of another great season for the Northville Rowers who will be saying ‘goodbye’ to head coach Katie Larder with many thanks for her instruction and guidance during her two seasons with the team. The rowers will be putting their boats to bed for the winter and taking a well-deserved break before beginning winter conditioning and dreaming of the sprints of Spring.

Northville Rowing Club is a non-profit, 501C3, rowing for Northville High School. It is a co-ed, competitive club sport, with an opportunity to earn a Varsity Letter. With no experience required, NRC welcomes 9th to 12th grade students from Northville High School. For more information about the Northville Rowing Club or to make a donation, go to the club’s website at www.northvillerowing.com.

>>Photo: Deb Williams | Northville Rowing Club at the 2016 Leelanau Chase