Northville Rowers Show Mid-Season Promise in Lansing Regatta

The Northville Rowing Club (NRC) competed in their third regatta of the season on Saturday, October 8 at Grand River Park in Lansing. Over twenty high school teams participated in this year’s Head of the Grand Regatta, with rowers braving crisp and windy conditions throughout the day’s events.

With sixteen crews entered in eleven races, both varsity and novice athletes were afforded an opportunity to compete on the 3.3 kilometer course on Grand River. Fall-season rowing focuses on endurance, rather than the sprints of spring, and the team of forty-six Northville High School students exhibited their strength and determination on the challenging course.

Last spring’s powerful sprinting crew of then-novices returned this fall as a varsity crew to be reckoned with in distance races. In the men’s varsity four-plus event, juniors C.J. Daniels, Aaron Shute, Brett Somerville, sophomore Mitchell Encelewski, and sophomore Coxswain Nicholas Bhandari claimed fourth place out of forty entrants with a time of 11:35.4. The crew of seniors Camden Esposito, Andrew Robinson, sophomores Andrew Crowell, Ian Danaher, and senior Coxswain J.T. Kerns placed a respectable twenty-first in the same race, with a time of 13:05.3.

In another crowded race, the women’s varsity four-plus event saw three of Northville’s crews entered. Placing eighth out of thirty-eight entrants, senior Maya Sankaran, juniors Belle Cureton, Maddie Ozog, Katie Sturtz, and junior Coxswain Elyssa Daguanno finished in 13:45.4, just two-tenths of a second faster than the ninth-placed crew of seniors Melissa Pearson, Bella Wood, junior Rachel Winfield, sophomore Sara Bennett, and junior Coxswain Sophie DeClue at 13:45.6. The crew of seniors Zoe King, Kylie VanLoo, Kate Westphal, sophomore Sydney Kawakami, and senior Coxswain Bethany Holub came in fourteenth place with a time of 14:26.2.

NRC’s single- and double-scullers built on last spring’s successes and transitioned smoothly to distance races with senior Jackie Cole garnering a sixth-place finish in 14:53.6 in the women’s varsity singles event. Strong entries in the men’s varsity singles race included senior Frank Williams, who finished eighth in 13:24.3, and Zach MacKinnon, who came in fifteenth with a time of 14:35.6.

The men’s varsity doubles event paired seniors Kerns and Williams, who sliced through the waters in 12:20.6 for a fifth-place finish. In the women’s varsity doubles race, seniors King and Sankaran claimed seventh place with a time of 13:44.1, while junior Cureton teamed with sophomore Bennett to place thirteenth with their time of 14:13.1.

Both the women’s and men’s varsity eight-plus crews powered through tight races with numerous entries to finish in the middle of the field in their respective events. The women’s crew of seniors Pearson, Westphal, Wood, juniors Ozog, Sturtz, sophomores Jordi Brownlow, Kawakami, and sophomore Coxswain Daguanno finished in 13:33.2 for seventeenth place in the women’s varsity eight-plus event, while the men’s crew of senior Robinson, juniors Daniels, MacKinnon, Somerville, Shute, sophomores Crowell, Danaher, Encelewski, and sophomore Coxswain Bhandari placed sixteenth with a time of 12:04.0 in the men’s varsity eight-plus race.

Finally, this year’s novices showed great promise in what was for many of them their first race, after their planned debut at the Frogtown Regatta in Toledo in September was cancelled due to potentially dangerous conditions on the water. The men’s novice four-plus crew of sophomores Nick Cemalovic, Owen Darnell, freshmen Waldo Guzman-Barrientos, Christian Ozog, and junior Coxswain DeClue, claimed eighth out of twenty-seven entrants. In the women’s novice eight-plus event, NRC’s crew of sophomores Ashley Garnett, Maddy Kwiecinski, Erinn Reinert, Megan Roth, freshmen Abby Dunn, Allison Dunn, Helaina Motts, Chloe Sargent, led by senior Coxswain Holub, finished in tenth place with a time of 15:01.7. The men’s novice eight-plus crew of sophomores Cemalovic, Darnell, Devin Mangru, Vineet Raju, freshmen Guzman-Barrientos, Karthik Muruganand, C. Ozog, Ian Pattwell, and sophomore Coxswain Brownlow placed sixteenth in their race with a time of 17:32.5.

With their largest team yet, the Northville Rowing Club continues to encourage interest and awareness in the sport of rowing. NRC turns next to their fundraising event, the annual Northville Rowathon, which will be held on Saturday, October 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in downtown Northville in the courtyard in front of Stampeddler and across the street from Tuscan Café (Center and Dunlap streets). Ten rowing machines (ergometers) will be in use throughout the day as the rowers attempt to raise $8,500 by collectively rowing the distance from downtown Northville to Mackinaw, about 440 kilometers. Everyone is encouraged to stop by and cheer them on!

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: Mahesh Bhandari | Senior Frank Williams competes in the men’s varsity singles event