Summit Rowers Find Substantial Success with Club Row New Jersey

While not intuitively near a large body of water, the City of Summit is home to the head coach and numerous participants in local rowing club Row New Jersey. The club, which has its home on Lake Hopatcong, has grown substantially over the past 15 years, and now draws its members from a larger geographic area, including the Hill City. Row New Jersey’s Summit participants have been up to some amazing things this fall with the club, both at the high school and the middle school level.

Summit residents Thomas McKay, Victoria Nicely, Josh Sacks and Griff Sanborn all earned spots on Row New Jersey’s Head of the Charles squad which competed at the event on October 24th. The Head of the Charles, the world’s largest 2-day regatta, is the rowing world’s most prestigious race that takes place annually on Boston’s Charles River. Over 11,000 athletes compete in the yearly 3-mile long winding race, renowned for being difficult for coxswains and rowers alike.
Nicely, a junior at Summit High, rowed in the Varsity Women’s 8-person boat which placed 25th out of 76 teams, the club’s highest ever finish in the event. McKay and Sacks, a senior and junior at Summit High respectively, rowed in the Varsity Men’s 8-person boat which finished 33rd out of 80 entries. Both finishes qualify Row New Jersey for the same events at the 2022 Head of the Charles.

Griff Sanborn, an 8th grader at Morristown Beard, was the coxswain for the Varsity Men’s 4-person boat. Griff was one of only two 13-year old coxswains in any of the regatta’s youth men’s events.

The entire Row New Jersey squad found itself back in action the very next weekend at Saratoga’s Head of the Fish regatta on Halloween. The 2-mile race is beloved by the club as the only fall event where the club’s high school and middle school teams compete at the same regatta. The Head of the Fish is the capstone of the middle school Fall program.
McKay, Nicely, Sacks and Sanborn were joined by Summit High sophomores Will Gawronski and Sami Feteiha. McKay, Gawronski and Feteiha did double duty by competing in two races each through the course of the rainy, cold Sunday, with McKay’s Varsity 4-man boat finishing in 3rd place out of a highly competitive 27 boat field.

Sanborn was not only a coxswain for three high school races but also a rower for the middle school squad. Sanborn was joined by Lawton C Johnson Middle School 8th grader Drew Tomassi, 7th graders Caroline Barbato, Jimmy Weir and Eamon McConnon, and 6th grader Bruno Estupinan. Sanborn, Tomassi and Estupinan rowed against high school freshman in the Freshman 8-man race coxswained by McConnon. Tomassi returned to action and was joined by Barbato and Weir as they rowed in the mixed 8-man race, coxswained by McConnon. Finally, Barbato was also called on to row for the high school girls Novice 8-person boat, the only racer to row for both the high school and middle school teams.

To learn more about the sport of rowing, please visit www.rownj.org or contact Rowing Director Rob Welsh at rwelsh@rownj.org.