Seven Conestoga Crew Club Boats Win Qualifying Spots to the 2014 USRowing Youth National Championships!

Conestoga Crew Club’s outstanding performances in the 2014 USRowing/Mid-Atlantic Junior District Championships this past weekend earned bids for seven 'Stoga boats to compete in the 2014 USRowing Youth National Championships, which will take place June 13th -15th, at Lake Natoma, near Sacramento, California.

To qualify for YNC, Conestoga Crew Club competed in the 5th Annual USRowing/Mid-Atlantic Junior District Championships on Mother’s Day at Mercer Lake, in West Windsor New Jersey.  The Mid-Atlantic Junior District Championships regatta is one of twelve regattas held nationally for regional crews hoping to qualify for USRowing Youth National Championships. These qualifying regattas have been likened to high school rowing’s version of March Madness in May!

Saturday’s heavy rain caused the rescheduling of heats and semifinal races, and canceled practices, but Sunday arrived with perfect racing weather and CCC rowers ready to compete.

Stoga’s first boats at the start of the 2,000 meter race course were Women’s Lightweight Varsity Double B (Amy Connell; Anna Zibinski), and Double A (Sophie Bodek; Katie Groves), with 2nd and 3rd place finishes respectively.  Next up was Women’s Varsity Double (Rachel Devlin; Annina Ruggirello), coming in with a 2nd place finish.  The Men’s Lightweight Varsity Double B (Micky Kling; Hanan Zisling), took 3rd place in their race, with Men’s Lightweight Varsity Double A (Max Malarkey; Ryan Hollinger), finishing less than a second behind in 4th place.

The Pioneers then went on to four 1st place wins in a row.  Men’s Junior Varsity Quad (Austin Coney; Maarten Monster, Tim Kao and Carleton Monster), lead off the wins, taking 1st place with a time of 6:49.99.  The next 1st place win was taken forty minutes later by the Women’s Junior Varsity Double (Emily Hompe; Angela Sarkisian).  The Women’s Varsity Quad A (Annie Graf; Emer Ryle; Caroline Gosnear; Meagan Hudson), remains undefeated for the season, with their 1st place victory.  That same race saw the Women’s Varsity Quad B (Maddie Beirne; Sarah Thomas, Carly Robins; Rebecca Simonetti), come in with another less than a second difference as they crossed the line for a 4th place finish.

The Men’s Varsity Quad A (Niall Carlson; Nathan Leibowitz; Jake Novak; Sean Pepin) captured their 1st place win with a time of 6:28.8, the fastest 1st place win of the morning for a sculling quad.  They were followed closely by the Men’s Varsity Quad B (Tyler Simpson; Chris Ferris; Steven Devlin; Andrey Lanahan), securing a 2nd place finish and closing out another exciting day of racing!

This coming weekend will be a busy and exciting one for Conestoga Crew Club as our rowers compete Friday and Saturday in the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, the most historical and the largest high school regatta in the world, and then again on Sunday for the Philadelphia City Championships.  Come cheer CCC on at Stoga's tent along the Schuylkill River!