A women's crew from New Trier High School won a bronze medal at the USRowing Youth Nationals in Oak Ridge, Tenn. on Sunday, the second time in two years that a boat from the North Shore school has achieved that distinction in the prestigious regatta.
With an end-of-the-race rush, the women's lightweight eight edged Mount St. Joseph High School from Philadephia by 1.88 seconds for third place and the bronze.
The New Trier crew finished with a time of 7:10.06 on the 2,000-meter course. Community Rowing of Brighton, Mass. won the race in 7:01.84. Two other New Trier crews participated in the event, which drew 343 entries from 148 clubs in 29 states and was held on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge.
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The women's first varsity eight finished eighth overall, taking second in the "B" final. The women's varsity four came in 18th, with a sixth-place finish in the "C" final.
The lightweight eight's bronze medal capped a highly successful season for the New Trier rowing program. In May, on the same Oak Ridge course, the school's men's and women's teams won the overall points trophy in the Midwest scholastic rowing championships.
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"The final races for all three boats were rowed with great intensity and demonstrated exceptional championship spirit," said Rose Marchuk, head coach of New Trier's rowing team. "This was a break-out year for the all-sophomore lightweight crew whose medaling performance awed many on this national stage."
The USRowing Youth National Championships is an invitational championship regatta for varsity-only events and sponsored by USRowing, the governing body of the sport of rowing in the U.S.
New Trier received three bids to compete at this regatta by winning three varsity events at the Scholastic Midwest Championships, one of many qualifying regattas held throughout the United States.
The event is held on a 2,000 meter course, 500 meters longer than the standard scholastic distance. The regatta attracts the best high school and club crews from around the country.
"Finishing third against the top crews in the nation, particularly east coast powerhouse Community Rowing and dominant west coast Oakland Strokes, put the New Trier Lightweights squarely on the map," said Sandy Culver, coach of the lightweight eight team.
"Our real race was against Mount Saint Joseph (Philadelphia)," Culver said. "Coming from behind in last 250 meters, we beat them by a couple seats for third place."
In last year's youth nationals, held at Harsha Lake outside of Cincinatti, New Trier's women's varsity eight won third place.
The members of this year's participating New Trier crews were:
Women's lightweight eight
C Rachel Watkin
8 Sophia Krause-Levy
7 Emily Kofman
6 Natalie Smith
5 Eliza Weaver
4 Julia Wolf
3 Lynsey Robertson
2 Jasmine Truong
1 Sophie Lee
Women's varsity eight
C Jenn Maley
8 Hemingway Benton
7 Megan Marchuk
6 Mell Eckert
5 Meredith Fischer
4 Merritt Denham
3 Rachel Crosley
2 Alex Swift
1 Caroline DeWeirdt
Women's varsity four
C Dani Cipinko
4 Jessy Streur
3 Elsbeth Weeks
2 Remi Johnson
1 Olivia Gignilliat
