WESTERN ALBEMARLE HIGH SCHOOL CREW MEDALS AT VIRGINIA STATE ROWING CHAMPIONSHIP & STOTESBURY CUP REGATTA IN PHILADALPHIA, PA
Western Albemarle High School Rowers Row in Back-To-Back Regattas: Virginia State Rowing Championship (VSRC) on May 14 and Stotesbury Cup Regatta on May 20-21. Full Race Results can be found here for VSRC and https://stotesburycupregatta.com/results/.
Western Albemarle High School (WAHS) rowers competed in two very challenging regattas over the course of two weeks and came home with 6 gold and 4 silver medals at VSRC and 3 silver medals at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta, the largest high school regatta in the world with 181 teams and 840 boats competing over two days.
The VASRA Championship regatta is open to all Virginia schools and is used as a qualifier for both Scholastic Nationals, to be held at the end of this month in Camden NJ, and US Youth Nationals. VSRC had 188 boats from 49 different schools competing—an impressively large number of entries this year. Leading the field in the Men’s 2x event were Lucas Farmer and Will Donovan, both seniors, taking gold with a time of 5:08.2. Gold medals were also awarded to Jack Mehnart and Ryan Donovan in the Men’s Junior 2x with a time of 5:20.4, Lydia Pelton and Laney Young in the Women’s Junior 2x with a time of 5:58.1, and Quentin Bragaw in the Men’s Junior 1x with a time of 6:00.0. Additionally, two gold medals were awarded to two of the 4 quads entered into the regatta, the Women’s Junior 4x made up of Maya Kim, Cate Manclark, Bree Palmer, and Emmy Miller with a time of 5:48.9 and the Men’s 4x with a time of 5:15.0 made up of Maxwell Dell, Jack Young, Jude Sanborn, and Max Creager-Roberts.
The Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia brought its own challenges with a six-hour delay on day two due to heavy overnight thunderstorms and river flooding which carried fast currents and a tremendous amount of debris down the Schuylkill River. The conditions did not phase 4 Western Albemarle boats who not only made it to their finals but also took silver medals in their events—both the men’s and women’s JV 2x boats, and the Men’s Senior 2x, using the same lineups as were set for VASRA.
Overall, Coach Craig Redinger saw the results of the focus and attention to detail the crew demonstrated over the past couple of weeks. The finals were all tight races, with the Men’s Junior Double finishing 2.77 seconds off the gold medaling St. Joseph’s boat. “Of this crew, which has been battling some injuries, I could not be prouder. Additionally, our women’s junior quad finished top 4 in the nation, was no easy feat, and something they should be very proud of.”
The team continues to practice on the Beaver Creek Reservoir this week in preparation for the Scholastic Rowing National Championship, to be held on May 27th and May 28th on the Cooper River in Camden, NJ.
