RowAmerica Rye brought home a remarkable seven medals from the Head of the Charles Regatta – the world’s largest three-day rowing competition – winning the Women’s Youth Eight for the second consecutive year.
The event, held on Oct. 20-22 on the Charles River, typically hosts more than 12,000 Qualified competitors. And this year, RowAmerica Rye enrolled a large team of 72 rowers to race in 10 youth events.
“The team worked hard all fall and began the season with strong results at the Head of the Riverfront Regatta on the Connecticut River in Hartford, where we took the overall team trophy for the fourth consecutive year,” a jubilant Club Director, Marko Serafimovski, said. “Then, a few weeks later, competing against an international field of highly selected crews with up to 90 entries in many events, the team’s strong performance in Boston demonstrated a real depth of talent in our program on both the boys and girls teams. We had eight boats win medals for finishing within the top five crews.”
In the Women’s Youth eights, the Rye club’s boats took home gold and bronze medals for the second year in a row. The Men’s Under 17 Fours came in first and second in their final.
“Over an approximately 16-minute-long three-mile race, our Women’s Youth Eight A boat won by a commanding 20 seconds and our B boat finished third by only .4 seconds behind the second-place team,” Serafimovski continued. “By taking first and third in consecutive years, our Women’s Youth Eight A & B boats repeated the history they made at the Head of the Charles with two boats from the same club taking home medals in the most competitive youth event.”
The Women’s Under 17 Four took second place, the Women’s Youth Four came in fourth, and the Women’s Youth Quad boat took 15th. On the men’s side, three boats reached the A finals. The Men’s Youth Quad was runner-up, the Men’s Youth Four took fifth, and the Men’s Youth Eight finished sixth.
“We are incredibly proud of all of our athletes for their dedication to both the team and our sport of rowing,” Serafimovski said.
RowAmerica Rye completed its fall racing season with strong results as well at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia. Regarded by many as the home of American rowing, the Schuylkill welcomes 30,000 spectators on the last weekend in October. The team took home the overall club trophy — the girls winning six races and the boys four. The club came in first, second, and third in the Girls Varsity Four and the Boys JV Four and JV Eight.
The team is now beginning winter training in preparation for spring sprints.
