RowAmerica Rye enters its 2024 season with a pretty good idea of where it wants to wind up: Last spring, the team’s boys varsity 8+ boat won gold at the USRowing Youth National Championships, while the girls varsity 8+ boat came in fourth, seconds away from a tournament medal.

And they were not there alone: Many of RowAmerica Rye’s other boats – from individual scullers to junior and varsity 4+ and other 8+ boats – made it to Nationals in Sarasota, Florida, last June, and did well. As a result, RowAmerica Rye also made it into both the A and B finals of the championship’s top teams competitions.

This season, only four of the eight varsity rowers from last year’s gold-medal boys boat, and the boat’s coxswain, are back to defend their championship in the varsity 8+ boat (so-called because it holds eight rowers plus a coxswain). So they’ll join forces with the next four best rowers in the boys varsity program.
The competition this year is expected to be as intense as ever. “There are many competitive teams along the West Coast and Northeast regions, with a few crews coming out of the Southeast as well,” senior rower Cole Thomas said. At last year’s final in Florida, for instance, RowAmerica Rye’s boys varsity boat had to hold off two rival clubs, both from California, to secure their gold medal.

The girls varsity 8+ boat, meanwhile, was edged out of last year’s medal round by a next-door neighbor – Greenwich (Connecticut) Crew – and two California teams.