As this school year winds to a close, so does Seattle Prep’s Crew season. The team has raced at six different regattas, across the northwest.
Prep has raced from as far south as Oregon for the Covered Bridge Regatta and for the Portland Fall Classic, and they have even faced international competition up north in Canada for the 47th Annual Brentwood Regatta and the Head of the Gorge in B.C. Prep has had plenty of good race experience under their belt this year. The team has trained all year, putting in countless hours, for this one regatta.
The Northwest Regional Championships, is one of the twelve national qualifying regattas. The northwest region is comprised of, Wyoming. Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, however, over ninety percent of all crews come from Oregon, and Washington. The thirty crews are competing for spots in the US Youth National Championships, in Sarasota, Florida on the week of June 12. Prep crew will focus on qualifying boats in eight of the eighteen possible boat classifications.
Among the eight boats, there are several with a chance for a spot at Nationals. One of them is the Women’s Varsity Single rowed by Emma Conaty ‘18. Another is the Men’s Light Weight Coxed Four rowed by, Andrew Russell ‘19, Aedan Brown ‘19, Ethan Pavelich ‘18, and Gabe Maggiore ‘20. Both boats got to see where they stack up against other crews they will face at regionals.
The light weight four did not perform as they had hoped because of several members of the boat not being able to race in Canada. Conaty’s single however showed more promise. Despite coming in ninth place, she was only beaten by one rower that will be racing at regionals in Vancouver Lake come May 19. Both of these boats will face tough competition from other northwest crews. Specifically in the light four, from Pocock Rowing Center who won this event at Brentwood, from Everett who won this event at regionals last year, and Seattle Rowing Center which features Reece Shulz ‘18 and Nick Angelillo 17’ who won nationals last year in the light weight double.
In the women’s single, the biggest competitor comes also from Seattle Rowing Center which features Jenna Hardman , who won silver at nationals in the varsity double. Along with these eight potential national qualifying boats, Prep will also race boats in 15 non-national qualifying events, in both novice and varsity boat classes.
Prep crew will race in Vancouver Washington on May 19-21, hoping to punch their ticket to Sarasota.