BOSTON – The Ocean City High School girls rowing team competed last weekend at the Head of the Charles Regatta, the largest rowing event in the world.
It features Olympic to high school athletes, drawing crews from around the world to compete over three days in the three-mile course.
The OCHS girls were given an invitation to compete in the Youth Eights event after receiving one of the 43 at-large bids given yearly through a lottery system. The Youth Eight field consisted of 86 crews, ranging from Stotesbury champions, USRowing Youth National champions, British National champions to Henley Royal Regatta champions. The Ocean City eight was seeded 81st in the field meaning it was the 81st crew to enter the course and race. The race starts as a single-file line as referees stagger each crew and start them on the course with 10 seconds of spacing between them.
“Starting in the back of the pack like this puts the crew at a massive disadvantage,” said head coach Colin Stewart. “Theoretically the seeding of these races is done with the fastest crews being ranked lower in bow numbers and the slowest being the higher bow numbers to prevent collisions and passing.
“Since we didn’t row a Youth Eight last year we weren’t ranked so we were placed in the back of the pack. This meant our boat had to swerve to avoid crews they were overtaking and avoid potential collisions,” Stewart said. “Last year we started bow 86 in the Youth Fours and ended up in a four-boat collision. This group was extremely aware how difficult their starting placement was going to be.”
The Ocean City crew consisted of Harper Petitgout, Aubrey Schlembach, Jada Smith, Victoria Sakhno, Margot Swift, Marina Zappone, Marin Pearce, Reese Hemberger and Kailyn Kelly, (last year’s Junior Eight SRAA National Champions).
The girls worked their way up the course Sunday, passing several crews along the way all the while holding off and beating bow 82 St. Edwards – which placed third last year in the British National Schools Championship and was a Royal Henley semifinalists.
The Raider crew had a clean race and ended with a 23rd-place finish, 58 places higher than initially ranked. They also finished with the third-fastest scholastic time. Scholastic crews are high school teams that draw from only their student body while club teams draw regionally and internationally. The Raiders beat Montclair High School, last year’s Stotesbury Cup Regatta senior eight winners, Garden State Champions and were second in the SRAA Senior Eight National placing.
“Despite the poor bow draw the athletes stepped up and executed the best race they possibly could. It’s a new program record at the Charles for Ocean City and a great bench mark to get us fueled and ready to race in the spring,” Stewart said. “We won’t see most of the scholastic crews we raced today until Stotesbury and Nationals in May so we know we have some work ahead of us but we’re on the right path.”
The raiders rowing team will close out their fall season at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta this Sunday.
– Photos special to the Sentinel, Melanie Zappone
