By Holly Byrne
The Port Rowing varsity and novice rowing teams traveled to Saratoga Springs for their final race of the spring season to compete in the New York State High School Rowing Championships and brought home eight club medals.
Leading the way for the Vikings were the novice teams, taking home four medals including a Gold and Silver medal in the Boys’ Freshman 4+ category (first and third overall), a Silver medal in the Boys’ Novice 8+ event (third overall), as well as a Bronze medal in the Girls’ Freshman 8+ event (seventh overall). Both scholastic and club teams compete at the New York State Champs. Medals were awarded according to overall finish and placement within the club category.
The varsity followed suit and earned one Bronze medal in the Women’s Lightweight 4+ (ninth overall), two Silver medals in Men’s (sixth overall) and Women’s (tenth overall) Varsity 4’s, and topped it off with a strong performance by the Women’s Varsity 4+ A Boat placing third overall in a field of 45 and earning a Gold medal for fastest club boat.
The Women’s Varsity A+ boat also represented Port Rowing at the USRowing Youth National Championships on June 10 in Mercer, NJ. Battling through a rough weather season with many canceled races and windy practices, the team stayed focused and pushed each other to work harder than ever as a team and earned Port Rowing its third consecutive trip to the National Championships.
The Port Rowing club team represents high schools throughout Long Island’s North Shore. Rowers come from Great Neck South, Schreiber, Roslyn, Solomon Schechter, North Shore, Syosset, Long Island School for the Gifted and St. Mary’s high schools.
To learn more about Port Rowing’s programs for high school and middle school students, visit www.portrowing.org.
