One part high-octane athletic contest and another part beach party, the competition is held each year on Lake Vancouver — a shallow avian sanctuary a short distance from the Columbia River.   The ospreys, eagles, herons and egrets didn’t know what to make of the dueling musical tributes between the 20 clubs and 1400 rowers represented.  But after a spring of regattas the juniors from different clubs have gained mutual respect and friendship contributing to an extraordinary aura of teamwork, camaraderie and sportsmanship.

The Vashon Junior Crew statistics were simply extraordinary:  44 races entered with 37 “top three” finishes – 18 first, 11 second and 8 third places.  15 rowers and one coxswain are heading to Nationals on Lake Melton outside Oak Ridge, Tennessee the weekend of June 7 – 9 to compete in 8 separate events – both the number of rowers and events are club records.  In the overall team rankings, Vashon Junior Women placed 4^th and the Men 5^th.

Vashon’s Nationals bound crew members are Kallie Heffernan and Kirsten Girard who took gold in the women’s double and were also joined by Anna Ripley and Hannah Russell in the women’s quad placing third.

Kaitlin Carter and Shannon Lipe took silver in the women’s lightweight double and then were joined by two novices – eighth grade stroke Emily Milbrath and Leanne Anderson – and coxswain Ally Clevenger to take another silver in the women’s lightweight four.

Gus Magnuson and Tate Gill also medaled in two national qualifying races taking a bronze in the men’s double and a silver in the men’s quad joined by Jacob Plihal and Isaiah Mosser-Rohe.

Nathaniel Petram and Baxter Call took silver in the lightweight men’s double and the national-bound team was completed with Anne Gaspers taking a bronze in the women’s single.

First place finishers in finals that are not going to nationals were Ella McConnell and Kai Li Scheer in the women’s third varsity double, Tea Schafer and Leanne Anderson in the women’s novice double, Lorenzo Higuera and Forrest Miller in the men’s novice double, Alexander Wright and Liam McConnell in the men’s third varsity double, Julian Baca and Ethan Rumberg in the men’s third varsity double and Nathaniel Petram and Baxter Call in the men’s second varsity double.

 In an unusual finish the women’s high school eight tied for first with Holy Names Academy.

M Var 4x took 2nd = Nationals. Yeah Tate, Gus, Jacob & Isaiah!!

W Ltw 2x takes second = Nationals. Nice Katelyn & Shannon!!

W 1x takes 3rd = Nationals. Way to go Anne!!

M Ltw 2x placed 2nd = Nationals. Whoo hoo Baxter & Nathaniel!!

Men’s 3 Varsity Double. Way to go Julian and Ethan!!

W Nov 2x Second in timed Final by one second. Nice job Tea and LeeAnn!

W 3Var 2x FIRST in Final. Way to go Ella and Kai Li!

Men’s pair 3rd = final.

Heat sheets and results for the 2013 USRowing Northwest Junior District Championships will be posted here as they become available.

Heat Sheets

Friday Heat Sheet

Saturday Heat Sheet

Sunday Heat Sheet

Results

Friday Heat Sheet

Saturday Heat Sheet

Sunday Heat Sheet

The master’s men unfortunately misjudged “regatta time” and pulled into the starting line only to watch their race already heading down the course.  Three weeks of early morning work to prepare for this race ended up for naught.

The junior women’s four got to the line in time but didn’t have a good start and fell back in the field. In the second half of the race they pulled together and made up a couple of boat lengths, taking fourth place.

That left the junior men’s quad of Tate Gill, Gus Magnuson, Jacob Plihal and Isaiah Mosser-Rohe with coxswain Olivia Mackie to put Vashon in the medals.  And medal they did with an open water win over a 5-boat field, repeating their victory from last year.

The final races of the morning were the men’s and women’s varsity college eights with the UW rowers putting their “home field” to good advantage taking open water wins against the Cornell and Dartmouth crews invited to the challenge.

It is on to the Pac-12 and IRA National Championships for the Husky crews.  And on to the Northwest Regional Championships on Lake Vancouver (WA) on May 16^th through 18^th for the junior crews.

By Pat Call

Noteworthy performances were led by Gus Magnuson who won the individual men’s open single category on Sunday morning pulling away from the field in the final 500 meters in a powerful sprint. Magnuson came back later in the morning, joined by Tate Gill, to take the boy’s open double race again with a powerful sprint to gain open water at the finish line.  This is the second year in a row that Vashon took first in this category.  The respective trophies (Gotfredsen and Walters) will be engraved with Vashon Island Rowing Club as the 2013 winners.

In the 16 and under women’s double race, Kirsten Girard and Kallie Heffernan rowed to a first place victory.  Their race was one of several where an early lead paid off as several competitors in the race were blown together and into a buoy.

If there was am award for “best performance by four novice rowers at a time” Vashon would have won it without contest.  The boy’s novice quartet of Forrest Miller,
Lorenzo Higuera, Jacob Plihal and Fletcher Call won gold medals for both the quad and four competitions with Olivia Mackie and Liv Mangione splitting the coxswain duties.  On Saturday the girl’s novice quad of Leanne Anderson, Caprial Turner, Tea Shaffer and Emily Milbrath with cox Liv Mangione took first place. A short time later Vashon won another gold with the 16 and under novice girl’s quad of Mei Lee Vandervelde and Kira Rabourn joining Turner, Milbrath and coxswain Olivia Mackie.

The JV women’s quad, with Shannon Lipe, Katelyn Carter, Tea Schafer, Kai Li Scheer and coxed by Mangione won a silver in a tightly contested race on Saturday morning.  In the last race of the regatta the girl’s novice quad of Anderson, Turner, Shaffer and Milbrath closed out Vashon’s memorable novice performance with another silver medal.

Vashon placed third in two other open categories to complete a strong varsity performance.  Magnuson and Gill were joined on Saturday by Nathaniel Petram and Isaiah Moser-Rohe to take the bronze in the open boy’s quad coxed by Liv Mangione.  Taegan Lynch, Maya Krah, Emmie Kehoe, Bryn Gilbert and coxswain Ally Clevenger came from behind to take third place at the finish line.

In congratulating the team on its performance coach Richard Parr cited the performance of senior Gus Magnuson in the single and double finals and thanked assistant coach Tom Kicinski for his support and early inspiration of Gus and Tate Gill when they first started rowing for the Vashon junior program.  “It has been a wonderful weekend of rowing and now we turn our attention to the NW Junior Regionals coming up in three weeks.”

Latest Results

Why does the program need additional funding?  As of January, 2013 VIJC is no longer affiliated with Vashon Parks District and it now falls entirely within Vashon Island Rowing Club, a 501(3) (c) organization.  With these changes the program faces a number of financial challenges: rower’s registration fees and travel expense affordability, required boat maintenance fees, financial aid for qualified rowers (previously covered by Parks), employing two coaches (also previously handled by Parks) to name a few.

Our fleet is unusually old compared to most competitive clubs.  The average age of our boats is well over 10 years, some as old as 24.  Because we have a small team compared to other clubs in the region we are also challenged with a regular replacement cycle for the shells.  Races are won by tenths of a second and having good equipment is part of that equation.

The benefits of having a high quality program open to all island youth results in better students and focused & healthy children.  The dedication and hard work associated with rowing builds character & integrity and opens more opportunities for higher education.

Call (463-4455) or make your reservation online today: http://www.nirvanavashon.com/.

The junior rowers appreciate your support!

In total the Juniors collected 3 gold, 7 silver and 7 bronze medals while the Masters had 2 silver and 3 bronze.   The Junior Novice four with Fletcher Call, Jacob Plihal, Lorenzo Higuera and Forrest Miller coxed by Ally Clevenger started Vashon off early with a solid win of 15 seconds over all of the eighteen other boats in this category.  Later on Saturday Tea Schafer and Leanne Anderson rowed their Novice boat to an astounding first place result in a Junior Varsity race with 300 meters of open water on their nearest competitor.  In the final race of the regatta the girl’s varsity four of Taegan Lynch, Maya Krah, Emmie Kehoe and Bryn Gilbert coxed by Ally Clevenger rowed to a two boat length win.  Also noteworthy at this regatta the Masters Women rowers of Su Dewalt, Marilyn Kleyn, Kim Goforth and Mary Rothermel, and Lisa Huggenvick medaled in all three of the races that they entered with 2 silvers and 2 bronze (two Vashon boats competed in one of the races).

Race officials and rowers played “cat and mouse” with some squalls on Saturday pushing the last races of the day way past dinner time but in the end all of the scheduled races were rowed.  On Sunday morning the strong headwind from the day before gave way to a light tail wind and a calm surface to the delight of the crews.

Coach Richard Parr was again pleased with the efforts of both the Masters and the Juniors.  ”We faced our stiffest competition of the spring season this weekend and although we didn’t win all of our races, we were competitive in most of them.  These results give us just what we need to refine our training in the final month before the Junior regionals”, he said.

Results

Regatta  Heat Sheet  Vashon Covered Bridge lineups 2013 FINAL

Race #

47a 46b 46a 45a 44b 44a 43b 43a 42a 41b 41a 40c 40b 40a 39b 39a 38b 38a 37c 37b 37a 36d 36b

36c 36a 35b 35a 34f 34f start 34b 34a 33d 33b 33c 33a 32a 31a 30b 30a 29a 28a 27b 27a 26c 26b

26a 25c 25b 25a 24a 23a 22d 22c 22b 22a 21b 21a 20b 20a 19a 18b 18a 17b 17a 16 15a 14a 13a

12c 12b 12a 11b 11a 10b 10a 9c 9b 9a 8a 7a 6a 5c 5b 5a 4b 3c 4a 3b 3a 2c 2b 2a 1c 1b 1a

“In an invitation race like this one you are always a little worried about embarrassing yourself with a last place finish” said master men’s eight stroke Bruce Morser.  But the hard work over the past few weeks of rowing before dawn on Quartermaster Harbor paid off for the men with a second place finish to a highly regarded Cambridge, MA eight (recent winner of the Head of the Charles – the largest regatta in the world).  The Vashon lineup of Morser (stroke), Colby Atwood, Anton Adam-Fuchs, Ed Zapel, Scott Engelhard,  Chad Magnuson, Mark Ripley and Bob Horsley with cox Heather Dow was elated to beat two area powerhouses.

The Junior rowing team entered three races coming away with two first place finishes and one second.  The girl’s varsity quad of Kalie Heffernan, Kirsten Girard, Anna Ripley and Hannah Russell, and coxed by Olivia Mackie won a tightly contested race against Seattle Rowing Center with a margin of about 4 seconds.  The girl’s varsity four of Taegan Lynch, Maya Krah, Emmie Kehoe and Bryn Gilbert and coxed by Ally Clevenger had an easy time overcoming Lake Union crew for another first place finish in the last race of the day.  The boys quad of Tate Gill, Gus Magnuson, Jacob Plihal and Isaiah Moser-Rohe with coxswain Liv Mangione finished a close second to a strong Seattle Rowing Center crew.  Coach Richard Parr was pleased with the day’s results, saying, “Competing against some of the best crews in the Northwest and, in the case of the master’s men, in the country, showed that Vashon’s master and junior crews are making great progress for this time in the spring season.”

Written by Pat Call, recreational rower and father of two junior rowers.