A strong showing at their own regatta at the end of April led to even more success last weekend for Brentwood College School rowers.
The hosts topped the school standings and finished fifth out of 32 teams overall at the Brentwood Regatta on April 27-29, while qualifying two boats for Seattle’s prestigious Opening Day Regatta on May 5-7, both of which medalled.
The 2017 regatta was one of the most challenging in the event’s 48-year history, as weather prevented any races from happening on the Friday and caused a four-hour delay on the Saturday. Remarkably, organizers still managed to get every race in.
“For me, it’s all about making sure the kids get to race, and get to race as many times as possible,” Brentwood head of rowing Debbie Sage said.
Organizers made it through the whole slate by using timed finals to determine winners instead of heats and finals.
“That’s nothing new to us in the rowing world,” Sage said. “We are used to playing around Mother Nature.”
Liam Carson, Jacob Phillips, Oliver Wilson and Benett Layton won gold for Brentwood in the junior A JV boys quad, and the school also took silver in the boys school eight and girls school eight, and bronze in the junior A boys coxed four, junior A girls coxed four and junior A JV boys coxed four.
All 85 Brentwood rowers contributed to the school’s success.
“We didn’t have a ton of wins, but we still managed to do as well as we did,” Sage noted. “It takes a team effort: the kids that didn’t medal we wouldn’t have done as well as we did without them.”
At the Opening Day Regatta in Seattle, the Brentwood junior A coxed four crew of Kate Laumann-Wallace, Tasmin West, Allulah Beth Collins, Danielle Macdonald and cox Seo Young Ra won gold, and the boys eight crew of Peter Lancashire, Lion Tautz, Phil Kirker, Aidan Witts, Riley Toporowski, Logan Poseley, Justin Meeker, Leon Surwald and cox Emma Holmes finished third.
The Maple Bay Rowing Club also fared well at the Brentwood Regatta, taking gold in the junior B JV girls coxed quad (Milla Watt, Ella Stemler, Myfanwy Warren, Chloe Cizeron and cox Grace Brigham), and silver in the junior B novice girls coxed quad (Watt, Stemler, Robin de Valk Zaiss, Marley Trithart and cox Brigham) and junior A novice women’s coxed quad (Watt, Stemler, Robin de Valk Zaiss, Halle de Valk Zaiss and cox Trithart).