Eastside High School Rowers Among Best in the Nation

Eastside High School Rowers in All 3 boats from Sammamish Rowing Association Place within the Top Six in the Country in Their Events at USRowing Youth Nationals

For Eastside High School Rowers it was three hot days of racing in humid 90 plus degree weather against the best crews from each region at the US Rowing Youth National Championships June 12-14^th in Sarasota, Florida.  After the lightweight girls raced their first heat through the beginnings of an electrical storm, the Eastside High School Rowers boys were forced to wait to race until Saturday morning for their heats due to lightning, heavy rain and 30 mph winds.

Sammamish Rowing and their Eastside High School Rowers were part of 1500 high school athletes from 150 clubs across the nation who competed at Nathan-Benderson Park, a new Olympic-class rowing venue, in Sarasota.  Many of the Eastside High School Rowers seniors missed graduation in order to compete at nationals. Sammamish Rowing Association’s Competitive Junior Program had an incredibly strong showing with all three of their boats rowing their hearts out all weekend over 2-3 heats and semifinals each to earn a spot in their respective Grand Finals.

In the Women’s Lightweight Youth 4+ Grand Final, Sammamish crossed the finish line in 4^th place just 2 seconds from 3^rd place behind crews from Long Beach Junior Crew, Cambridge and Miami Rowing teams.  Their Grand Finals time was the fastest they have ever posted.

 The Men’s Lightweight Youth 8+ took on some incredibly fast crews to come in 6^th in their Grand Final with a time of 6:17.139 behind Norcal, Belen Jesuit, Marin, Long Beach and Boston’s CRI crews.  They were the only boat in their event to make the Grand Final after making a comeback in the repecharges, a second chance heat for those boats that didn’t initially qualify for the semi-final.

 The final race of the regatta was the Men’s Youth 8+ Grand Final, and the Sammamish Varsity Men’s 8+, despite some equipment problems, flew down the course in a very tight race, setting a Sammamish speed record and finishing 5^th, 1 ½ seconds off 4^th place and only 6 ½ seconds behind Oakland Strokes from California who took gold.

This year Sammamish had its best showing in the club’s history with all three of its qualifying boats making their Grand Finals led by the excellent coaches Steven Freygang, Dennis Ferrer, Kara McKown, and Kelley Pope.

Sammamish Rowing Association is located in Redmond on the Sammamish River near the north end of Lake Sammamish.  Over 130 Eastside high school rowers from all over the eastside participate in this great community resource that exposes people to the sport of rowing from tweens to senior citizens.  The high school rowers train Monday through Friday during the school year 2.5-3 hours per day and compete locally, nationally, and in Canada. Sammamish Rowing has a place for both recreational and competitive rowers, regularly holds “Row for a Day” events for people interested in the sport to give it a try, and offers “Learn to Row” classes throughout the year. During 2015, more than 550 people have been a part of Sammamish Rowing. Check out www.sammamishrowing.org for more details.

Sammamish Men’s Lightweight 8+:

Coxswain: Kira Lewis (Bellevue, Interlake High School, 10^th)

 Rowers: Anant Singh (Redmond, University Prep, 11^th)

Geiger Swanson (Kirkland, Lake Washington HS, 11^th)

Adam Rockett (Sammamish, Skyline HS, 12^th, headed to University of Washington)

Connor Lien (North Bend, Mt. Si HS, 10^th)

Isaac Beeman (Sammamish, Skyline HS, 11^th)

Wynn Wee (Kirkland, Cambridge Juanita HS, 9^th)

Max Kern (Redmond, Overlake School, 12th headed to University of Washington)

Michael Prostka (Redmond, Woodinville HS, 11^th)

Sammamish Men’s Varsity 8+

Coxswain: Madison Mariani (Snoqualmie, Mt. Si HS, 12^th, headed to University of Washington)

Rowers: Peter Arata (Medina, Bellevue HS, 12^th, headed to Northeastern University)

Sam Halbert (Redmond, Woodinville HS, 11^th)

Tennyson Federspiel (Bellevue, Bellevue HS, 12^th, headed to University of Washington)
Editor’s Note: Does anyone know if Tennyson is the son of Paul Federspiel who also went to Bellevue High School?

Elijah Maesner (Duvall, Eastlake HS, 12^th, headed to University of Washington)

Christian Rouhana (Redmond, Redmond HS, 10^th)

Chris Tzekov (Bellevue, Newport HS, 11^th)

Nathan Lewis (Bellevue, Interlake HS, 12^th, headed to Washington State University)

Josh Warnick (Kirkland, Juanita HS, 12^th, headed to University of Washington)

Sammamish Women’s Lightweight 4+

Coxswain: Emma Smith (Redmond, International Community School, 10^th)

Rowers: Frances Hausmann (Bellevue, Holy Names Academy, 11^th)

Marilyn Garberg (Bellevue, Bellevue HS, 12^th, headed to University of Wisconsin)

Payton James (Bothell, Seattle Prep, 12^th, headed to University of Wisconsin)

Serena Harber (Bellevue, Bellevue HS, 12^th, headed to Stanford University)

*Most of the Sammamish Rowing seniors were recruited to row at their universities.

http://www.usrowing.org/news/details/14-05-15/Sarasota-Bradenton_to_Host_2015_USRowing_Youth_National_Championships.aspx

Official Race Results: https://www.herenow.com/#/races/20150/results

Congratulations to all the Eastside High School Rowers who competed – as well as the entire Sammamish Rowing Association.