Unlike last weekend, which featured whitecaps and swamped boats on the Merrimack River, the water was calmer and the day warmer on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester for the High School Regional Championship Regatta on Sunday, Oct. 11. Bromfield-AB achieved excellent results, earning medals in its division and doing well overall against much larger squads from across New England.
Fall races are timed, so all events were run with both club teams and high school teams in the same race. As a club sport, the BA-B rowers were able to see how their times stacked up against other crews, but most medals were awarded by division in the larger, varsity events.
The sculling events started the day, with the BA-B varsity girls taking the gold in the 4x with a time of 12:57. Rowers were Grace Ott, Caroline Noyes, Rachel Foote, and Courtney Robb. The boys double-scullers followed suit with a gold in the 2x event. Rowers were Cole Winsor and Jack Walsh. The girls 2x then placed fourth in its 15-boat race. Rowers were Maeve French and Lindsey Hayes.
BA-B dominated the single scull events with the boys taking first, second, fifth, and seventh, and the girls sweeping their races, coming in first, second, and third. Boys rowers were Justin Hayes, Luca Basile, John Gardiner, and Oliver Perrine; girls rowers were Ally Goldsher, Kirsten Thiim, and Kamryn Stecyk.
The novice rowers competed next, with BA-B coming in third in the boys first novice 8+, which was combined for both club and high school teams. The boat was coxed by Zac Shamah, and rowers were Jack Kelley, Jason Lancellotti, Tal Lindsay, John Hart, Nikhil Kommineni, Dwight Fairchild, Ben Buchovecky, and Nick Boyd. The second novice 8+ came in second in its race, which was coxed by Ben Boucher and featured rowers Liam Makosky, Caeden Bishop, Chris Clark, Charlie Carbonell, Spencer Tingle, Ryan Luo, Kevin Yu, and Patrick Stoffel.
“Last week the squad made some technical improvements that made all of the difference, earning every rower a silver or bronze medal,” said Conor Finnegan, boys novice coach.
The girls first novice 8+ placed third, and the girls second novice 8+ came in eighth. The first novice covered the 2-mile course in a time of 12:52, edging out Avon High to win the bronze. The boat was coxed by Amy Zhu and featured rowers Alice Pope, Ariella Bull, Erin Smith, Emily Haviland, Emily Brown, Leah Bartle, Marisa Wall, and Taylor Tracey. The second novice had rowers Kat Fay, Katherine Worden, Lena Benway, Anna Schlimak, Song Isaah, Sila Inanoglu, Rachel Shrives, and Summer Maxwell, with cox Cassi Nelson.
Julie Nocka, the girls novice coach, said her team has two weeks to build on this experience in preparation for its final regatta of the fall season, the Massachusetts state championships.
The boys first varsity 8+ came in second in its division and seventh overall out of 21 boats in the event. The rowers were Connor Reitler, Joshua Hollenberg, Brian Fay, James O’Shea, William Thompson, Garrett White, Andrew Huang, and Mitchell Densen, with coxswain Austin Rotker.
The boys second varsity 8+ placed second in its division and ninth overall. The boat was coxed by Josh Canning and featured rowers Kyle Veo, David Shlimak, Daniel Shrives, Mark Castaneda, Luka Ilic, Chris Arsenault, Ankit Datta, and Aiden Clarage.
The boys third varsity 8+ finished second out of the club teams and seventh overall. Rowers were Jonathan McWhite, Jack Klem, Matt Adams, Eric Xing, Alexander Weaver, Teague Neschke, Alexander Ewing, and Maxfield Mascarin, with cox Nilay Maity.
The boys 4+ took the gold overall out of 23 teams. The boat was coxed by Grace Heavey and the rowers were Luca Basile, Oliver Perrine, John Gardiner, and Justin Hayes.
‘All-around great day’
Brian DeDominici, the boys head coach said, “This weekend the boys had an all-around great day with every athlete bringing home a medal in at least one event. The team was able to adapt to new lineups quickly and put together some very competitive races. I am very excited to see what we can do in the coming weeks.”
The girls first varsity 8+ won its division and placed fourth overall out of 18 teams. The team featured cox Brigitte Lewis and rowers Emma Soffel, Rachel Foote, Maeve French, Lindsey Hayes, Becky Nitschelm, Hannah Forgo, Valentine Bulpin, and Courtney Robb.
The girls second varsity 8+ also won gold in its division and finished fourth overall in the event. Rowers were Olivia Hemond, Alissa Wong, Fiona Carretz, Becca Lloyd, Aly Veo, Molly Brown, Sierra Gomez, and Angela Hu, with coxswain Sarah Bradley.
The girls 4+ placed second in its division and third overall. Rowers were Kamryn Stecyk, Kirsten Thiim, Grace Ott, and Ally Goldsher, with cox Katie Erdos.
Holly Hatton, the varsity girls head coach, was happy with the results: “This was an outstanding performance by the entire varsity girls team. The goal for this year is to improve and compete as a team in everything we do, with no girls left behind. That’s exactly what our team did this past weekend.”
The 51st Head of the Charles Regatta will be held next weekend, with selected varsity crews from Bromfield Acton-Boxborough competing. So far, there are 2,243 entries from 778 clubs and teams that are scheduled to compete in this marquee event in Cambridge and Boston.
Girls 8+ varsity 1 took the gold in the Club Division with an overall fourth-place finish at the High School Regional Championship Regatta on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester on Sunday, Oct. 11. Rowers are (L to R) coxswain Brigitte Lewis, Emma Soffel, Rachel Foote, Maeve French, Lindsey Hayes, Becky Nitschelm, Hannah Forgo, Valentine Bulpin, and Courtney Robb. (Courtesy photo)
This report is an edited version of a press release provided by the Bromfield Acton-Boxboro rowing team. Allen Nitschelm is a parent of a member of the team.
