Bromfield Acton-Boxborough crews swept up multiple medals May 26 at the Massachusetts Public Schools Rowing Association’s Spring Championship regatta. As its name suggests, this event, held on a 1,500-meter course on the Merrimack River in Lowell, is limited to public school teams, including BA-B and their frequent rivals Wayland-Weston, Arlington-Belmont, Brookline, and Boston Latin. The athletes in almost all of the 16 BA-B boats that entered the contest went home with hardware.
All four of the girls varsity 4s that entered won gold in grand finals, as did Leo Sullivan and Will Stoddard in their singles flights. BA-B girls took the top spot in both of their doubles flights, plus second place as well.
It was a sunny day without much wind. “It was beautiful, very flat, but hotter than we are used to or would like,” said Acton-Boxborough senior Nina Manglani. “But I would rather take a little bit of heat over wind and rain.” Across Pawtucket Boulevard, Fiesta Shows had set up the Lowell Carnival, but the atmosphere along the river was more like a picnic in a park, with team parents grilling and dogs nosing for scraps. Cheers erupted when the rowers returned to the food tent from their races.
“Some of the boats led by a huge margin, which was just crazy to watch,” Manglani said. Manglani rowed in the third varsity 4, a much closer race. “We were fighting with Cambridge Rindge and Latin for first, and we were all locked in,” she said. “I think the idea was that this was our last race, and we were like, ‘we’ve got to do this.’ We walked on them, and in the last five strokes, it was bow ball to bow ball, photo finish. After the race we asked our coxswain Sofi to look at the results on her phone, and when she said ‘first,’ we all yelled and slapped the water. It was a great way to end the season.”
Bromfield senior Wyatt Neville is a coxswain who also rows. He raced in a single for the first time since recovering from shoulder surgery, placing third. But, “The final of the boys first varsity 8 was by far the most exciting race I had all season,” he said. “From the first 500 we were pushing with the pack. I looked across and saw coxswain and coxswain and coxswain. We were right up next to Brookline, who we were several boat lengths behind at the beginning of the season. And here we were right on top of their coxswain. It was a ton of fun. The guys put their all into it.”
The novice boys 4 and novice girls 8 both made the grand finals for their events but missed out on medals. The novice boys 4 suffered a seat malfunction in the grand final. They rowed their best to get back in the race, chasing down the boat in front of them for a tenth-of-a-second photo finish, their coach Chris Whitbeck said. “That takes determination, hard work, and believing you are never out of the game.”
The eighth-grade boys faced their first competition against a powerful Duxbury Maritime team and took second and third places. “Each of the boats came to compete and clearly have improved so much since the beginning of the season,” Whitbeck said.
The two BA-B eighth-grade girls boats raced each other; no other teams entered the event. Only one could take gold, Whitbeck said, adding, “Everyone who saw their boats on the course could not help but mention how beautifully they were rowing.”
The regatta marked the end of BA-B’s regularly scheduled competitions. Bromfield senior Sam Goldgar looked back on the season and all of the years in the rearview mirror. “Our top boats are getting really good, and I’m proud of being part of that. It flew by,” he said. Next year, the team should “just keep at it, keep chasing the medals, because we have a good team right now and it’s all about keeping the drive going.”
The season is not quite over for one BA-B crew.The boys U17 4 will fly to Florida for USRowing’s Youth National Championship June 6 through 9. The event will stream online free.
Registration is now open for summer rowing on Bare Hill Pond for rising sixth-graders and up, including classes for adults. No experience is necessary.
Jill Maxwell is a BA-B parent and auntie.
Massachusetts Public School Rowing Association Spring Championship, May 26
Boys varsity
- 1x: Leo Sullivan, first place in flight, 5 minutes, 51.6 seconds; Henry Belanger, 3rd in flight, photo finish, 6:09.5; Wyatt Neville, third in flight, 6:23.7
- 4x: Alex Horton, Reid Nelson, Russell Poutasse, and Noah Kim, second in grand final, 5:46.2
- 1V8+: Atticus Keep, Aidan Nolde, Shankara Rao, Henry Belanger, Parker Cole, Patrick Tucker, Ulad Danilovich, Leo Sullivan, and coxswain Wyatt Neville, sixth in grand final, photo finish, 4:45.5
- 2V8+: Alex Horton, Gavin Datta, Dino Mehic, Charlie Leuci, Liam Abayasinghe, Adrian Erdogus-Brady, Alex Han, Noah Kim, and coxswain Topher Korka, first in petite final, 5:50.0
Girls varsity
- 1x: Will Stoddard, first place in grand final, 6 minutes, 31.3 seconds; Emma Gregg, second in grand final, 6:36.2; Nooriya Taherbhoy, fourth in grand final, 7:10.7
- 2x: Emily Yang and Johnny Greenberg, first in flight, 5:47.4; Nina Manglani and Elizabeth Feirouz, first in flight, 6:13.8; Abby Hirschberg and Ellie Pulido, second in flight, 6:38.2
- 1V4+: Beatrice Maxwell, Braeden Hartley, Emma Gregg, Will Stoddard, and coxswain Hanna Lem Moustakas, first in grand final, 5:38.3
- 2V4+: Emma Lawson, Ellie Daly, Johnny Greenberg, Emily Yang, and coxswain Adhiti Venkatesh, first in grand final, 5:39.7
- 3V4+: Ava Dawn, Elizabeth Feirouz, Izzi Walker, Nina Manglani, and coxswain Sofi Marder, first in grand final, photo finish, 5:52.9
- 4V4+: Alexis Nichols, Caroline Burianek, Reval Argow-Sniderman, Abby Hirschberg, and coxswain Sera Baang, first in grand final, 6:02.0
