by Jill Maxwell ·
Friday, June 26, 2026
The Bromfield Acton Boxborough U17 4+ team rows into place to compete in the nationals, June 13. From front: Amelia McCormick, Etta Maxwell, Piper Candon, Beth Belanger, and coxswain Yuvika Rao (hidden). (Courtesy photo)
Two Bromfield Acton-Boxborough crews turned in Top-10 finishes at the USRowing National Championship Regatta in Sarasota, Florida, June 11 to 14. Seniors Braeden Hartley and Emily Yang finished sixth in the U.S. in the pair (one oar each). Sophomores Ben Rosenman and Hanfang Dong landed ninth in the nation in the U17 double (two oars each).
The girls U17 four—sophomore rowers Amelia McCormack, Piper Candon, Etta Maxwell, Beth Belanger, and coxswain Yuvika Rao--—bested Sarasota Rowing’s top boat on their home waters to place 22nd in the country.
USRowing insists on holding its Youth National Championship each year in June at Nathan Benderson Park, a perfectly straight, purpose-built course with spectator visibility for all 2,000 meters, culminating in a grandstand and four-story finish-line tower. Representatives say that few venues can accommodate the numbers and the safety concerns of the competition, which this year drew 863 athletes from 235 clubs and teams.
“The big picture is that the competition level has gotten even higher,” said Holly Hatton, who coaches the varsity girls. “There was a crew from Utah,” she said. “I’ve never heard of a crew from Utah!” Sarasota in June features temperatures in the 90s with crushing humidity; this year, daily thunderstorms canceled practice times and forced races past sunset.
Hartley and Yang are no strangers to the course; this was their third trip to the big show, and the girls team took a training trip to the venue over February break this year. Yang recalls winning the B final in her freshman year, so making the top eight A final this year felt like redemption. In Thursday’s time trial, the pair clocked an eighth-place time, ensuring them a spot in the top semifinal on Friday.
That semifinal was “scary,” said Yang. BA-B was in a middle lane, with faster-seeded boats on their port side and slower finishers to starboard. Right off the start, the supposedly slower boats got out ahead of them. “Braeden looks out of the boat, which works great for her to motivate herself and know what place we are,” Yang said. “I never look out because it disrupts my stroke, but even out of my peripheral vision I could see a boat ahead of us.” In fifth place at the halfway mark of the 2,000-meter race, Hartley called a move. The pair pulled harder. “We got momentum and we started to walk those two boats down,” Yang said. By the time they got to the sprint in the last 500, they’d caught up and passed both of the other crews, finishing in the top four and securing a berth in the A final. “If you look at the time trial results, everyone from fourth to 11th place was within a few seconds of each other, and only the top four qualify, so it was really scary.”
Sunday’s grand final seemed to happen fast, Yang said. They were seeded eighth in the finals based on the semis’ time. A fast start put them ahead of a Eugene, Oregon, boat and that gave the girls some confidence. They steered slightly to port, and the Mercer crew in the next lane went slightly to starboard. They came close to smacking oars to hulls, which would have been disastrous, but they straightened themselves out. They stayed side by side with Mercer until the New Jersey boat pulled ahead. “I remembered to sit up, which is something I have to think about to cut the finish a little, and once we passed the finish line that was when I realized we were in sixth place. Braeden and I were really happy about it,” said Yang of what was the pair’s last-ever high school race. Hatton pointed out that they were the second fastest public school crew in the event. “I think all of our crews represented the public school system really well,” Hatton said. “They did an outstanding job.”
Thunderstorms obliterated the designated practice times for the two U17 crews. Yuvika Rao, who coxed the girls U17 four, visually mapped out the course for herself on dry land; “I just had to try to figure it out,” she said. On Thursday, their time trial was pushed back hours. It was the last race of the day; the remaining events were pushed onto Friday morning. The sun set seven minutes before their start time, and Rao found herself steering in total darkness. She always wears her sunglasses and had brought them along but quickly shed them. “I couldn’t see the boat in front of me,” she said. She had to estimate the distance to the finish line. The good thing was that the bridges around the course were lit up, and the finish tower was very bright, Rao said. The hardest part was docking at the end; helpers waved their phone flashlights to guide rowers in.
Finishing 16th in a field of 23, the girls then set out to race in the C final on Friday only to be recalled for—you guessed it—thunderstorms. Race officials hurried them off the water. They hustled shoeless to secure their boats, leaving their oars on the grass as instructed. Competition resumed after a delay, but it was almost anticlimactic. “I learned that everything doesn’t always go your way and you kind of have to be prepared to be unprepared,” Rao said. “Expect something weird to happen but stay calm. I also remember that the rowers haven’t done this before either, but it’s kind of the coxswain’s job to navigate everything”—literally and figuratively—”and keep the rowers cool and collected.”
Not only did the boys U17 double miss out on a practice, but after a strong 11th-place finish in their time trial on Thursday, they had to race both their semifinal and their final on Saturday in that heavy Florida heat. “I’m sure everyone in our race was really tired,” Dong said. “It did help to go to the hotel between our races and chill, even just for a bit.”
Dong and Rosenman came in seventh in their 7:45 a.m. semifinal, which put them in the B final that afternoon. And then, they were lightning fast. “We were behind in the first thousand meters,” said Dong. “We were fighting for third or second. And then we really brought it back in the last thousand. It was around the 400 mark where Ben looked around and saw we were pulling ahead. We were in first place. He got excited and brought up the rate. I noticed, and I followed him,” Dong said. They won the B final, ninth fastest in the nation.
In May, the team took to the Merrimack River in Lowell twice. The team’s depth was on display at the Amber Zapatka Memorial Regatta on May 10. The boys novice four and the girls U17 four finished in gold medal first place; five crews scored silvers; and the Hartley-Yang pair took home bronze.
At the Massachusetts Public Schools Rowing Association’s Spring Championship Regatta on May 24, every BA-B boy won at least one medal. The medals were gold for the boys middle school quad; the boys novice double of Grant Weidman and Sawyer Morgan; the boys varsity pair of Patrick Tucker and Oscar Maxwell; and Aidan Abayasinghe and Xander Swydan in two flights of the boys varsity single. “Each novice crew put together everything we had practiced throughout the season and, as our late great coach Gary Piantedosi would say, left it all on the water. Everybody had to be very satisfied with their performance,” said Chris Whitbeck, who coached the novice boys.
Competitive rowing continues through the summer, when the team races as Bare Hill Rowing at the Cromwell Cup in Cambridge and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in Ontario. Though the girls side graduated nine seniors and the boys sent on their two captains in 2026, Hatton noted that six girls are moving up from novice to varsity and the rising junior and senior boys are strong. “We’re still going to be a big team [in the fall],” Hatton said. Look for their blue and white oars back on Bare Hill Pond.
USRowing Youth National Championship Regatta
- Womens Jr 2-: Braeden Hartley and Emily Yang finished sixth in the A final (and in the U.S.), 8 minutes, 9.400 seconds
- Mens U17 2x: Ben Rosenman and Hanfang Dong won the B final (ninth in the U.S.), 7:20.420
- Womens U17 4+: Amelia McCormack, Piper Candon, Etta Maxwell, Beth Belanger, and coxswain Yuvika Rao finished sixth in C final (22nd in the U.S.), 8:41.890
Jill Maxwell is a BA-B parent and auntie who got concussed and couldn’t write individual articles about each of the spring regattas but will be back in the fall.