On the back of their season-opening successes at the Textile Regatta, the Wayland-Weston crew team competed on Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond in a two-day head race on October 8 and 9, taking six medals home from the 13th annual New England Junior, High School & Masters Championship Regatta.
Over the course of the bright, sunny, and cool fall weekend, 55 teams competed, with 508 different entries, and WW Crew made a great showing, facing tough competition in their events on the 4,100 meter course. Program director Mike Baker said, “We had a fantastic showing at the New England Jr/High school championships. We came to race and race we did. We saw some new stiff competition that we didn’t see from last week [at the Textile Regatta], which only makes us strive to be faster for the upcoming regattas.”
Wayland-Weston medaled in six of its 17 races. Starting the race weekend on Saturday, the middle school girls 2X (Sadie St. Clair, Millie McVie) sculled to win gold in their 3,200 meter contest. Taking silver in his Men’s Masters 1x competition on Saturday was Wayland-Weston alum and novice girls assistant coach Matthew Marchiony.
Wayland-Weston’s varsity boys 2 (Theodore Dahl and Andrew Orion) kicked off what would become a great day for the team, winning gold in Sunday’s first race of the day. The novice boys first 8+ (Briar Sutherland-Dufour as coxswain, Mario Purser, Oren Waxman, Robert Walmsley, Andrew Cui, Jacob Zeng, Evan Boshart, Atticus DeGrenier, Felix Kissell), hungry to compete after high winds forced the cancelation of their Textile Regatta race the week before, won silver. The varsity girls second 8+ (Clara Sin, Maya Noyes, Gretta Santangelo, Liepa Kazlas, Jillian Segel, Eilidh McVie, Jasmine Fu, Julia DeGrenier, Clara Walsh) won silver in a race of 17 boats.
As the afternoon went on, Wayland-Weston’s crews made strong showings throughout competitive races. Baker noted, “We had crews racing in higher categories that completely dominated, and stepped up to the challenge. While they didn’t place, they raced for the middle of the pack finishes, which is encouraging, because they had beaten many crews that are bigger, stronger, and have more experience.”
In the fiercest competition of the day, Wayland-Weston’s first varsity 8s raced hard, with the girls varsity 8+ (Alice Weeple as coxswain, Maddie Genis, Sophia Xie, Riley Kendall, Jacqueline Stjernfeldt, Ava Balukonis, Natalia Serov, Siena Flanigon, Riley Reynolds) taking silver, and the boys varsity 8+ (Sophie Roman as coxswain, Zachary Kano, Sean Balbale, Miles Reynolds, Andrew Orio, Alexander Dremov, Theodore Dahl, Daniel McDonald, Thomas Lee) taking bronze.
Next up for Wayland Weston’s crew team is the New Hampshire Championships George Dirth Regatta on October 16. The following weekend, Wayland-Weston will have three boats racing in the world-famous Head of the Charles Regatta. Come on down to the banks and bridges of the Charles River on Sunday, October 23 to cheer on Wayland Weston Crew!
