Bainbridge Island Rowing will be sending four boats to Nationals after the club’s impressive outing at U.S. Rowing’s Northwest Youth Championships 2019.
The end-of-season regional competition was held May 17-19 at Vancouver Lake in Vancouver, Washington.
It’s the most boats that Bainbridge Island Rowing has ever qualified for nationals, and the team has 24 seats to fill for the national competition in Sarasota, Florida.
Team officials said they have yet to decide which of the qualifying boats will travel to the competition, planned for June 6-9.
The Varsity Men’s 4+ took the gold in their final, edging out Green Lake by three-tenths of a second, and the Men’s 4x got silver. (In competitive rowing, + denotes a coxed boat (with coxswain), while x denotes a sculling boat.)
BIR often does well in the Lightweight category, and the Northwest championships were no exception. The Men’s 4+ finished first and the Women’s 4+ finished third in their finals. The Women’s 8+ took bronze and the Men’s 8+ silver.
BIR dominated the high school category, which is a costumed event limited to club team members who attend the same high school.
The Men’s and Women’s High School 8+ crews took first in Finals 1 and second in Finals 2 races.
The BIR Novice teams once again showed that they are a growing force, with the Men’s Novice 8+ and the Men’s 2 Novice 8+ both coming in second in their respective finals.
Both the Novice Men’s and Women’s 4+ enjoyed third-place finishes.
The Men’s Novice 4x+ took bronze, and the Men’s 2 Novice 4+ squads finished in second and third places in their finals.
The Women’s 2 Novice 4+ finished second, and the Men’s Youth 4x got a silver.
The Northwest Youth Championships are a huge affair, drawing 33 teams from all over Washington and Oregon for 66 events.
All told, there were 817 entries in the weekend’s events. Bainbridge alone sent 115 athletes to the event.
Photo courtesy of BIR Bainbridge Island Rowing sent 115 athletes to compete at this year’s U.S. Rowing Northwest Youth Championships.
