Four Bainbridge High School crews placed in the Top 20 at the 2023 US Rowing Youth National Championships June 8-11 in Saratosa, Fla.

“The level of competition in Sarasota was very high and the heat is a challenge,” boys coach Bruce Beall said.

Girls coach Chelsea Vessenes added, “I love celebrating our nationals rowers and also want to honor the work and success of the whole BIR team.”

The first competition was Youth 4 with coxswain. The senior-loaded squad showcased the Spartans with the best finish of all four competitions. Landon Roesch, Ben Chapman, Sasha Hermann, Roan Dalton and Norah Pearce finished seventh in the nation with a time of 6 minutes, 43 seconds.

“This is the highest-ever finish for a Bainbridge mens heavyweight crew,” Beall said. “The kids were happy to avenge a photo-finish defeat to Lake Oswego in the Northwest Regional finals last month.”

Reid Norstrom, Aki Haley, Eli Hough and Gabe Phillips defied expectations, finishing eighth in the nation with a 6:45 time in the Youth 4 with no coxswain. All will be returning next season after just starting to compete without a coxswain last month.

“The handle grip on one of the rowers’ oars broke during the final race,” Beall said. “But the crew gritted it out admirably, and finished just half a second behind the seventh-place.”

On the girls side, Addie Carleton and Hannah Cutler finished 18th in the nation in the Women’s Double with a time of 7:55.

Vessenes said, “The final race was a great example of their strength in the sprint. They came into the 1,000 meter mark towards the back of the pack, began to move up, and then had the fastest final 500 meters of all the boats in their race.”

Vessenes is excited for the future because Carleton is only a sophomore with the strongest ergometer score on the team. Unfortunately, she will need to find a new partner since Cutler will graduate after rowing with the squad since eighth grade.

Lastly, underclassmen Lea Chun and Dolly Courtway finished 13th in the nation in the Women’s U17 Double with a time of 8:25.547.

This was “extra impressive considering that they are both lightweight rowers competing in an open-weight category, and Dolly was the youngest competitor in their race,” Vessenes said. “They rose to the occasion, displaying a huge amount of fierce tenacity, strength and technical finesse.”