The Bainbridge Island Rowing Club’s junior women’s four-oared shell with coxswain won the varsity race in a time of 3:56.13 at the Green Lake Regatta last Saturday, beating teams from Lake Sammamish, Holy Names, Green Lake and Olympia Area Rowing.
The boat was coxed by Lynn Anderson with stroke Keziah Beall and Jackie Sullivan, Claire Thomas and Jessica Molskness filling out the lineup.
Bainbridge also had strong finishes from its entry in the open women’s four, in which their entry coxed by Anderson, with Canela Beck, Maddie Olanie, Haley Allen, and Jilli O’Mara placed third, and the second place finish by the JV four coxed by Hunter Yokum, with Kaleena Fraga, Sarah Minson, Liz McGonagle and Amanda Goss.
“This was a great start to our spring season,” said head coach Morgan Seeley. “The entire team has been working harder than ever and came away from the regatta feeling that well be a lot stronger by the time we get to Regionals.”
In addition to the 16 entries in 15 races at Green Lake, Bainbridge also sent single scullers to race at Lake Stevens on Saturday. Masters sculler Grant Dull won his race, while Scott Griffin finished second in the junior sculling event.
The juniors team also got strong performances in several other events, including a fourth-place finish for the varsity eight despite damage to the boat during the race.
Double scullers Molskness and Goss finished a strong fourth in just their third outing in the boat this spring while the quadruple scull with Hunter Yoakum, Cooper Stoulil, Alex Witt, Bjorn Ostling, and Quinn Riley also showed they meant business with a fourth place finish.
“We have about 40 kids on the team this spring, while many of the mega teams in the Seattle and Portland areas have 150 to 200 members,” Seeley said. “We’re using the resources at hand to show the big guys that they cant afford to ignore us this year.”
The Juniors team will resume racing following spring break. Scullers will compete at Lake Stevens on April 12, and the entire team will race in a dual meet with Commencement Bay on April 19.
The team then travels to the Brentwood Regatta on Vancouver Island April 25-27 and finishes out the season at the Northwest Regional Championships May 16-18 in Vancouver, Wash.
Sailors from nine area schools were welcomed to Sail Sand Point in Seattle Saturday for an early season regatta and clinic.
Racing began in light rain and 3-5 knot SE wind, which built to 5-6 knots after the first two races.
A total of six A division and five B division races were completed before the wind ceased, but that was not before the sailors were treated to a hailstorm and slippery boats.
In the spirit of providing the best learning opportunity, UW sailors and alumni sailors served as on-the-water coaches and held debrief sessions between the fleets.
Typical A and B fleet regattas are sailed under specific ISSA rules of eligibility and substitution.
Bainbridge sailed four teams under those restrictions, but many schools chose to substitute sailors freely among divisions in order to get as many of their sailors on the water as possible.
BHS 1 was sailed by captain Emma Hartmann with Chase Webber and by Abby Hartmann with Andrew Selzler in A and B fleets respectively, finishing seventh out of 22 teams.
BHS 2 was sailed by captain Max Fleishfresser with Katherine Linrothe who had the best performance of the day for Bainbridge, and by Haley Lane with Kendall Sanson, in A and B fleets respectively, finishing eighth.
BHS 3 was sailed by Sean Willerford with Kyle Grosten and by Nico Papajani with Amanda D’Amore in A and B fleets respectively, finishing ninth.
BHS 4 was sailed by Ethan Stahl in A fleet and Chris Walker at the helm in A and B fleets respectively, with crews substituted from a pool of Jake Fetterman, Aidan Sievertson, and Hannah Bouchillon, finishing 13th.
Bainbridge 5 sailed with a variety of substitutions, beginning the regatta with a Sail Sand Point skipper and Bainbridge crew for the first six races, and finishing up with all Bainbridge personnel in the remaining five races, finishing 16th.
BHS sailing coaches said they were encouraged by the potential exhibited by the 2008 sailing team this early in the season
The coaches said they are as committed as the team members to work hard to improve the team skills and knowledge base for future events.
