Men's youth Quad and Women's Pair medal at Youth Championships
White Rock Rowing (WRR) advanced 14 of 18 boats to the finals at Central Youth Championships in Oklahoma City, May 6-7. Five of those finals resulted in medals and the Men’s Youth Quad and Women’s Youth Pair qualified to compete at US Rowing Youth Nationals in Sarasota Florida on June 9-11.
The Women’s Pair took to the water bright and early for the first race of the day. Sam Prado and Kaira Lay advanced to the finals in the Women’s Youth Pair. Having fought hard in a competitive field of women they finished 3rd and secured the roll down bid to advance to Youth Nationals. Following their race, Conner Alexander, Andrew Schweizer, Will Schweizer and Drew Ellis advanced the Men’s Youth Quad to finals. The boys devoted months to training together and faced off tough competition finishing 2nd in the final securing their position as an automatic qualifier for US Rowing Youth Nationals.
“It was a great step to have 2 boats qualify for Youth Nationals this year. Not only does it reward the athletes who will be going to Sarasota, it has inspired their teammates to work even harder in the hopes of joining these athletes (all of the qualifiers will return next year) in the future”, said Ed Golding, WRR ‘s junior head coach.
Youth Championships hosts nearly 1,000 athletes representing 19 teams from across Texas, Oklahoma Colorado, Arkansas and Kanas. The 2,000-meter, 2 –day competitive event is held at the US Rowing National High-Performance Center in OKC.
WRR offers middle school, high school, adult and adaptive rowing programs. Our youth summer camps are open for enrollment. For more information contact Ed Golding at edgolding@whiterockrowing.org, or see our website at whiterockrowing.org.