2020 USRowing Youth Virtual Nationals Concludes

BY LUKE REYNOLDS
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TEXAS ROWING CENTER

The 2020 USRowing Youth Virtual National Championship has concluded after more than 400 participants from 119 clubs submitted their times in hopes of a first-place finish and the title of National Champion.

Greenwich Crew took home the points trophy with nine total points off of 17 entries including three first-place finishes in the men’s lightweight eight, the women’s lightweight eight, and the women’s U17 eight.

Sarasota took the top spot in both the men’s youth eight and the women’s youth eight, finishing fifth in team points.

In the second team points position was Texas Rowing Center (TRC). TRC locked down the runner-up slot with seven total points, two points behind Greenwich.

The crew, coming off a team points trophy win at the 2020 USRowing Virtual Central Youth Regional Championship and based out of Austin, Texas, chalked their success up to hard work and perseverance.

“It was pretty challenging,” TRC juniors head coach Falesha Thrash said. “I’m sure everyone can attest to that. Once we heard about virtual regionals we organized ourselves and we wrote out an expedited training plan to cover three weeks.”

“They [TRC athletes] definitely put in a lot of effort and not just the leading two months up to it. It’s still rewarding to them to push themselves in a very different kind of challenging setup and circumstances. We saw the peaks and valleys in the short term training. It was definitely a mental game for them but in the end, it paid off.”

Despite the obstacles, the TRC athletes remained optimistic and made the best of the 2020 USRowing Youth National Championships being canceled and replaced by a virtual event by adapting to it — no matter how different it looked.

“We were able to get into a Row Fitness facility here to do the 2k,” Thrash said. “They had glass privacy partitions between each station so we set up different times to limit the number of people and they spread out on the ergs and did their 2k. I didn’t really expect that many athletes to really bite on the chance to do this but they were so eager to do something that resembled anything normal so that’s what we did.”

“The effort was felt all around both squads [men and women] and of course we came together for a successful virtual regatta; winning virtual centrals and second at virtual nationals.  It certainly doesn’t carry the same weight as if we had raced on the water, but is still important to those who put in the effort, especially our seniors.”

A full list of results from the 2020 USRowing Youth Virtual National Championship is available at RegattaCentral.com.

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