RowFest Crowns Youth, U23, Open, and Masters Champions in OKC

USRowing’s RowFest is in full swing on the North Canadian River in Oklahoma City, O.K. The nine-day regatta combines the USRowing Summer National Championships, formerly and colloquially called Club Nationals, and the USRowing Masters National Championships.

Nearly 3,000 athletes from 107 clubs are competing in 1,981 boats across 356 events. For context, last year’s Summer Nationals, featuring youth, under-23, and open events, had 938 entries from 74 clubs while the Masters Nationals hosted 1,720 entries from 125 clubs. That’s a total of 2,658 entries from 199 clubs.

Racing kicked off on Saturday, July 13, with under-23 and open events, while junior events commenced on Monday and Masters racing will start on Thursday. The most subscribed event of the regatta is the women’s youth single sculls with 28 entries, won by Shannon Breimer of Albany Rowing Center. Of the first 62 under-23 and open events, though, only 11 had double digit entries and none more than 12.

Some familiar names have been seen atop the medals podium. Penn AC claimed the first medal of the event, winning the men’s U23 double by nearly 15 seconds. Ready Set Row, a junior summer camp, claimed the first, second, and third spots in the women’s U23 eight. Meanwhile, local club Oklahoma City High Performance Center took gold in both the men’s and women’s U23 singles.

On the junior side, 24 national champions were named in the youth and Under-17 events. Ready Set Row once again claimed the top spot in the women’s youth eight while RowBuffalo did the same in the men’s event. The men’s eight champion crew featured Liam Feeney and Isaiah Aljuwani of Canisius High School who won the men’s youth pair at Youth Nationals as well as James Dodman and Max Burget, who finished second in the same event, also for Canisius. Penn AC finished second in both men’s and women’s eights. Penn AC did find victory in the women’s youth quad, while Ready Set Row’s Skye Luebbe Davidson won the men’s youth single by over 14 seconds.

Racing at RowFest continues Thursday with masters events and runs through Sunday. Racing is live streaming on Overnght. Full results are on Time Team.

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