Features

BHS Rowers Win Medals in National Youth Championship

Tuesday June 13, 2006

The Berkeley High School Men’s Lightweight 4+ boat powered its way to a gold medal at the U.S. Rowing National Youth Championship in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sunday. 

The Women’s Varsity 4+ boat placed first in the petite final. Both teams qualified for this national competition by medaling in the U.S. Rowing Southwest Regional Junior Championship Regatta May 20 and 21 at Lake Natoma in Folsom.  

Berkeley High School and Saint Ignatius College Prep High School were the only two Bay Area teams to come home with gold medals from the U.S. Rowing National Youth Championships. 

As the only public high school competing in California, the Berkeley High rowers compete against much larger club teams and private schools that recruit athletes from a broad range of students. Funding for the Berkeley High Crew team comes primarily from parents and family members. No more than 5 percent of the overall team budget comes from the school district. 

The Men’s Lightweight 4+ boat, with sophomores Ian Horton and Patrick Stolcke, junior Cole Peticone and seniors Alex Mog and Daniel Krasnor as coxswain, won their Friday heat. 

The Berkeley boat came in first by two and a half seconds, qualifying them to advance to the semi-finals on Saturday. In the Saturday semi-finals Berkeley just made it to advance to the finals, coming in third. In the final race on Sunday, Berkeley High came in first by more than two seconds over the competition. 

The Women’s Varsity 4+ boat, composed of sophomores Rosa Cox and Emma Cox and seniors Katherine Powelson, Jessie Moritz and Phoebe Kasdin as coxswain, and coached by Rob Welsh, competed on Friday in the first of three heats coming in third. This meant the women needed to go to the repechage the next day to make the semi-final. 

The Berkeley boat came in first in their Saturday morning repechage by over six seconds advancing them to the semi-finals later that same day. In that race, the Berkeley women’s boat come in fourth, which sent the women to the petite finals on Sunday where Berkeley finished first by nearly four seconds. 

For more information, see www.berkeleyhighcrew.org.