ARC Juniors Race at US Rowing Club Nationals

Twelve members of the ARC Junior Program and two ARC Junior Alumnae represented Austin Rowing Club at the US Rowing Club National Championships in Oak Ridge, TN on July 15-19.  The five-day event featured fast racing in the adult category events (intermediate and senior) as well as Junior A (18 and under) and Junior B (16 and under). 

Narrowed from an original 37 boats in the junior ‘A’ 2x event, ARC was well represented with two boats in the six-boat final.  Sara Hyten and Heather House rowed a consistently strong race to hold off Quad City to finish 5^th while Gabby Fleming and Marie Claire Serou were in a three way race for the championship.  Fleming and Serou were just edged out, finishing in an impressive 3^rd place.  

Next up were the youngest members of the team.  In the Junior ‘B’ 4x event the foursome of Caroline Allan, Jessee Cook, Lauren Azuela, and Sophie Costa built on their performance in the heats to race a strong 2,000 meters and finish 5^th overall.  The four have only been rowing for 10 months and showed that they are a quick study in rowing.

Gabby Fleming represented ARC in the highly anticipated Junior A 1x event.  Having the fastest time in both the heats and semi finals, Gabby was ready for the stakes to be raised in the final.  Fleming struggled in the first 500 meters to find a rhythm but found her pace and started to walk away from the field. Racing only as an exhibition, the Canadian national team boat set the standard high for the second half of the race and crossed the finish line first.  However,  Gabby captured the National Championship title by placing second, ending her junior career on a strong note. 

Sunday's finals featured the junior ‘A’ 4x final with Sara Hyten, Ariel Alverez, Lucy Ellis, and Molly Moldenhauer representing ARC.  This young crew rowed a strong race from start to the finish.  Hyten established a good pace from the start of the race and the boat maintained their rhythm and strength for the full 2k.  All girls gained valuable race experience they will take into next year's racing season.

The last final was the senior 4x event.  While the ARC boat was mostly junior rowers, they had a good showing against the adults.  Gabby Fleming, Aidan Leddy, Marie Claire Serou, and Erin Leddy composed this boat and placed 5^th in the race. 

Tired from five days of racing, the team left with good memories of the beauty of the Oak Ridge race course, dinners together each night, good racing, and of course, a trip to see the new Harry Potter movie.  The Juniors are back in action this fall. The season starts at the end of August and racing begins in October.