High school district rowing championship coming Saturday to Benderson Park in Sarasota

UNIVERSITY PARK -- A rowing event featuring mostly local and regional high school teams dips oars Saturday at Nathan Benderson Park.

The Florida Scholastic Rowing Association West District Championship attracted 12 rowing organizations and 160 entries by Thursday, according to regattacentral.com.

"FSRA's statewide association is divided into four districts, and this basically, is sort of a preamble to the upcoming state championships," said Brice Crossley, association regatta director. "It gives a chance for coaches to see how their teams fare among their district competitors and to rank the teams for the state championships."

Two more spring events at the park constitute the association's state championships: the sculling championship April 11-12 and sweep championship April 25-26.

In sculling, each athlete has two oars, while each rower has one oar in sweep events, said Crossley, who added the association is the governing organization for high-school rowing in Florida.

Eventually, winning teams from each event may compete in national competition.

The growth of the sport had been so great, the association several years ago decided to break into districts, said Casey Galvanek, association recording secretary and a coach for Osprey-based Sarasota Crew.

"It's a precursor toward the state championship," he said.

Relatively new teams from Lakewood Ranch and Parrish in Manatee County will race this weekend with long-established teams such as Sarasota Crew and Sarasota Scullers.

The Tampa area is contributing several teams and a Kent, Conn., team has signed up.

The regatta at the park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle, runs from 8 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Parking is $5 per car.

Sara Kennedy, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7031. Follow her on Twitter @sarawrites.

This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "High school district rowing championship coming Saturday to Benderson Park in Sarasota."