Rowers from Sarasota Crew earn bronze medal at Youth National Championships
In what is fast becoming a Sarasota Crew tradition, its men’s eight team extended a run of recent success by capturing a bronze medal in Sunday’s A final of the USRowing Youth National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park.
The Sarasota men’s eight squad has medaled every year since 2012 when it was a runner-up. The Crew won gold in 2013 and has placed third every year since 2014.
Two members from Sarasota’s 2013 championship team — 2014 Pine View graduate Maddox Castle and 2013 Riverview graduate Andres Konecny — were on hand Sunday to cheer along the shoreline for the current squad.
“It’s just a really good thing to see them continue to be successful,” said Konecny, who now rows for Florida Institute of Technology.
“It’s a little bit surreal,” added Castle, a rower at George Washington in the nation’s capital. “The coaches and all the guys who continue rowing have really shaped who I’ve become in college.”
The Crew held fifth place early in Sunday’s 2,000-meter race, gradually advancing and relying on a late burst to pass the Cincinnati Juniors in the last 500 meters to finish third in five minutes, 54.25 seconds. Two California teams — champion Newport and runner-up Oakland — crossed the finish line before Sarasota.
Afterward, Sarasota coach Casey Galvanek lauded his team for holding its own against opposing squads with more dense population centers.
“This is exciting, because it wasn’t really expected,” he said. “Our guys don’t have the wattage some of those other teams have, so they have to race smart. We’ve got a small population compared (to Oakland and Newport), so it’s very exciting to be in the hunt with them.”
Sarasota’s three seniors — rowers Jeremy Lipford and C. Shaw Bowman, along with coxswain Jacob Shusko — celebrated that medal performance in their final competition as prep teammates.
“It’s big as far as you get to continue that (tradition),” said Lipford, who like Bowman will row at Syracuse next season.
“It’s very exciting to realize that we performed at the same level as (the previous medal-winning teams),” said Shusko, who as a freshman switched from a rower to coxswain and will continue taking part in the sport at Cornell.
Rounding out Sarasota’s bronze medalist team were: Cian Grave, Travis Earp, Clark Dean, Christian Irving, Harrison Schofield and Andrew O’Grady.
The Crew also got a runner-up finish in the B final women’s quad. Julia Braz, Angela Szabo, Christina Strates and Ella Kennedy crossed in 7:04.16.
The Sarasota Scullers sent three teams to the B finals on Sunday with the best finish turned in by the men’s doubles team of Kris Schumann and Chris Cail, who took second with a time of 6:59.78. In women’s doubles, Jessica Frisch and Katie Beiler placed sixth at 7:58.39.
Due to inclement weather on Saturday, Sunday’s schedule was modified with the C and D finals taking place after A and B races. The Crew’s men’s lightweight quad won a D final with Chris Wolf, Logan Jeffries, Jay Kanapoli and Jared Earp finishing in 6:59.89.
This story was originally published June 11, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Rowers from Sarasota Crew earn bronze medal at Youth National Championships."