Spring 2009

LHS GIRLS AND BOYS CREW – SPRING 2009

Coaching Staff

Head Coach/Boys Varsity: Jennifer Bauer
Girls Varsity: Will Stevens
Boys Novice: Robby Walters ’05
Girls Novice: Kendra Bauer & Erin Loughran ’02
Assistant Coach: Killian McAnaney
Athletes: 90

Highlights

Saratoga Invitational 2009 This past spring was a phenomenal season for the crew team. It began with the Saratoga Invitational, where the varsity boys’ lightweight four placed first, taking home the gold medal and continuing their winning streak from the fall. The 2nd varsity four raced in the 1st four event and captured 5th overall. The two boats then recombined into the 1st varsity eight and placed 4th out of 13 crews. The 2nd varsity eight placed sixth in their final. On the varsity girls’ side, the lightweight four snagged a bronze medal. The girls’ varsity four narrowly missed making the finals, placing 3rd in their heat. The women’s lightweight eight placed fourth in their final, and the varsity eight placed 5th in their heat. The novice girls had an excellent start to their season, placing second in their flight!

This year Lowell High School hosted a new race, the novice challenge, which brought together ten local teams. The novice girls and boys fours began their undefeated season, easily capturing gold medals in their events. Additionally, the novice girls eight took home a silver medal, placing second only to Community Rowing of Boston.

The following weekend, at the 5th Annual Lowell Invitational, several boats won medals! The boys’ squad placed first out of 30 teams, and the team placed 2nd overall to Community Rowing. Taking home gold medals were the boys’ and girls’ novice fours, and the boys’ lightweight and second varsity fours. Silvers went to the girls’ lightweight four and boys’ second varsity eight. Finally, the boys’ 1st varsity eight and girls’ second novice eight took home bronze medals. This was an excellent accomplishment, especially given the size of the regatta. With 30 teams traveling from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and 1200 athletes competing, the Lowell Invitational is one of the largest spring high school regattas in the Northeast.

At the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Championships in Worcester, Ma, 53 teams from 10 states competed. Both the girls and boys lightweight fours won silver medals in their race, qualifying their boats for the USRowing Youth National Championships. The boys’ lightweight four (Mike McKeon, Cameron Crockett, Brandon Coombes, Josiah Todd, and Harry Finch) were just 4 seconds behind Mercer Junior Rowing Club of New Jersey, and 14 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Community Rowing of Boston. The girls’ lightweight four (Jessica Burke, Lauren Dubois, Jillian McDermott, Natalie Soto, and Brenda Judge) had an exciting finish, using their sprint to edge out Northampton Community Rowing by less than four-tenths of a second. The girls and boys lightweight eights also raced well, with each boat making it to the grand finals. They placed 6th and 5th respectively. The girls’ varsity eight had a solid showing, placing 5th in their semi-final, less than one second behind the fourth place finisher. LHS also had entries in the girls’ varsity four, pair, and single. All three boats raced hard and just missed making the finals.

Once again, Lowell hosted the Massachusetts State Championships, which brought together 23 teams and almost 1,000 athletes from across the state. Lowell High School had another great showing, placing second overall behind a very strong Wayland-Weston crew. Additionally, both the novice boys’ and girls’ fours won state championship titles. After winning their heat, the girls’ 1st varsity eight won a silver, just edging out third place Bromfield by 2 tenths of a second. The boys’ 2nd varsity eight, girls’ 3rd varsity eight, and boys’ 2nd varsity four all won bronze medals. The boys 1st varsity eight placed 4th with a photo finish between 1st and 4th place. The boys’ 1st varsity four and girls’ 2nd varsity eight both placed 5th in the grand final. The girls’ novice eight had equipment failure, and unfortunately did not make it out of their heat. However, they did place fourth, an impressive feat given that only seven athletes rowed the majority of the race.

To prep for nationals, the lightweight boats competed at the Hanover Invitational. The boys’ lightweight four did very well, easily outstroking the competition and placing first. The girls’ lightweight and second four both placed second in their heats, advancing to the grand final where they placed 3rd and 4th. The girls also combined into an eight, finishing 3rd in the grand finals.

The last race of the season was USRowing Youth National Championships in Cincinnati, OH. The boys’ lightweight four (comprised of Mike McKeon, Cameron Crockett, Brandon Coombes, Josiah Todd, and Harry Finch) had an exciting finish to the season, placing fifth overall in the grand final. The boys faced Egg Harbor (New Jersey), Camp Randall (Wisconsin), Canisius (New York), Long Beach (California), and Everett (Washington). After losing to Egg Harbor during the heats and reps, the LHS boys finally edged them out during the final, earning the title of fastest public school lightweight four in the country. This race capped off an incredible year for the boys’ boat, which included a State Championship title and 9 medals.

The girls’ lightweight four included Jessica Burke, Lauren Dubois, Kate Keller, Natali Soto and Brenda Judge. They placed 14th overall in the country, just edging out local rival Boston Latin. This was the third time in the past four years that the Lowell High School crew team competed at nationals.

Individual Honors

Josiah Todd – Boys Varsity Lightweight
New School Record – 2000m erg piece: 6:43.1

Captains
Jessica Burke, Kate Burgess and Miatta Shafore (Girls)
Josiah Todd, Mike McKeon, Harry Finch & Ian Finn (Boys)

College Info

All 26 seniors on the team will be attending college in the fall. The following senior athletes will be rowing/coxing at the following colleges next year:

Division I
David Ducharme – Temple U (academic scholarship)
Harry Finch – Umass Amherst (academic scholarship)
Kait Mackenzie – Umass Amherst (academic scholarship)

Division III
Jeramey Normand – Union (academic scholarship)
Jillian McDermott – UML

Boat Honors

5th @ USRowing Youth National Championships – Boys Lightweight Four
Cameron Crockett (coxswain), Josiah Todd (stroke), Harry Finch (3-seat), Brandon Coombes (2-seat), and Mike McKeon (bow)

14th @ USRowing Youth National Championships – Girls Lightweight Four
Lauren Dubois (stroke), Jessica Burke (3-seat), Brenda Judge (2-seat), Kate Keller (bow), Natali Soto (cox)

1st @ Hanover Invitational – Boys Varsity Four
Cameron Crockett (coxswain), Josiah Todd (stroke), Harry Finch (3-seat), Brandon Coombes (2-seat), and Mike McKeon (bow)

1st @ Massachusetts State Championships – Girls Novice Four
Bryanna Laughlin, Stephanie Beaudry, Kayla Montanez, Leah Bailey, and coxed by Ritika Kumar

1st @ Massachusetts State Championships – Boys Novice Four
Cameron Crockett (bow), Kenny Bonin (2-seat), Alex Gavriel (3-seat), Jacque Thibodeau (stroke), Jessica Burke (cox)

2nd @ Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regionals – Boys’ Lightweight Four
Cameron Crockett (coxswain), Josiah Todd (stroke), Harry Finch (3-seat), Brandon Coombes (2-seat), and Mike McKeon (bow)

2nd @ Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regionals – Girls’ Lightweight Four
Lauren Dubois (stroke), Jessica Burke (3-seat), Brenda Judge (2-seat), Jillian McDermott (bow), Natali Soto (cox)

1st @ Lowell Invitational – Boys’ Lightweight Four
Cameron Crockett (coxswain), Josiah Todd (stroke), Harry Finch (3-seat), Brandon Coombes (2-seat), and Mike McKeon (bow)

1st @ Saratoga Invitational – Boys’ Lightweight Four
Cameron Crockett (coxswain), Josiah Todd (stroke), Harry Finch (3-seat), Brandon Coombes (2-seat), and Mike McKeon (bow)

Subscribe to RSS feed