The New Trier men and Winter Park women held on to their SRAA titles in the Varsity Eights this weekend as the Scholastic Nationals returned to the Cooper River.

New Trier's win over St. Ignatius Cleveland involved a bit of proving to themselves that they could repeat at SRAAs, no matter what the best school crews here from around the nation could throw at them.

Winter Park's victory was good for a three-peat--the first ever for a women's eight according to their coaches--and they made that bit of SRAA history the exciting way: outlasting New Trier's women's' eight in the closest race SRAA final they've had during their golden run.

In contrast, the winners of the Varsity singles were fresh faces atop their events and a changing of the guard: Hannah Hill won the Girls 1x in her first season focusing on the single, while sophomore Tony Madigan, wasting as little time as possible in his young sculling career, collected a national title in the Boy's 1x.

Madigan, jubilant after crossing the line

Fittingly, for a national scholastic championship, the line to collect medals featured schools from all across the country, and the fact that the athletes were winning for their schools is one of the things that makes the event special.

"The school identity piece means a lot," said Kit Bennett, coach of Michigan's Skyline HS. "The school pride, they take that pretty seriously."

Bennett was waiting on the medals line with his gold-medal winning women's JV quad, and talked about what it means to the crews to qualify for SRAAs and then come east to represent their region.

"There's a lot of Midwest pride about racing on the East Coast. We see crews here from Waterford in Utah and from California and I think now feels it really big: everyone's here. For the Midwest crews, that's huge. You want to race everyone scholastically, so it's huge and the kids get really excited about it.

Boy's V8 Champs - New Trier HS

When row2k asked three of the New Trier eight's returners if the win had been about re-proving themselves to the other schools, after getting New Trier back on top last year, 7 seat Jackson Bucklew said no.

"This was more about proving to ourselves that we could win it twice," he said.

"When we still had our middle move and sprint to go, and we were only a few seats down, we knew we had it," Bucklew added

New Trier had taken gold ahead of St Ignatius Cleveland at Midwest Scholastics, and it was those two crews battling again here--to nearly the same two second margin--with Saratoga Springs hot on their heels for the bronze.

Kyle Fox in the five seat said he could tell the boat was boat moving well as they pushed into the lead.

"There was a shallow catch together, and you felt all the pickup and leg drive all at once. You could feel the whole boat send together."

Will O'Donnell, stroke of the crew both years, talked about how winning again means that the crew has added to the legacy of the program.

"We had a great year last year, but we've never managed as program to win back to back at SRAAs, so it's awesome that we're able to do that this year."

Girl's V8 Champs - Winter Park HS

Winter Park did do New Trier just one better, extending their title run to a full three-in-a-row, notching another SRAA victory to bolster their resume for when they head back to Henley Royal Regatta this summer.

After Winter Park ran the table in their heat and semi with comfortable wins, the final was a humdinger. Stotesbury champ Mount Saint Joseph's took an early lead that wound up earning them a spot on the podium with a bronze, and then New Trier pressed Winter Park all the way to the line and made them earn the three-peat by just a tenth of a second.

Holding on in a tight battle for the win was all about the powerful sense of team the Winter Park crew has developed, said 5 seat Reilly Harris.

"It really shows the team dynamic that we have. Everybody's pushing for each other and nobody's pushing for themselves. We knew that as a team is the only way we were going to get this done.

"This year overall, our team dynamic has been amazing," she added. "I've never been in a boat this well-connected before, and I think that's what brought us this far. It's really hard to three-peat in any sport, and without this team dynamic we have this year, we wouldn't have been able to do it.

"The whole time, it was neck and neck, especially with New Trier. Even when Mount was ahead of us at the beginning, it was neck and neck with New Trier. Then once the two of us had pulled ahead, it all went back to that team that we have built this year. Knowing that we could trust everyone in our boat, that's what got us through in those last couple of inches."

Harris, who has been in the crew the past three years, including the boat's deep runs at Henley to the final in 2022 and the semi in 2023, said that this year's crew has actually learned a lot from tight races and needing to battle back.

"One race we did this year that we've never done before was the King Cup, and that was the first time we had races where we were down. Having that experience helped us and taught us that even when you're down, you still can bring it back up. Without that, we wouldn't have had the experience to do what we did today."

row2k asked Harris if she thought that skill might come in handy during Winter Park's third go at Henley Royal this summer.

"I think so," she said, "and I hope so."

Boy's Varsity 1x - Tony Madigan

Wakefield High School's Tony Madigan rowed through the field to win the Varsity Single, just a week after winning silver as the top US sculler at Stotes.

Madigan was fourth here last year as a freshman, and also took fourth in the U17 1x at Youth Nationals behind the silver medalist he got past today: Belen Jesuit's Marcus Mantecon. The bronze medalist, Jack Potgieter from Traverse City, also moved up a few spots from last year, when he took fifth. Just missing the final sprint to the podium was Holy Spirit's Al Ricciardi, the Stotesbury bronze medalist Madigan raced last week.

Madigan talked about the added pressure of knowing just how fast the competition would be after racing them before.

"I was navigating a kid who was able to beat me last year, and then a kid who has been close all year this year," he said. "I was a little more nervous than usual, knowing that there was someone out there who for sure has been faster than me in the past. I was worried about how that would play this weekend.

"The boat was feeling great," he said about where he found his confidence this weekend. "I knew I was down on the kid who had the fastest time overall through the semis, but I had faith--in myself, my equipment, and my coaches--that in the final I'd be able to pull something out.

"I'm so happy that there's so many coaches out here supporting me, and all the help I've gotten from the local coaches has really helped me to up my game," he said, talking about the community of schools and coaches he trains with at Potomac Boat Club. "They've let me row with their crews and have helped me with my racing strategy and tactics all year."

Madigan called it an incredible feeling, to be the scholastic champion, and to be following his parents into the sport. Matt Madigan was a national team rower himself and has coached at two Olympic Games, while Katie Madigan's sculling achievements include a Pan Am Games silver.

Tony Madigan with parents Matt and Katie.

"Neither of my brothers row, and it's just amazing that I'm able to connect with my parents through this sport."

Girl's Varsity 1x - Hannah Hill

The winner of the Girls Single, Hannah Hill, already has a pair of SRAA gold medals from sweep rowing, but this year she switched schools and found a home for herself racing the single.

"It's such a different animal, she said about racing the single instead this year. "The eight is more adrenaline packed, and I don't want to say it is more fun, but there's so much more going on in the eight. It's so much more rewarding in the single when you win, because you can turn around and look at the course and think: I did that, it was all me."

In the final, Hill pushed through the middle to take the win, with Nina Rastin from Episcopal Dallas earning the silver and Sophia Mitchell from Holy Names in Florida taking the bronze.

"Looking at the times yesterday, I was really worried about the Dallas girl next to me," Hill said. "I actually wrote on my leg 'one split' because she was four seconds ahead of me yesterday, which means it was just one split.

"When I was racing today and I got to the middle 500 where she was walking on me, I told myself, it's literally just one split. So I kicked into thirteenth gear and thought it's one split, that's it, and I finished two seconds ahead."

Hill now trains with Seminole County Area Rowing, and raced here for her new high school, Lake Howell, making one of a few club rowers we saw in various small boats who came to race the scholastic championships for schools that don't have teams of their own, just a dedicated rower or two.

The switch the single has gone well for Hill, who has her sights set on taking on the strong singles field at Youth Nationals next.

Hill with her coach, mom Michelle Hill

"I went to Charles and started 46 out of 46, and came in 16th. Then I won a head race in Sarasota, a couple of sprints and I won states. I came in second at Regionals, and then I just won Nationals."

Fun fact, her new club rows on Lake Jesup, the "most gator-infested lake" in Florida, though Hill said they probably see more gators when they race in Sarasota than they do at home.

Notes From The Course

Overheard in the Medals Line - "Nice to meet you. What's your 2k?" Hey, it was a long wait, and what else are two medallists gonna talk about?

Prom Update - In last week's Stotes report, we covered the story of the Ocean City kids hoping to beat the traffic and still make it to the Prom, and we did some checking up this week on how it went. Turns out they not only made it to the Prom, but the Stotes, er Head of the Schuylkill medals they took with them to the dance were a big hit.

Nice Stage but... - even though the big Cooper River Park stage was a nice shady setting for the medals photos this year, we still found a few teams taking their medals pics the old fashioned way, at the gazebo.

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And, We're Out... - "Anytime you can end your regatta by 3:30, you're doing it right," joked SRAA Board President Craig Hoffman as the last medals were collected--and running your regatta on tidy five-minute centers all weekend certainly helped on that front.