Winter Park girls and Canisius boys won the marquee eights races to cap off the SRAA Nationals on Saturday and, as Canisius coach Jacob Filby pointed out, winning comes down to one thing:

"It's only boat speed. There's nothing else besides that."

On a day when the Cooper's cross-tail and white-cap machine was on full blast again for a third weekend in a row, the crews that could manage the tailwind chop calmly and still generate speed won the day.

As for "handling the water" being at a premium yet again at a big regatta--and the water was no joke as you can see here--one coach noted that since nearly every race this spring has featured some sort of rough stuff, the athletes have gotten good at racing these conditions. In that way, at least, maybe this championship was a fitting test for what the kids have learned to deal with this season.

Senior 8s - 'Rock Our Base,' Make Some History

When Winter Park crossed the line a length up over Montclair and New Trier, bow seat Sophia Vesela threw up four fingers to make it official: Winter Park's run atop scholastic rowing is now a four-peat. It is the most wins in a row for a Senior Girl's Eight at the SRAAs.

Unlike last year's nailbiter for the three-peat, this win was never in doubt down the stretch once Winter Park came through to take the lead at the 500, despite the driving tailwind that kept the race for silver and bronze tight in Winter Park's wake.

Senior co-captains Ava Gormley and Helena Scherr were on board for the last three Winter Park wins, and knew the crew had what it would take.

"We were definitely prepared to be down off the start," said Gormley. "Winter Park historically doesn't have a very fast start, so we really had to rock our base. When we were down, we knew we just had to stay calm, stay together, focus in the boat, and that we'd be able to get up eventually."

"It was really just finding that connection in the last 1,000 meters," Scherr added. "Once we hit the first 500, we started walking and we realized, if we keep this up, we can take it.

You can see that history-making move at the 500 here on the live stream replay.

"We've been focusing on keeping our length in water like this," Scherr said, "and maximizing having the wind and the current take us with it, so we really just wanted to stay calm and long during the piece."

"We went to regionals this year for the first time," added Gormley, another race which they won, by the way, "and that was really hard conditions as well. It was really nice to get that under our belt to come here and do better. We've had some practice in this kind of wind."

The two seniors talked about the legacy of the team and its run of success these past four years.

"Being a captain and following some of our incredible captains, is something I hold close to my heart," Scherr said, The girls are really receptive to what we say, and it's important for us to come out here and regardless of the nerves or what the water's looking like, to keep the spirits high and make sure everyone stays excited to race. So after our freshmen came in second, we really wanted to reiterate that that's still so special for them to have come in second."

"Looking at the past and all the girls that came before us and how much work that we put into this, shows us it's worth it, doing three hours a day, six times a week," said Gormley. "All the girls that came before us, they did the same thing and they just knew how to get it done. Looking up to them really pushed us to become what we are today."

The Canisius boys had to end a streak--New Trier's own three-peat bid--to take their first SRAA Senior Eight title, and they punched their bow ahead of the defending champs in the last 200 meters to win it. (you can catch that move on the replay here)

This is the first time Canisius has won the Boy's Senior Eight. Their best finish to date was bronze in 2009, and this year they also won the Senior Second Eight. The two golds on the day doubled the school's total number of SRAA medals all time.

The senior captains in the stern pair of the Canisius eight, Liam Feeney and Isaiah Aljuwani, have been part of all that recent history: from winning a JV silver in 2023 to start putting Canisius back on the SRAA podium, to a U17 gold in the four at Youth Nationals the same year, and then gold in the pair at Youth Nationals in 2024.

A false start and a re-start meant the crew had to wait just a bit longer to get it done, but making all of it pay off in the last 20 strokes to win Nationals even earned Feeney and his celebration with his teammates on shore a row2k cover photo on Sunday morning.

The cover photo on row2k Sunday morning.

"The race went really well," Feeney said afterwards. "It was annoying with the false start and having to spin and go again. We were a little down off the start, but our base was pretty strong and the finish was even stronger. Overall, it was very good race."

"An even a bigger part of that race what lead up to it, the heats in the semis," said Aljuwani. "We put down a great piece in the heat and won that by maybe open water, and in the semi, we really dominated.

"That just really built our confidence. If we didn't do that, it might not have turned out the same. We had a very high confidence going into the final."

Coming all the way down from Buffalo, Canisius faced a lot of crews they don't see too often, apart from Saratoga, who took fourth in a tight race for the rest of the medals. In the blanket finish, New Trier and Montclair grabbed silver and bronze.

"We stay around Buffalo and Canada," said head coach Jacob Filby, describing the team's season. "We had a dual against Central Catholic at the very start of the season that woke us up to what real scholastic speed was. Then we raced at home at West Side, saw some Canadian crews, went down to States. So we're a little isolated, when you see all these crews racing in Philly all season, and you're hoping you can match up."

"We always stay internal," said Feeney about facing unfamiliar crews at Nationals. "As Coach Filby always says it's only us out there and we're just out there to make the boat speed as fast as we possibly can."

"We use the word cerebral a lot for how to approach it, said Filby. "As we saw today, it doesn't matter who's in there. You just have to go 4:20 three times in a row. In the heat, they went 4:22. Semifinal, 4:22. Then in the final, they go 4:22. All it is just producing your own speed.

"They did a really good job of just understanding that it's only boat speed. There's nothing else besides that."

Back at NY States, Saratoga nipped them by half a second, and Filby said that was a huge motivator for the crew.

"The had a great last half of that race, but just gave a little too much away right in the middle to Saratoga," Filby noted. "So every time we came down for a piece, after that race, we thought, there's half a second to Saratoga. They were really good barometer."

"It was very fast race," added Aljuwani, who threw himself into the very shallow water off the Cooper's medal dock afterwards. "When that first front of crazy wind and rain came through, it wasn't just us who were hyped. Everybody at the line was getting hyped, and that definitely brought a pretty fun aspect to the race."

Senior Singles - 'Finally Getting The Goal'

Jack Potgieter made his third trip to SRAAs and the Boy's Senior Single final count: he won going away to finally capture the title after earning bronze last year and fifth in 2023.

"It makes me think all the hard work was definitely worth it," Potgieter said afterwards. "It's just an awesome feeling to finally get that goal of winning this.

"My sophomore year, I was a little surprised that I got through to the final, but after that, I was ready to come back. Especially this year, I knew what today was, and I was ready. I've been working hard for it."

The Traverse City High School senior said the conditions on the course felt a bit like being back home in Michigan.

"Luckily, we don't have great weather, so this kind of benefited me a little bit."

Behind Potgieter, Franklin Hudak took silver to put Holy Spirit on the podium a year after their sculler just missed out on a medal, and Harry Hayes from Frank W. Cox HS in Virginia Beach won the bronze.

Nanna Kehr won the Girl's Senior Single for Parkersburg High School, while Eden Alfi from Miami's Gulliver Prep earned the silver and Maya Torres-Panzer from Brighton in Rochester took the bronze.

Kehr came to Parkersburg this year from Denmark and her coach said she has elevated the whole team.

"I started rowing on this team a year ago," Kehr said, "and I remember coming and thinking, I'm going to Nationals this year. I never thought that I would win. The goal was getting here and I can't believe I won."

Kehr who has rowed with the Danish junior national team for four years and raced the double at the U19 European Championships last year accepted her medal with a US-Danish flag in hand. Her international experience probably helped in a race that Kehr called "crazy."

"It was terrible weather," she said. "I kept thinking, 'oh, my God, I'm going to flip' the whole way through the race. My arms are completely tensed up now from clutching my oars because I didn't want to lose them."

Heading into the final, Kehr knew she'd be facing really fast scullers.

"I always look up all my competitors, and I psych myself out. I'm sitting there thinking they're all so good.

"I like to sit up in front, if I can and I'm fast enough, and you can definitely tell when you're racing someone fast. I was sitting there with the girl in the pink boat [Eden Alfi], I was pushing to stay with her. I thought, 'she's gonna catch up to me.'"

When Kehr hopped out of the boat for her award, row2k couldn't help noticing she was wearing two different banana-themed socks.

"I have a doubles partner," Kehr explained, "and we always wear these because my name's Nanna, so 'Ba-nana.'"

Senior Quads: 'We Can Handle This'

Waterford School reprised their win in Girls Senior Quad, continuing a string of successes: Stroke seat Gillian McLane and two seat Bella Raemisch were in last year's SRAA winner--as was the bow seat Emery Chamberlain--and the two collected their second win at the Charles in a double last fall. The Waterford quad also came to SRAAs fresh off the school's first-ever win at the Southwest Junior Regionals against Los Gatos and Redwood Scullers, the two west coast powerhouses in the quad of late.

"Last year, we came in a quad with a similar lineup, and got first, so we wanted to come back and do it again, said stroke seat Gillian McLane. "Obviously the conditions weren't exactly what we were hoping for, but I felt like we handled it pretty well.

"Our coach trains us pretty hard, at elevation," McLane added, "so we have an advantage because we come down here to sea level. Our lungs are feeling great."

Two seat Bella Raemisch pointed out that they also felt they had an edge in the day's tricker water.

"It also helps because when we row on the Great Salt Lake and the canal where we train, the conditions are very similar. It's always white capping and storming.

"So when we come to conditions like this, where it's really rainy and windy, we feel better prepared. We know we're resilient and we can handle this. We know what to do in these situations.

Their race did start in one of the wilder bands of wind and rain that raked the course a few times during the finals.

"It was quite intense there at the start line," said McLane. "The rain started to pick up and the wind really started to blow, but we just settled into that mindset of this is about tech and concentration and less about speed as much as it's how well can you handle these conditions."

"How well can you persevere and be resilient within your own boat", added Raemisch.

After a quick trip home, the quad will head to Sarasota and a shot at adding the school's first Youth Nationals championship to the trophy case back in Sandy, Utah.

In the Boy's Senior Quad, Malvern Prep's win wrapped up their climb back to the top of the super competitive Philly scholastic sculling ladder. Fresh off a Stotes win they earned via the time trial when the finals were cancelled last week, three seat Ben Donohue said this victory was sweeter.

"No one wants to win by time trial. The greatest feeling in the world is winning a final.

"It's a honor to be here," Donohue, the three seat added. "We got second last year, so it means the world to bring Malvern's program back onto the map."

When the Malvern guys went out to face the whitecaps in the final, the fate of their Junior Quad, which fell out of medal contention after two crabs a few races earlier, was fresh on their minds.

"We saw that, and we definitely didn't want a repeat," said Donohue. "They were talking to us about how to avoid it. We didn't let it throw off the day. Gotta stay focused.

"It was definitely a little choppy and it was a rough first 500, getting blown to the port side. Quick recovery, quick catches, tapping down, that was really important.

"It was shaky all the way through, but it's just about how quickly you can come back from the bad stroke."

Notes From the Course

All That Erg's Well, Ends Well - of course, all the teams racing here did plenty of erging over the winter, but it was fun to see one team that we featured way back during erg season--the Ocean City HS girls at the South Jersey Indoors--make it all the way to an SRAA gold in the Junior Eight. Turns out the lighting is way better on the medals dock.

It Takes a Team - When Seattle Prep's Senior Boy's Double came in to collect their gold medals, we couldn't help but notice all the signatures on stroke man Christopher Ahn's visor:

Turns out, the visor was signed by all his freshmen teammates, and Ahn wore it in their honor as he and classmate Nick Vlasceanu raced their last SRAAs as seniors.

Cooper Crab-fest - the tailwind chop did claim a few victims, and there are some pretty brutal boat-stopping crabs that cost crews the places they were gunning for, if you want to hunt through the video, but it did seem like crews in the senior grand finals had clean runs in this department.

Serendipitous Re-Start? While you never want to see a false start like we did in the Boy's Senior Eight, the decision to run the following race--the petite for the Girl's Senior Eights--while the boy's boats got ready for their restart meant fans get treated to two pretty epic back-to-back Grand Finals to end the day.