Newport Aquatic Center rowers open season in San Diego with strong showing

The Newport Aquatic Center junior rowing teams competed in the San Diego Fall Rowing Classic on Sunday. The first race of the season included 34 junior, club and college teams from California, Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts and Utah.

On the girls’ side, the NAC women’s eight “A” boat, led by coxswain Annabelle Brigandi, placed second. The strength and depth of the this year’s varsity team was evident in this event with the NAC “B” boat, coxed by Charlie Toffel, placing third and the NAC “C” boat, coxed by Melanie Chang, placing fourth out of 11 boats.

In the women’s four, the NAC “A” boat, coxed by Shanny Nelson, placed second, and coxswain Darien Moses brought the “B” boat home in fifth place out of 12 boats. The pairs placed first and 11th in their race.

In the women’s novice eight, the NAC “A” boat won the event by more than 30 seconds. The “B”, “C” and “D” boats placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, besting three other team’s “A” boats and all other “B” boats.

In the last event of the day, the NAC women’s novice four “B” boat dominated the field and won by more than a minute with a time of 22:39. In keeping with a long-standing tradition of tossing the winning coxswain into the water, the coxswains of the novice eight “A” and four “B” boats, Chloe King and Hailey Alexander, each took a swim in Mission Bay.

The men’s varsity eight “A” boat had the fastest time in its race, but was assessed a one-minute penalty due to a mix-up on the course. This opened the door for the “B” boat, led by coxswain Ethan Ruiz, to win the race, followed by the “C” boat coxed by Zach Casler in second and the “D” boat coxed by Natasha Ellis in fourth. Despite the one-minute penalty, the “A” boast finished fifth out of 11 boats.

In the un-coxed varsity men’s four, NAC’s “A” boat placed second and the “B” boat placed sixth out of 10 boats. The victorious men’s varsity four “A” boat was also coxed by Ruiz, who is coming off a successful summer that included coxing the United States men’s eight “A” boat to a second-place finish at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The NAC “B” boat in the men’s varsity four was coxed by Alli Hinmon and placed sixth. NAC boats placed sixth, 12th and 14th in the men’s varsity two.

When discussing the early season results, NAC Coach Nick D’Antoni noted that this year’s varsity men “have a lot of depth but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

The novice men’s eight “A”, with Dylan White at coxswain, placed second with the remaining boats placing third, fifth, sixth and seventh out of a total of 10 boats. Coxswain Emery Rolfes led the novice men’s four “A” boat to first place with the “B” boat placing sixth.

The next event for the NAC is the Long Beach Christmas Regatta at the Long Beach Marine Stadium on Dec. 6.

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