Mathews High School crew members participated in four events at Saturday’s 2024 Virginia State Rowing Championship Regatta at Occoquan, achieving commendable results in the Women’s Varsity Single and Men’s Junior Single and a winning silver medal in the Men’s Junior Quad and Gold in the Women’s Junior Double.
Johnson and Kollar struck gold for Mathews in the Women’s Junior Double, placing first in their preliminary heat to move on to the afternoon finals. In the finals they repeated their success from the morning and secured the gold medal and trophy with a time of 5:58.9, with Western Albemarle second, Gloucester third, and Justice, Potomac and Rock Ridge finishing out the field behind Mathews.
Starting off the day for Mathews was Liza Zerbe in the Women’s Varsity Single. She placed fourth missing finals by one position.
First of the afternoon finals was Bryce Clark in the Men’s Junior Single. Bryce, who started rowing this spring, in his third race in the single, placed fifth behind Gloucester, two Western Albemarle entries and Potomac.
Next was the Men’s Junior Quad of Sam Tomcany, Ray Hudgins, Jaxon McDonald and Bradley Murphy. In the morning, the Mathews Quad finished first in its heat and had the second fastest time of the event and moved on to the finals in the afternoon. In the finals, the MHS boys had a great race holding the lead for the entire race until they clipped a lane buoy in the last quarter of the race. This allowed Western Albemarle to close the gap and pass Mathews right at the end placing MHS in second (4:57.7), earning silver medals by half a second, with Albemarle, and Gloucester rounding out the field.
The Blue Devils continue to train this week and will travel to Philadelphia to race in the national-level Stotesbury Cup Regatta in Philadelphia, being held this Friday and Saturday on the historic Schuylkill River course.
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