The Big Red Crew team raced at the Midwest Scholastic Championships May 11 and 12 on Kent Lake in Kensington Park, Michigan. Midwest is a regional race that includes around 50 teams from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Earning first place in the finals allows a boat to go to the nationals race in New Jersey later this year. The race is competitive, and the crew team hadn’t earned top three, the only places that receive medals, since before COVID-19. This year, the streak was broken by two medaling boats.
The Women’s Junior Varsity 4x (four rowers, two oars each), rowed by (from bow to stern) sophomores Rylie Stull, JJ Johnson, Kayte Edmands and Alivia Moorehead, finished in second place.
“I was really excited that we got second, and I really thought, in the race, that we were gonna end good,” said Johnson. “I think we’ll do really well next year because we’ll be more experienced, and since we’ll be JV still, we’ll be the ‘top dogs.’ I want both the quad and the four to go to nationals.”
In third place was the Men’s Novice 4x+ (four rowers, two oars each, and a coxswain who steers and leads the boat), rowed by (from bow to stern) freshmen Zach Ward, Thomas Hayes and Tristan Showen, sophomore Lyric Dearth, and coxswain, freshman Tristan Roberts.
“It was really special and a very unique opportunity we had in our quad, and I’m very grateful for every second in that quad,” said Dearth. “Crew is a sport all about teamwork and adaptation. I’ve watched the live feed and I don’t think we could’ve done better.”
As a novice on the team, freshman Hayden Carey competed in her first regional regatta at Midwest.
“Being there (at Midwest), it felt real,” said Carey. “All the other races before felt like they were just practice. It was high stakes.”
Of the 13 boats from PHS that raced on Saturday, eight earned a high enough place in heats and time trials to advance to a finals race Sunday. Other than the silver and bronze medalists, the boats that went on to A finals were the Women’s Junior Varsity 4x (four rowers, two oars each), rowed by (from bow to stern) juniors Megan Midcap, Emily Lane, Catherine Hayes and Clara Vanfossen, which placed sixth, and the Women’s Junior Varsity 2x (two rowers, two oars each), rowed by Catherine Hayes and Vanfossen, that earned fourth. The boats that made it to B finals were the Men’s Varsity 4x (four rowers, two oars each), Men’s Varsity 2x (two rowers, two oars each), Women’s Junior Varsity 4+ (four rowers, one oar each, and a coxswain), and Women’s Novice 8+ (eight rowers, one oar each, and a coxswain).
“Acquiring a medal at Midwest championship is a difficult task that is a goal to achieve, not a given to receive,” said crew coach Jim VanAllen.
