The Junior girls crew from the ZLAC boat house at 1111 Pacific Beach Drive took strong showings from their last two regattas on Mission Bay and at the Long Beach Marine Stadium to Sacramento last weekend for the Southwest Regional Junior Regatta U.S. championships.
In their previous two outings, the 13- to 18-year-old athletes had brought home the celebrations of their success wearing a lot of gold, silver and bronze.
“We’ve had an outstanding year ” a lot of fun,” said ZLAC Volunteer Coordinator Wyndham Jackson. “We are all really proud of the success they have earned.”
Since the Crew Classic in early April, the junior girls crew from the historic all-women’s rowing club have been busy with daily after-school practice.
The top lightweight 4-person crew finished first among five boats to bring home the gold medals from the SoCal Cup II which was held on East Mission Bay April 15.
The champion crew includes Jesi Bennett, Sarah Jackson (LJ High), Megan DeCort, Maureen Alcock and cox Briar Carpenter (Pt. Loma High) who were led by head juniors coach Dana Ryan.
The freshman 4-person crew finished second in their final race, while the varsity boat finished third.
In one of the highlights of the season, the ladies brought home two gold medals from the Long Beach Junior Invitational Regatta, which features teams from throughout California and Arizona.
In the 1,400-meter race, the lightweight 4-person crew repeated their victory with a first place finish over Los Gatos Rowing Club, Xavier Crew, Newport Aquatic Center and Oakland Strokes.
ZLAC varsity 2-person crew made up of Bennett and Jackson earned silver medals behind Rio Salado Rowing Club while beating Long Beach and Stanford Rowing Center.
In the girls singles championship race Krista Rindell brought home the bronze medal in the six-boat final.
The lightweight 8-person crew also earned a bronze for Carpenter, Bennett, Liz Felando (Pt Loma), Rindell, Emily Hill, Alcock, Megan DeCort and both Sarah and Kelsey Jackson.
The lightweight 4-person crew was undefeated this season going into the 27-club regional championships east of Sacramento in Lake Natoma on the American River May 20 and 21. Teams from throughout California, Arizona and Utah competed.
The ZLAC lightweight 4 earned second place in the 2,000-meter final race behind the local Capitol Crew with Katrina Lazarte stepping in to cox this race. The silver medal finish qualified the 4 to compete in the U.S. Rowing National Youth Championships at Cincinnati, Ohio in June.
The silver medal finish earned the first trip to the U.S. Nationals for any ZLAC juniors crew in 15 years, according to club president Nancy Perry.
ZLAC also won the bronze in the frosh 8-person final. The novice rowers included Remy Arevalo, Camille Lancelot, Kelsey Jackson (LJ High), Tess McCann, Emily Sales (PL High), Bridget Bones, Chloe Hawkins (PL High), Liz Felando (PL High) and Savanna Howard.
The novice rowers were coached by Dan Putnam and Katherine Martin. Head ZLAC coach overseeing the juniors, women and masters programs was Mary Obidinski, a six-year former member of the U.S. National crew.
ZLAC is an acronym for the names of the women who founded the rowing club in 1892 on Mission Bay. It is the oldest women’s athletic club in the country formed in response to the (formerly) men’s only San Diego Rowing Club started a few years earlier.
Crew is a tradition-filled amateur sport that provides fitness while creating team camaraderie and competitive spirit.
ZLAC has produced three Olympic champions and many National Team participants. Junior members are recruited by top universities and great numbers of young women have gone on to earn college scholarships. Nearly any girl with good grades coming out of a quality junior crew program like ZLAC can earn a college scholarship.
“We are looking to build a strong junior’s program,” Obidinski said. “I would encourage high school girls to who are competitive and team oriented to come join us.”
ZLAC offers junior summer camp programs in June, July and August for girls 13 and 18 years old. The program introduces girls to the fitness and fun, water safety and boat handling among friends. The camps run every day for two weeks.
The competitive junior crew team is built out of the girls from all over the county who are introduced to the sport at the summer camps.
For more information visit www.ZLAC.org.