Capital Crew athletes headed to USRowing Youth National Championships

Capital Crew will send three boats featuring 16 athletes to the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida, June 9-12. The boats will be part of a regatta featuring more than 2,000 rowers racing for medals in 43 events. The local boats qualified for Youth Nationals at the Southwest Regional Championships held May 8. Capital Crew's women's youth pair, Elsa Hartman of Granite Bay High and Lily Crook from Oak Ridge, placed first at the Southwest Regionals to qualify, while the women's under-17 eight boat placed second. This boat features athletes from several local schools: two girls from St. Francis (Daniela Lopez and Grace Jurrens), and one from Folsom (Mary Margaret Anderson), Davis (Kate Schroeder) Grass Valley Charter, (Evamarie Anderson), Oak Ridge (Isabelle Delavoye), Bella Vista (Natalia Cederborg), St. John's (Alyssa Ramirez) and another who is homeschooled (Audrey Boxwell). Capital's Men's youth four with Jesuit's Hudson Meyer and Noah Ferguson, Isaiah Gossard from Stillwater Academy and Nathan Keel from Bella Vista, along with coxswain Margaret Waltz from St. Francis will also participate. While the finals of this event had to be cancelled because high winds, the Capital Crew boat advanced based on fastest times in the semifinals, and the boat had the third-fastest time. Teams complete by racing 2,000 meters, the Olympic distance, and races last between six and eight minutes long. Member of the Capital Crew practice two hours a day, plus some train on the weekend. Capital Crew is a very successful non-profit competitive junior rowing organization of the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma in Gold River that has been in existence since 1989. Capital Crew draws on high school age athletes from area schools to roster the team. Following US Rowing Youth National Championships, US Rowing conducts intensive, competitive training for selected athletes. US Rowing Olympic Development Program/Selection Team Camps in partnership with the USOPC, the US Rowing Olympic Development Program (ODP) is a multi-phased, age-based approach to developing athletes in the safest, most productive way possible. Several of Capital Crew's U17 Women's team, four rowers and a coxswain, were selected to attend that training, including Oak Ridge sophomores Izzy Delavoye and Grace Torchiana. Oak Ridge High School is well represented in the Capital Crew Youth Rowing Program: including Class of 2022: Lily Crook, Kaia Miranda, Kaari Dexter; Class of 2023: Austin Chen, Connor Ritchie, Ella Bolt, Emie Belk, Ashley Brown; Class of 2024: Grace Torchiana, Maya Reisinger, Izzy Delavoye; and Class of 2025: Teagan Heise and Claire Riordan.