St. Valentine's Day Classic

RRA youth made an impressive showing at the Saint Valentine's Classic. Even though we were one of the smaller groups, both the boys and girls teams were ranked in the top 10 of their events. The novices and coxswain stole the show when Fiona Brennan won the coxswain event by over 20 seconds, Brielle Ayuso won the Girls U14 event by 35 seconds, Isaac Jang edged out second place by a tenth of a second in the Boy's Novice event. Yaara Ronen and Enya Gilroy earned the second and third place spots in the Girls U19 Open event, Nikolai Sazonov earned second in in the boys Lightweight U19 event, and in the girls U17 race, Rockland earned 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th. The real win though team spirit. Every single athlete had a cheering squad behind them, no matter what group they train with and that was really amazing to see.

Ironmen Erg Classic

Starting out our 2024 rowing season, RRA youth made an impressive showing at the Ironman Erg Classic. Both the boys and girls teams were ranked in the top 10 of their events overall, some being in the top 5 in their heats and most being top 3 in their heats. The real win though was their team spirit. Every single athlete had a cheering squad around them, no matter what group they train with and that was really amazing to experience. This being the first indoor erg race for many of our developmental team rowers. They really showed dedication and team spirit competing against others. We look forward to seeing this throughout our spring season. What a great start to our 2024 rowing year.

2023 End of Year Award Dinner

As 2023 comes to an end recapping the year. Rockland Rowing had its most elaborate showing from multiple rowers competing at USRowing Youth Nationals, 4 of our boats finished top-10 in the country. To getting selected to participate the Head of the Charles and 2 of our boats qualifying in the top half of the Head of the Charles securing their positions for next years race! At our end of year award dinner, we recapped our successful year and awarded many outstanding rowers for their hard work and dedication. Collectively as a team, captains were chosen for the 2024 year. Congratulations to our 2024 captains: Ian, Sam, Yaara, Naomi, and Fiona. Congratulations to all the rowers on their accomplished awards! We look forward to the new year ahead. Welcome 2024 with the hope of bringing more medals home.

ROCKLAND ROWING ASSOCIATION’S 2023 ADAPTIVE PROGRAM

Post-pandemic adaptive rowing at Rockland Rowing Association has blossomed. A wave of new athletes joined our competitive and recreational teams this year, nearly doubling the size of the program. Over the winter, we worked with new rowers Matt Rola and Alim, both with SCI (spinal cord injuries) on fixed seat rowing machines (Concept2). On the water, we have an enthusiastic group on our recreational rowing barge who row every Thursday. On July 8, RRA hosted its first annual Rockland Rowing Masters Regatta, featuring two adaptive events for PR1 singles and mixed inclusion doubles. Adaptive athletes from Riverfront Recapture and RowNY competed against RRA’s team members Alanna Flax-Clarke, Ron Gold, and Sheila Savage. In May, we welcomed a new visually impaired rower, Jasmine Murrell, who has raced twice in a competitive double scull, at Bayada in Philadelphia (rowing with Assistant Adaptive Coach Nicole Simbana) and at the Head of the Riverfront in Hartford, CT.  Our large group of volunteers includes adult rowers from nearby clubs, including Cortlandt and Piermont, medical students from New York Medical College, and high school competitive rowers in our youth program at Rockland Rowing, who earn community service hours while experiencing their sport through new eyes.

Special Shoutouts :

RRA’s July 8 Masters Regatta:
RRA’s Mixed Inclusion 2x Entry with Rob Norden and Sheila Savage

Gold Medal winner RowNY’s PR 1 rower Katerine Valdez, RRA Adaptive Coach Greta Nettleton and RRA’s PR1 entry, Ron Gold.

Gold Medal winners at Head of the Riverfront:

RRA’s novice adaptive rower Jasmine Murrell (visually impaired) Coach Greta Nettleton and volunteer rower Eric Schofer, of Cortlandt Community Rowing.

Charlotte Buck heading to Tokyo!!!

We’re thrilled to announce that Charlotte Buck was selected to the US National Team and will be competing in the women’s eight in Tokyo! We are all so proud of Charlotte and are rooting for her and the team.

Charlotte, a local Nyack resident, started rowing with the Rockland Rowing Association between her senior year at Nyack High School and her first year at Columbia University. She went to on to captain her team at Columbia. Not done with rowing after she graduated, she continued to train while coaching for Rockland. Last year, following some amazing virtual erg competitions where she finished second to the women’s world record holder, Charlotte was invited to the US Rowing training/selection camps for the women’s team. She spent the winter in Chula Vista and this spring in Princeton training with the national team and going through the selection process. And… she crushed it! (Like we knew she would.) She is currently rowing in the 7-seat of the US Women’s eight. We are so proud to be associated with this amazing athlete and look forward to watching her success.

Join us in July for a “viewing party” at our new venue at the south end of Rockland Lake State Park, where we hope to watch Charlotte and Team USA at the Olympics on a big screen. With us will be her parents, including mom Sharon Quayle-Buck - one of our own competitive masters rowers. (Dad Roger Buck has been rowing too, but we haven’t convinced him to race yet!) More info to come.

RRA Returns to Racing!

Rockland Rowing’s youth team competed at Mercer Sprints regatta. Congratulations to all who competed for the first time in nearly two years. Special shout out to our men’s lightweight double that finished fourth and to the novice rowers who raced for their first time ever! Next up are the Mid-Atlantic Championships. The biggest surprise was a quick visit from Coach Charlotte Buck who is training for the Olympics nearby!

Return to sports: Rockland Rowing Association welcomes youth program back in the water

By Eugene Rapay

Winter felt a couple months longer this year. After a very brief reintroduction to the water in March, the Rockland Rowing Association was forced to return to its winter training routine, which consists of indoor stationary rowing machines and remote workouts over Zoom, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"We got like one day on the water, or something like that, and then everything got shut down," Rockland Rowing Association president Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky said. "We went back to winter training mode. ... That was really hard because everyone had been so excited to finally get outside after a long winter of training. It was not well received. People are happy if there was something to do, but our attendance dwindled pretty rapidly. Sometimes there were as many coaches on the calls as there were rowers, it was hard."

Read the rest of the article here:

https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/high-school/2020/06/20/rockland-rowing-association-welcomes-youth-program-back-water/3208103001/

Medals for Rockland at Ironman Ergathon

Rockland Rowing had great success this weekend from all our team members! Masters and youth raced at the Don Bosco Ironman Erg Classic over distances of either 1000m or 2000m.

The day started off right with a win in the men’s senior event by Tom Chyla (40-49). Peter Klose and Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky took gold and silver respectively in the men’s veteran event (50-59). To quote Peter, “nothing hurts like a 2k!”

Nikolai Sazanov took silver in the 8th grade boys 1000m and Cara Guarascio, in her first race ever, took home bronze in the 7th grade girls 1000m! We are so proud of the work they’ve put in this winter!

Hannah Hely took gold with an amazing sprint to the finish in the high school girls open 2000m!

There was phenomenal racing from all competitors! Many of the Rockland athletes threw down new personal records for the 2000m. We had PRs from Adin, Aidan, Alex, Cara, and Nikolai! All their hard work in the winter is paying off!

Up next for the team is the St. Valentine’s Erg Race, held by PCRA at the Mount Saint Michael Academy in the Bronx on February 8th! Thank you so much to all the parents and friends that came out to support the team!

Full Results Here

Photos Here

Pull With Purpose - Great Success!

Our 14th Annual Pull With Purpose Rowathon was a great success! Over 60 rowers - including our youth teams, our adult team, our adaptive team, family, friends and guests - participated in a one hour row by relay teams of four rowers. In total, we rowed nearly 150 miles in one hour while raising a record amount to support Rockland Rowing’s community rowing programs.

Thank you to Nyack Fitness for hosting our event, for contributing and for participating. Nyack Fitness is awesome!

Thank you to our many donors for their huge support. Special shout-out to our generous corporate sponsors Crestron, Orange & Rockland and Suez! The money raised is going primarily toward improvements in safety - including new engines and improvements to coaching/safety launches and to pay for more staff on the water when youth and adaptive teams are practicing. These donations also help us keep the cost of our programs lower and help make them affordable to anyone with an interest in rowing.

Four Medals from HOSR!

Dealing with challenging conditions, Rockland came away from Head of the Schuylkill with two golds, a silver and a bronze medal!

This past weekend down in Philadelphia, both the masters and youth teams had a great weekend. Unfortunately, due to winds and storms coming through, Sunday’s freshman and novice races were cancelled.
On Saturday, there were clear skies and calm water to see Ron Gold and Ivan Rudolph Shabinsky to a gold in the adaptive 2x. Following on that wonderful start to the day, Peter Klose and Celeste Voutsinas-Klose took gold in the father/daughter double. Greta Nettleton and Alexander Lalier took silver in the mother/son double.

On Sunday, the competitive youth team raced in singles and doubles. Anthony Rostek placed highest of the boys singles, coming 13th with a time of 17:29. Celeste Voutsinas-Klose placed highest of the girls, coming in 9th with a time of 20:06. Hannah Hely was right behind her in 10th place by only an additional four seconds. Hannah and Celeste teamed up for the double and had a great race, coming 3rd in a time of 15:55, only five seconds behind first place.

Thank you so much to the parents that manned the food tent and dealt with the rain! You all make the experience better for all of the athletes!

Racing will resume in the spring season! If you are interested in joining in for winter training, please email charlotte@rocklandrowing.org

Full Results here: https://www.herenow.com/results/#/races/20714/results

Rockland Brings home Seven Medals from Head of the RIverfront and Navy Day

Rockland’s fall racing has been off to a flying start! At head of the Riverfront, the team came away with two golds, two silvers and two bronze medals. This past Saturday at Navy Day, the master’s women took home a second place finish in the quad. Racing continues next weekend with the Head of the Charles

Head of the Riverfront took place over a 2.25 mile course on the Connecticut River in Hartford, CT. The day started off with back to back wins for Rockland in the boys and girls singles. Anthony Rostek and Hannah Hely took home golds, with Hannah finishing the race 32 seconds ahead of second place! Teaming up in the double, Hannah and Celeste Voustinas-Klose had a silver medal finish. Peter Klose and Tom Chyla matched them with a silver medal in the master’s double. Gibby Caicedo received a bronze medal for his first head race in a single in the novice boys single. He then jumped in the novice quad, along with Alex Cathcart, Mattan Goshen, and Nikolai Sazonov, and took home another third place finish. Coach Charlotte subbed into the Trinity alumni 8+ and finished first, also beating one of the men’s alumi 8+s. 

Full Results here: http://www.roninregistration.com/rowing/TimingResults.asp?p=default&pt=rowing&GroupId=296716

This past weekend, the team raced at Navy Day in Philadelphia. The master’s women’s quad of Kathy Kearney, Sharon Quayle, Elizabeth Tapley and Leslie Horn took home silver! 

Full Results here: https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/?job_id=6549&org_id=0

Rockland is sending four boats to Head of the Charles. From the youth team, Anthony Rostek and Ryan Almond will be racing in the double and Adin Deljanin will be racing the single. Their races are on Sunday morning. From the master’s team, Tom Chyla and Peter Klose will race a master’s double and Chris Hely, Coach Ivan Rudolph Shabinsky, Scott Baird, and Peter Klose will be racing a master’s quad in one of the Director’s Challenges. Coaches Charlotte will be racing  in the Championship single for New York Athletic Club.  

Livestream of Head of the Charles will be posted later in the week! 

A Hot Day of Races at the Philly Youth Regatta

To wrap up a great summer of racing, Rockland headed down to the Schuylkill River for the Philadelphia Youth Regatta. All races were shorten to 1000 meters since the temperatures were above 90 degrees all day.

Everyone stayed cool under pressure. Gibby started us off on the team off on the right foot by winning his flight for the novice single and ending up with the second fastest time overall to clinch a silver medal Alex High and Sebastian Mulaney also put in solid efforts in the novice single. This was Seb’s first race in a single!

The girls U19 quad of Celeste Voutsinas-Klose, Hannah Hely, Caroline High, and Jaia Delizo overcame a mid-race boat had a rough start to their race but continued to improve as they charged down the race course. Everyone in that boat went on to race in other events, with Celeste and Hannah winning their U19 double flight, Caroline racing in the U17 and U19 singles, and Jaia racing in her second ever single race in U19. Celeste also went on win the mixed double with Ryan Almond - winning the gold medal with their time of 3:43 Gibby also raced a total of three times as he stroked the novice quad with Alex High (3), Sebastian (2) and Mattan in bow, and then sat in two seat in the U17 quad stroked by Finn Bolger with Aidan Lawlor in 3 and Zion in bow. First time race together for Finn and Aidan in the U17 double, the boys had a great race and we expect to see more from them in the future! Finally, Nicole and Bridget had an awesome first race together in the U17 girl’s double.

Thanks to all the parents for coming out and supporting your athletes all summer! Looking forward to an exciting season of head races in the fall!

Full Results Here: https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/?job_id=6278&org_id=0

Third Place in the U19 Double at Nationals

Club nationals saw teams come from all over the county, from as far as Florida and California, to Bethel Ohio to race for three days in the youth events. After the youth races wrapped up on Thur Rockland entered six boats, across five events. All youth events had time trials, with 18 boats progressing to three semifinals.

Caroline High raced in the U17 1x. She finished just out of qualifying place at 24 out of 45 with a time of 8:54. Emma Deljanin also raced in the u17 1x and finished 33rd. Adin Deljanin raced, despite being sick, and placed 35th out of 46 with a time of 7:57.

The U19 girls double of Celeste and Hannah Hely placed 16th out of 39 to qualify for the semifinals. In a tight race, the girls put up a consistent fight in the middle of the race but weren’t able to challenge the top two boats that qualified for the final. The girls finished in fifth place with a time of 8:10.6

The u19 boys double of Anthony Rostek and Ryan Almond placed 5th out 54, which was the highest number of entries for any event of the week. The semis were top two to qualify for the final and the crew executed an excellent sprint to move through from fourth to second place in the second half of the race. They finsihed with a time of 7:00.9, one and two seconds ahead of the next two boats. Their final race starts at 2:02:30 on this video of the race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5MS4SWbqg Off the line, Anthony and Ryan were down in sixth place but still had contact on the next four boats in front of them. Through the 1000 meter mark, they pulled even with the next two boats, two entries from Conshohocken. Row America Rye was able to maintain their position in first, with a boat from Oak Neck Academy following closely behind. Coming through into the final 500 meters, Anthony and Ryan pulled away to secure third place, finishing in a time of 6:56.9

All the semis and finals of youth races can be seen here:

Wednesday AM Semis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXO9deY2Uhc

Wednesday PM Semis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_rJXxa5HSM

Thursday Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5MS4SWbqg

Full results here: https://www.herenow.com/results/#/races/20601/results

Wins and High Winds for Two Weekends of Racing at Schuylkill

Schuykill Navy Regatta - June 15th brought with it high winds and long races on the Schuylkill. Caroline High had the best results of the day, coming away with the win in the Junior Girls single. Emma Deljanin finished fifth in the same race. Adin Deljanin placed third in the juniors men’s single. Alex High placed fourth in the boys novice single race (1000m).

Independence Day Regatta - A larger Rockland squad raced at the Independence Day Regatta, including youth, U23, and master rowers.

The U19 double of Celeste Voutsinas-Klose and Hannah Hely had the fastest time trial of their event, coming in first out of 36. They came second in their heat to qualify for the final. Unfortunately, the finals that were scheduled for after 4pm on Saturday were cancelled due to high winds and a thunderstorm.

Anthony Rostek and Ryan Almond came fourth in the time trial for the U19 double out of 27 crews. They placed first in their heat to earn a spot for the final on Saturday. In the final, they ended in sixth place.

Caroline High, racing in the U17 single, came 4th out of 27 in her time trial to qualify for the heats. Just shy of qualifying for finals, she placed third in her heat.

Our U23 double, racing in the intermediate category, placed 15th out of 24 in the time trials to gain a place in the heats. Jordan Irving and Jake Bardorf put down a good race in their heat but weren’t able to make the final, coming in sixth.

After only one week in the single, Jaia Delizo placed third in her heat for the U19 single. Alex High placed fifth in his heat for the novice single. In her first race with Rockland, Nicole Simbana placed fifth in her heat of the girls novice single. In their first time in the lineup, and a first race for two of the crew, the Boys U17 quad ended in sixth in their heat. The crew was made of Alex Cathcart, Seb Mullaney, Conner Bohan, and Gibby Caicedo

On the Master and Elite side, Rockland away with some wins! The masters quad of Coach Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky, Chris Hely, Joe Devoe, and Peter Klose had a decisive victory, finishing the race eleven seconds before the next crew. Coach Charlotte won her heat in the intermediate single to get to the final, and was able to snag the win in the Sunday final. She also qualified for the final of the open single with the second fastest heat time of the day but unfortunately, the final for that event was cancelled due to weather.

Results for Schulykill Navy: https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/?job_id=6279&org_id=0

Results for Independence Day Regatta: https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/?job_id=6277&org_id=0