Bronze at the U15/U17 National Championships!

Rockland Rowing Association traveled to the Cooper River, Camden, New Jersey this past weekend to compete in the USRowing U17/U15 National Championships. This first ever National Regatta featured crews from all over the United States, including California, Florida, and Texas.

The RRA U15 Boys Quad, consisting of athletes under 15 years old, brought home a Bronze medal in racing over two days. The Quad, comprised of Alex Cathcart, Alex High, Mattan Goshen, and Nikolai Sazanov, completed a time trial on Saturday morning to qualify for the Final on Sunday. In the final, competing against boats from Sarasota, FL, Greenwich, CT, Saratoga, NY, and Sheldon, CT, the boys defeated three other crews to bring home a bronze medal. 

In the U17 Single Sculls, Celeste Voutsinas-Klose, a junior at Nyack High School, and Caroline High, from Montvale, New Jersey finished their time trials in 8th and 9th, qualifying them for the singles finals on Sunday. Under beautiful sunny skies and a slight breeze, Voutsinas-Klose completed the 2000 meter course 8:52.089 to remain as the eighth in the nation, with High crossing the line in 9:04.771 to finish ninth.

In the U15 Girls Double, Rockland’s entry finished fifth overall. In an exciting heat, Catrina Bernhardt and Mae Dolan qualified for the final by one second ahead of the crew from Great River. In Sunday’s final, they executed a great final sprint and just narrowly missed the podium, with only one second separating third and fifth place.

In the U15 Girls Single, Emma Deljanin from Old Tappan, New Jersey qualified for the B final from her heat on Saturday. She decisively won her final in a time of 4:39.245, ten seconds ahead of the next rower.

Full Results here:

Photos Courtesy of Peter Close and USRowing

Two Medals from the Cooper Cup

After rough conditions at Mercer last weekend, the Competitive and Development Team traveled to the Cooper River to race 2ks in good weather conditions.

Anthony Rostek and Ryan Almond raced in the Men’s Varsity 1x, easily qualifying for the final by coming in first and second, ten seconds ahead of the next competitor. In a hard fought final between the top four finishers, Anthony came in second (8:27.5) and Ryan (8:28.9) finished in third behind first place Conshohockhen (8:26.6).

Caroline High also easily raced her heat to qualify for the final of the Women’s Varsity 1x. As the youngest competitor in the final, Caroline had a great race and finished in fourth place with a time in 9:45.7

Hannah Hely and Celeste Voutsinas-Klose had a tough heat but qualified for their final by one tenth of a second. They came back to execute a great race for the final, finishing in fourth place with a time of 9:04.8

Full Results Here

Photos Here

Racing at Mercer Sculling Championships

April 19th- 20th

Due to rough conditions and high winds at Mercer this past weekend, all of the races were shortened to 1000 meters. Alex Karanikitas, Billy Grippi, Ryan Almond, and Anthony Rostek raced the time trial for the boys varsity single for a place in the seven boat final. They finished 26th, 20th, 11th and 6th respectively. The sixth place finish qualified Anthony for the final and came in sixth place in the final! Adin Deljanin and Jake Bardorf raced in the boys varsity 2x and came 4th in their heat.

On Friday, Celeste Voutsinas-Klose and Hannah Hely raced the girls varsity 2x, coming up just short of making the final by coming in third in their heat. Olivia De Maria and Emma Deljanin raced the girls lightweight 2x, coming 5th in their heat. Caroline High raced the girls varsity single and finished 19th out of 27 boats. On Saturday, they combined to raced the girls varsity 4x, ending up in 5th in their heat. Anthony, Jake, Adin, and Ryan raced the boys varsity 4x, finishing 5th in their heat.

Our novices had their first races on Saturday morning, after a two hour weather delay! The boys 4x was comprised of Nikolai Sazanov, Alex Cathcart, Mattan Goshen, and Kyle Fredricks. The girls 4x was Mae Dolan, Catrina Bernhardt, Sophia Bonardi, and Bridget Hold. The boys came 8th out of nine boats and the girls finished 7th out of 13th.

Full Results Here

Photos from Row2k

A Pair of Third Place Finishes at the Steve Neczypor Regatta

April 6th - For the first race of the spring season, Rockland had two third place finishes! In the boys varsity single. Both Billy Grippi and Ryan Almond advanced out of their heats to earn a chance to race in the final. Ryan placed third, only one second behind 2nd place and Billy finished in fifth place.

Jake Bardorf and Adin Deljanin had a great race in the heat, placing second to qualify for the final. They finished the final in third, with a time of 7:36.8

Full Results Here

Photos Here

Rivertown News Article on RRA's Adaptive Team

Check out the wonderful article on our adaptive rowing team in Rivertown News!

http://bit.ly/2Yynwrc

Pull With Purpose Fundraiser Raises over $30,000!

With the generous $15,000 matching grant from Crestron, the Rockland Rowing Association raised over $30,000 in its annual “Pull With Purpose” fundraising erg-a-thon. Held in the east court of the Palisades Center, there was great energy as the adult and youth teams combined to compete first in a 1000m erg race, and then a 1-hour relay race for teams of 4. We attracted many passing shoppers, and even a local cable station’s (FioS1 News) camera team and reporter that were onsite.

A typical 4-person relay team consisted of a rower from our Adult Team, a Competitive Youth Team rower, a Development Team youth rower and a new rower just trying out the sport. Our Adaptive Team had its own team that generated lots of power as they all “pulled with purpose.” Thanks to all the donors who help make it possible for the RRA to fulfill its mission to “improve people’s lives through the sport of rowing.” This year’s donations are going toward several projects, including new racing shells for the youth teams and a new engine for our safety/coaching launches. The safety of all our rowers, particularly our adaptive team that is already challenged physically, requires us to have reliable launches to provide assistance in an emergency. At the same time, to be ecologically sensitive, we are trying to avoid the use of gasoline engines. Our fleet of propane engines is temperamental, so we are looking into some new electric engines that can propel our launches at the needed speed (close to 20mph to keep up with the fastest rowing shells, and to quickly reach any rower facing some sort of emergency) while producing no emissions.

U23 Summer Sculling Camp

From June to August, Rockland is running a U23 Summer Racing Team for collegiate rowers from around New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The team focuses on small boats and sculling. We train on Rockland Lake in Valley Cottage, NY, and race at Independence Day Regatta in Philadelphia, Club Nationals in Ohio this year, and Canadian Henley in St. Catharines, Ontario. Members of the U23 team in past years have been from Cornell, Columbia, Wisconsin, and Iona.

We will teach rowers to scull if they are strictly a sweep rower currently. Our practices will be held both morning and evening to provide flexibility to those who work, or to offer multiple practices per day for those looking to significantly improve their rowing and fitness this summer.

The program is coached by our coaching staff that includes head coach Veli Etropolski - an 8-time member of the Bulgarian National Team, and Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky, a former Cornell rower, long-time masters rower and president of Rockland Rowing for over 15 years, and Charlotte Buck, former captain of the Columbia University Women's Crew, two time All-American Second Team and competed as part of the World University Games Team in 2018.

Camp Dates:

June 1st - August 11th

Race Dates:

IDR, Philadelphia, PA - June 28th-30th

Club Nationals, Lake Harsha, OH - July 9th-14th

Canadian Henley, St. Catherines, ON - Aug 6th-11th

Sign Up Here

Email charlotte@rocklandrowing.org if you would like more information

Chris Hely Gets the Hammer!

Our only Master racing this past Saturday at the St. Valentine’s Day Regatta was Chris Hely. In the Men’s Veteran A (50-59) Event, Chris came in 3rd.

The 500m races came at the end of the day, and Chris decided to hop back on the erg and race a field of masters and collegiate men. At a blistering pace, Chris came in first with a time of 1:25.0. He came away with a hammer as the prize for his great race!

One of our coaches, Charlotte, raced representing New York Athletic Club. She came away with the win in the Women’s Open 2k and 500m races!

Full Results Here

PRs for Rockland at St. Valentine's Day Regatta

The winter season demands many long practices on the erg to gain fitness. The youth team had a chance for show off their gains in speed at PCRA’s St. Valentine’s Day Regatta this past Saturday. Nineteen different teams from around the tristate area came to compete in masters, collegiate, and youth races. For many on the Development Team, this was their first opportunity to race.

In the Boys Novice 1000m, Alex Cathcart, Nikolai Sasonov, Mattan Goshen, Daniel Owens, and Luke Mallory. On the girls side for the Novice 1k, Emma Deljanin came in fourth and Katie Mallory put down a great race. “I am so proud of all of the members of the development team and their race results” said Dev Team Coach Charlotte. “They have been improving so much every week and I can’t wait to see how they do once we get back on the water.”

The competitive team raced next. Both Finn Bolger and Kyle Fredricks laid down personal best times for their 2ks in the Boys U17 event. Posting the best result for the team was a second place finish from Anthony Rostek in the U19. Jake Bardorf and Billy Grippi both pulled great races as well in the U19 event. With only ten minutes to rest, Jake and Billy turned around and raced another 500m race. Hannah Hely had a great race, coming in 5th in the U19 Girls event.

After a great weekend of erg racing, the team is back together for one more week of indoor racing before traveling to Austin, TX!

Full Results Here

Winter Training 2018-19

With February around the corner, the team has been training hard on the ergs to get faster before the spring season. The erg machine helps to train and expand our athletes’ fitness when it is too cold to row on Rockland Lake. We have been seeing great PRs, or personal records, for many of the erg workouts. We’ve been seeing great gains and awesome work across the board. Anthony Rostek, Hannah Hely, and Celeste Klose have all seen great improvement in their 2k PRs and continue to pick up more speed!

The Development Team, for kids in their first year of rowing, has been growing! For their first season on the ergs, the dev team has been doing a excellent job. Just this week, Daniel Owens had a seven second PR for his 500m. If you would like to join the team, please email charlotte@rocklandrowing.org or come to our next Introduction to Rowing on the first Saturday of ever month. The next introduction class is on February 2nd at 12pm at the NYSC in the Palisades Mall.

The Masters Competitive Team has been training fiercely early in the mornings. Coming off a third place finish at Master’s World Championships last fall, the masters have been putting in the meters to continue making gains in speed. Chris Hely has been crushing his erg training, setting new RRA masters erg records!

Check out the youth winter training in the video below!

Head of the Schuylkill

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The Rockland Rowers took to the Schuylkill River for a 2.5 mile head race on Sunday. Highlights included five top-half finishes in events which see close to 50 entries.

In the boys varsity single sculls Anthony Rostek (17th), Anthony Feteira (20th), Jake Bardorf (25th) and Ryan Almond (26th) all finished in the top half in a field of 53.

Rostek and Almond teamed up for a second race in the varsity double sculls where they finished 11th out of 44 entries.

Full Results

Great showing at Navy Day Regatta

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The Rockland Rowing team raced at the Navy Day Regatta on the Schuylkill River on Saturday, October 13 and claimed four medals in the men’s doubles and quadruple sculls.

Men’s Masters Double (40-49)
1. Fairmont (14:48.47)
2. Undine (15:12.52)
3. Rockland (15:58.46) - Chris Hely and Alec Almond

Men’s Masters Double (50-59)
1. Malta (14:44.60)
2. Rockland (15:15. 82) - Peter Klose and Justin Bohan
3. Rockland (15:18.36) - Brad Boericke and Ivan Rudolph-Shabinksy

Men’s Masters Quad (50-59)
1. Viking (14:00.66)
2. Rockland (14:11.35) Peter Klose, Alec Almond, Chris Hely and Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky

Next up the team travels to Lyndhurst, New Jersey for the Head of the Passaic Regatta on October 14.

Full results

Adaptive Team Races at the Head of the Riverfront

Hartford, Connecticut — Rockland Rowing Association’s adaptive team traveled to Hartford, CT on September 29 for a difficult but ultimately successful head race on the Connecticut River. Coach Greta Nettleton was really impressed by her team’s determination and resilience. “The heavy current tested everyone’s strength to the max. We really saw everyone’s fighting spirit in this event,” she added. The course had to be shortened to 1,000 meters; it was all upstream into a ferocious current running at least 3-4 mph, fed by the heavy rain earlier in the week and the rowers pulled the equivalent of several times that distance. Luckily, the weather was beautiful, and our races all went off at lunchtime, making the logistics quite smooth. Ron Gold won gold in his PR1 single event. Both our other rowers were racing for the first time; Sheila Savage rowed with volunteer Diana Costanzo in the PR2 double event and won silver; David Streich, who recently joined the club and was rowing in a double scull for the first time ever, was unfazed by the situation and brought home a gold medal, rowing with volunteer Alexander Lalire, and beating the entry from the Connecticut Adaptive Program.

Rockland U19 pick up a couple of silver medals at King's Head

Bridgeport, Pennsylvania - The second race of the head race season was rowed on the Schuylkill River at the King’s Head Regatta hosted by the Upper Merion Boat Club. Racing took place on Sunday.

In the boy’s single sculls Ryan Almond Clarkstown North ‘20 took silver in a field of 16, only ten seconds behind the winner from Nereid Boat Club (17:38) and two seconds ahead of third-place Whitemarsh (17:50).

In the girl’s novice single sculls Emma Deljanin, a thirteen-year-old eight grade student from Charles DeWolf Middle School was the youngest competitor in a field of five and managed to take silver covering the course with a time of 21:51. This was her second experience competing in a head race.

Racing in the boy’s double sculls, partners Billy Grippi Tappan Zee ‘20 and Adin Deljanin Northern Valley Old Tappan ‘21 were credited with a time of 17:08, which was faster than 13 boats and good for fourth-place behind winner Nereid Boat Club (16:17) and a pair of Germantown boats (16:24 and 17:03).

Next up the team will travel to Philadelphia on October 13 for the Navy Day Regatta.

Full results (pdf)

Youth earn four medals at season opening Head of the Hudson Regatta

Albany, New York - Rockland Rowing opened the season at the 31st Head of the Hudson Regatta hosted by the Albany Rowing Center. Racing took place on Saturday.

Racing in the boy’s single sculls, Jake Bardorf Clarkstown South ‘19 and Ryan Almond Clarkstown North ‘20, wound up finishing second and third-place respectively in the two mile head race, among 16 entries. Bardorf and Almond finished five seconds apart with Bardorf finishing less than one second off first-place from Albany Rowing Center (11:24.66).

In the boy’s double sculls, Billy Grippi (stroke) Tappan Zee ‘20 and Adin Deljanin (bow) NV Old Tappan ‘21 had the second fastest time out of eight crews covering the course in 11:19.24, finishing behind first-place Mohawk (10:19.76) and ahead of third-place Orange County (11:30.85).

In the girl’s double sculls, Celeste Voutsinas-Klose (stroke) Nyack ‘20 and Hannah Hely Tappan Zee ‘21 took second-place in a field of nine completing the course in 12:20.76. First-place went to Mohawk (11:52.84) and Albany RC (12:30.61) finished in third-place.

Next up the team will travel to Bridgeport, Pennsylvania for the King’s Head Regatta.

Full results (pdf)

RRA Masters Take on the World

Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida - Rockland Rowing's Competitive Adults’ team sent nine rowers to compete at the 2018 World Rowing Masters Regatta from September 27-30, including: Alec Almond, Scott Baird, Justin Bohan, Tom Chyla, Chris Hely, Leslie Horn, Kathy Kearney, Peter Klose and Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky. Also racing with Rockland were guest coxswain Elisabeth Tapley and guest rower Andrew Kalfelz.

The competition was fierce, with teams from around the world participating. Rockland's best result was in the men's quad, which finished with the third fastest time (3:10.071) among 35 crews entered in their division (age 50-55). Leading halfway through the race, they could not hold the lead, and a desperate sprint at the end was not enough as they ultimately lost by 1.7 seconds to a crew from Poland that finished with the fastest time of the day. In their flight they beat teams from Argentina, Peru, Boston, Colorado and Florida. The men's eight also did well, second in their flight to a Dutch crew. The excitement of that race was increased when it was called back after a first start where the composite boat from Virginia BC and Potomac BC veered into the RRA boat immediately off the start because their skeg had come loose - causing their coxswain to lose control of their steering. The RRA team kept their cool and regrouped for an even stronger start the second go around - finishing just four seconds off a very strong crew from the Netherlands.

Most other RRA entries finished mid-pack - a good result considering the competition. Everyone had a grand time and discussions regarding next year's Masters Worlds in Hungary are already underway!

Full results

Rockland County Times Names Rockland Rower "Volunteer of the Week"

Nyack, NY - The Rockland County Times, a weekly publication since 1888, shined a light on New City resident Diana Costanzo naming her Volunteer of the Week for her contributions to Rockland Rowing's Adaptive Rowing Team. Costanzo has been an avid rower and active volunteer since joining the organization in 2016. This is not the first time Costanzo has been recognized for lending her time and talent to inspire others. In 2017 she was the recipient of RRA's Coach's Award for truly exemplifying RRA's mission statement of improving lives through rowing.

Full article (pdf)

Rockland rows to silver at Club National Championships

Camden, New Jersey - The Rockland boys took second-place and won silver in the under 17 double sculls and secured a top-15 ranking against teams from across the country in the under 19 single sculls at the 2018 USRowing Club National Championships held on the Cooper River on July 11-13. 

In the double sculls Anthony Rostek (Tappan Zee '20) and Ryan Almond (Clarkstown North '20)  dominated the time trial on Friday finishing with the third fastest time among 52 crews and confidently won the semifinal with the fastest semifinal time of the field. Crossing the finish line at a stroke rate of 41 in today's medal's race, the boys earned silver with a time of 7:34.769, less than two seconds behind Niskayuna's 7:32.950. Litchfield Hills took the bronze medal in 7:35.551. 

Rostek and Almond are rising juniors who began rowing the double together in March and are part of Rockland Rowing's High Performance boy's team trained by Veli Etropolski, a world class rower and coach who most recently coached two boats to Youth Nationals this past spring. 

The under 19 single sculler Jordan Irving advanced out of the time trial which saw 75 competitors, to the semifinals where he raced to a sixth-place finish with a time of 8:03.726, for 14th place overall.  

This past spring Irving, Class of 2018, rowed for his Suffern High School scholastic team and is competing with Rockland before rowing at Marist College in the fall.

Next up the boys will race at the Philly Youth Regatta on July 21. 

Full results

Third-place finish at IDR

Philadelphia, PA - The under 19 summer squad took to the Schuylkill River for the second time this summer at the Independence Day Regatta in the midst of a heat wave. Despite sweltering conditions the youth team fared well over two days of racing and thanks to an exciting new technological debut this year, viewers anywhere in the world were able to track race performance data which streamed from the rowing shells in real time on a live feed.  

Competing in boy's under 19 single sculls were Ryan Almond Clarkstown North '20, Anthony Rostek Tappan Zee '20 and Jordan Irving Suffern '18. Irving, a newcomer to Rockland Rowing who recently  graduated from high school and has been recruited to row at Marist College this fall, advanced the grand final and finished third overall in 7:34.57 behind Conshohocken (7:31.92) and East End (7:22.74). Almond and Rostek, while both still eligible to compete in the under 17 category competed up a division in the under 19 category and were successful in advancing to the semi-finals. Competing in the under 17 single sculls Celeste Voutsinas-Klose Nyack '20 also made it to the semi-final.

Next up the boys will race at USRowing's Club Nationals in Camden, New Jersey on July 11.

Full results 

Top Two at Schuylkill Navy

Philadelphia, PA - A small group of high school student-rowers took a break from studying for upcoming final exams and raced at the Schuylkill Navy Regatta on Saturday. In the boy's single sculls, Ryan Almond Clarkstown North '20 was victorious in the grand final winning with a time of 7:54.86 while teammate Anthony Rostek Tappan Zee '20 was runner-up clocking in at 8:08.65. The boys bested nine competitors to secure the top two places in the field.  The team also advanced two girl's double sculls to the grand finals. 

Next up the team returns to Philadelphia for the Independence Day Regatta, June 29-30.

Full results