Vashon rowers land high results at American Lake Fall Classic

VIRC’s youth team boats sped around the lake over 5,000 meters.

By Delany Steele For The Beachcomber • October 12, 2023 1:30 am
In this photo, from left to right, stand the first-place finishers of a novice girls’ squad from the Vashon Island Rowing Club: Etta Chait, Grace Pepper, coxswain Colin Simpson (front), Ren Colvos and Gwen Tomlinson.
In this photo, from left to right, stand the first-place finishers of a novice girls’ squad from the Vashon Island Rowing Club: Etta Chait, Grace Pepper, coxswain Colin Simpson (front), Ren Colvos and Gwen Tomlinson.

The Vashon Island Rowing Club youth team travelled south to American Lake in Lakewood last weekend for the second regatta of the fall season.

With barely any breeze ruffling the water, VIRC’s youth team boats sped around the lake over 5,000 meters, battling it out with almost all of the PNW regional teams.

“Fall head racing is a very different challenge from spring races,” said head coach Ben Steele. “The athletes are racing the clock more than anything and sometimes you don’t know where you placed until the final boat crosses the finish line. It’s important to focus on improving your own boat’s speed and race plan execution, so we were really pleased with the improvement from our varsity girls quad and a standout performance from our novice girls squad.”

Highlights from the youth team included a first place finish from one novice girls quad (Grace Pepper, Gwen Tomlinson, Ren Colvos, Etta Chait, and coxswain Colin Simpson) and several third place finishes in the mens open 1x (Quentin Cherry), womens varsity 4x (Laurel Calhoun, Gwyn Ranney, Selene Dalinis, Liv Ormseth), womens JV 2x (Selene Dalinis, Ava Webb), and the womens U15 2x (Kina Ladbon-Reusch, Rose Ely).

“I think one of the other fun parts of the day was being able to support other teams in the region as well,” Steele said. “We were able to lend a boat to our neighbors at Tacoma Rowing, and also row a composite boys lineup with them, and then two of our coxswains hopped into boats for our friends down at Olympia Area Rowing since they had a few athletes out on illness. It’s a unique part of rowing to be able to row as teammates with competitors.”

While several adult team boats weren’t able to make it, the women’s masters 4+ headed out with a rower from Kitsap Rowing Association and a coxswain from VIRC’s youth team rounding out the lineup, in keeping with the spirit of the day.

Next up for the youth team is sending off the mens varsity 4x+ to the 2023 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, MA on Oct. 20 – 22.

Delany Steele is the boathouse director and novice coach of the Vashon Island Rowing Club.