With the summer heat abated and grass blades greening for their defiant push toward winter, autumn has officially arrived and with it a new season of rowing here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s head race time, and the Vashon Island Rowing Club (VIRC) saw 36 juniors and nine masters welcome the dawn’s early light on Lake Union Sunday at the annual Tail of the Lake Regatta.

With what coach Richard Parr deemed “the youngest overall team we’ve ever had,” the crew, complete with its 16 new juniors, brought home two wins and a multitude of strong second-place finishes.

Topping the list, a VIRC quad of junior girls (Gabby Graves, stroke, Riley Lynch, Kate Kelly and Ava Lorentzen) won the women’s open quad event against a field that spanned all age groups, and the club’s novice boys’ quad of Cian Sheer, stroke, Justin Barker, Mateo Nigretto Ellner and Ryan Weller coxed by Flora Briggs bested its competition as well.

For the masters, Chad Magnuson turned in what Parr referred to as a “most impressive” second-place performance in the men’s single event that had 25 entries, as well as another second in the masters’ mixed double event with Lea Heffernan.

Two other stand-outs of the day were the junior boys’ quad (Cooper Py, stroke, Rohin Petram, Seth Rosen and Oz Hichens), with a satisfying second-place finish in the men’s open quad event (all age groups), and another junior boys’ quad (Tor Ormseth, stroke, Brian DeLoach, Malio Nelson and Aidan Teachout) taking second in the junior event. For Py, Petram, Rosen and Hichens, crossing the line behind perennially strong Olympia marked a return to regional contention for the boys, who saw mixed results last year.

With several of the Lake Union-based clubs making dock-sharing difficult logistically this year, VIRC chose to launch from Fairview Park in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood, which Parr said turned out to be a great venue.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our club, especially of how considerate all of our rowers were while launching the boats in a residential neighborhood at 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday,” he said. “And it’s exciting to see a renewed spirit in the crew, coming into this new season. We have a lot of new rowers, and the energy is great.”

The highlight of Vashon’s fall racing will be in Boston at the world renowned Head of the Charles Regatta, where VIRC will send a masters’ women’s eight, masters’ men’s double and junior girls’ and boys’ quads to compete against crews from around the globe. A previously scheduled trip to a regatta in Beijing, China, was postponed by the hosts and is to be re-scheduled later this fall.

Next up for the crew: American Lake Regatta on Sunday, Oct. 15.