North Bay Rowers at their best against the best

It was a great ending for the North Bay Rowing Club at the US Rowing Southwest Regional Championships against 38 teams and close to 3,000 athletes from across California, Arizona and Utah at Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova.

“It’s the biggest race we have ever participated in,” said NBRC coach Will Whalen. “Every year there are more teams and more kids involved with the sport.”

The regatta also was a qualifying event for the national championships.

Forty-three athletes from across Sonoma County race for North Bay Rowing Club, and many entered several events.

Racing started Friday afternoon with time trials for several boat classes. NBRC posted solid performances in two events, the Men’s and Women’s Novice Coxed Four. The boys 4+ (Ren Demsher, Michael McDermott, Kyler Adams, Cole DeVries-Atyton, Nate Crawford) raced first and posted the eighth-fastest time, earning a spot in the semifinals Saturday morning. The novice Women (Savanah Hartford, Maia Reilly, Emmalee Dolcini, Alex McDermott, Allegra Diamond) also earned a spot in the semifinals with the 10th-fastest time in their race.

Saturday morning started with heats in the Varsity Eights. The men and women raced hard, but failed to reach the finals.

“We all knew that the 8+s would be a tough race for us,” said Whalen. “We were going against, and beating, teams with way more depth than we have. We came up short of a final, but I am really pleased with our performance. The boys beat the team that placed fourth in the nation last year, which is incredible.”

The novice fours that qualified into the semifinals were both edged out in their races and failed to make the finals. The men’s novice coxed quad (Ren Demsher, Marcus Kuhn, Patrick McDermott, Sean Gause and Kohl Demsher) was the first boat in two years to qualify for a final.

“I am very proud of these guys,” said novice coach Matthew Holiday. “They have raced hard all year and fought a tough battle to make it to the finals.”

The quad finished fifth in the finals in the afternoon.

Saturday racing concluded with arguably the closest race of the day with the Men’s Pair 2- (Ryan Cardiff, Ben Holm).

“The heat was probably the most intense racing I’ve ever Done,” said Cardiff , stroke seat of the boat. “There were four crazy fast boats all racing for three spots in the final with only 500 meters to go.”

NBRC boys managed to out-sprint teams from Upper Natoma, Long Beach and San Diego to win the heat by two seconds.

Sunday morning began with the Men’s 2- final.

“It was crazy racing. Every boat in the final was the top of every team in our region,” Whalen said.

NBRC started slowly and found itself in the back of the pack through the first 1,000 meters. With 500 meters to go, the duo started to move on the field and finished fourth in a photo finish with the top-ranked team in the region.

Racing concluded for the weekend with the Novice 8+s and Varsity 4+ heats. The Women’s Varsity 4+ earned a berth in the finals with the fifth-fastest time of the day in a very fast heat. The men were a close third in their race with the top two reaching the final.

NBRC finished the regatta making three finals, the most ever for the young squad.

“I am incredibly proud of these kids. We raced hard against great teams and, once again, raised the bar for our club,” said Whalen.

“It’s been great to be part of the huge growth of the team since I was a Novice,” senior Cardiff said. “Every year our standards and expectations are raised. My novice year, it was ‘let’s see if we cannot be last,’ and now we’re close to qualifying boats for National Championships.”

Cardiff, who will be rowing at Stanford next fall and his pair partner Holm are waiting to hear if they will be invited to the US Rowing Youth National Championships in June.

The race was the final junior event for nine graduating seniors. Natasha Kinmont will row for UC Berkeley Heavyweight, Allegra Diamond and Hailey Windsor for UC Berkeley Lightweight, Brianna Lehane for UC San Diego, Makenna Bortells for Marist University and Ryan Cardiff for Stanford.

“All of our seniors are leaders,” Whalen said. “I cannot wait to watch them continue to compete at the next level.”