Los Gatos Rowing Club takes four national titles

The Los Gatos Rowing Club won an outstanding four national titles at the USRowing Youth National Championships on June 11-14 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida.

Two men’s squads and two women’s squads from the Los Gatos team are national champions. All four squads were in the Youth (ages 19 and under) division, and all were quad (four-person) boats.

One of those women’s teams nearly finished undefeated for the season against American competition, said women’s assistant coach Ava Klash. The women’s youth varsity quad team only lost once against U.S. competition this spring. The squad of Aretha Liu (Pinewood High School), Chloe Stopford (Los Gatos), Jenna Yoder (Los Gatos) and Anika Phadnis (Prospect) won the the 2,000-meter final with a time of 7 minutes, 01.06 seconds, nearly five seconds ahead of second-place Founders Rowing Club. That lineup is undefeated against American competition this year.

“They have this hunger to win and go fast,” said Klash about the squad’s fine season.

Los Gatos also won that division at the USRowing Youth National Championships last year. “None of them were in that boat last year, and they wanted to continue that legacy,” Klash said of this year’s squad. “All season, they have been winning their races by such a large margin.”

The Second Varsity Quad was the other Los Gatos women’s team to win the gold. The squad of Julia Valencia (Los Gatos), Sophia Juarez (Los Gatos), Libby Forrest (Soquel) and Lucy Wright (Los Altos) finished first in 7:16.03. All the races at the national championships were 2,000 meters.

“This is the 19th time we’ve been to nationals,” said Klash of the Los Gatos Rowing Club. “We’ve been building upon all the years prior. This year’s team has been particularly motivated.”

Three of Los Gatos’ national championships in Florida this season were achieved in sculling races. Each rower has two oars, one in each hand.

In men’s divisions, Los Gatos won the Youth Quad final in 6:29.53. The winning squad was Aleksander Shetler (Saratoga), Nico Della Ratta (Summit Tahoma), Emmett King (City Honors-Buffalo, NY) and Dominik Bera (Los Altos). It was a sweep race, which means that each rower holds a single oar.

A motivating factor for the squad was an outstanding time of 6:05.96 on a time trial on June 11, said men’s assistant coach Mike Harris.

“They won the time trial with a time three seconds faster than the second-place crew,” Harris said. “I think them placing so well in the time trial was a big boost to their confidence. … They won the final by almost a boat length.”

The men’s Youth Second Varsity quad, which was undefeated during the spring season, also won a national title. The team of Cameron DeGraff (Los Gatos), Kealan Chiu (Bellarmine), Matthieu Boillet (Los Gatos) and Matthew Willey (Los Gatos) produced a time of 6:17.78 in the final.

Harris mentioned a couple of reasons for the program’s success this season.

“I think a big determining factor in the team’s success—both men’s and women’s—this year was the overall buy-in of the younger athletes and the overall speed of the program,” he said. “Through the top 32 kids on average, they had a lot faster times” on the ergometer, an indoor rowing machine.

Two Los Gatos squads also earned silver medals.

The Men’s Youth Four with Coxswain took second in their division with a time of 6:37.34 in the final, less than two seconds behind winner Newport Sea Base Rowing (6:36.18). The Los Gatos squad was comprised of Luke DeGraff (Los Gatos), Julian Weinstein (Los Gatos), Tristan Carpenter (Menlo-Atherton) and Declan McInerney (Los Gatos) with coxswain Kaira Yoo (Los Gatos).

In the Men’s Under-16 Eight with Coxswain, Los Gatos placed second with a time of 6:32.24. The Los Gatos team was Maksimillian Shetler (Saratoga), Oliver Tiglao (Union Middle School), Nick Rostamabadi (Los Gatos), Roman Kravchuk (Evergreen Valley High School), Micah Marquez (Leigh), Guhan Nagarajan (Harker), Alexander Potapov (Saratoga) and Zephyn Linneaus (Harker) with coxswain Vihaan Aralaguppe (John Muir Middle School in San Jose).

The Los Gatos women’s under-17 quad team of Belen Mino (Lincoln in San Jose), Maya Logan (Los Gatos), Norah Toet (Los Gatos) and Ziya Muley (Westmont) also placed in the top three at the national meet, coming in third with a time of 7:30.05 in the final.