Kudos
Juniors Event
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DRC Juniors at Heart of Texas, March 2-3, 2013
GOLD: WLt2x (Pascale Queralt, Anna Schwarz)
GOLD: W Rec. 1x (Mackenzie Daly in her first ever regatta)
GOLD: M Rec 1x (David Fox in his first ever regatta)
SILVER: W Varsity 4x (Pascale Queralt, Anna Schwarz, Alyssa Sands, Chandler Naidu)
BRONZE: W Varsity 2x (Anna Schwarz, Alyssa Sands)
BRONZE: W Lt 1x (Anna Schwarz)
3 out of 4 of our varsity men could not make the regatta due to scheduling conflicts, so the women proudly did most of the heavy lifting. Overall, the Juniors took fourth in the medal count behind ARC, TRC, and OKC Riversport, all of which also entered multiple sweep events.
CONGRATULATIONS:
Chet Helman who has committed to row for the University of Pennsylvania;
James Barnett who has committed to row for Yale; and
Mackenzie Daly who has committed to row for SMU.
Chet is our first at Penn, and James and Mackenzie will be our second servings to Yale and SMU.
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to spirited competition at BLAST.
DRC Juniors at SWEAT, February 2, 2013
Seven of your juniors competed at the 2013 SWEAT, and seven of your juniors continued our proud DRC tradition of excellence. The highlights were many, but most significantly, the men again successfully defended their title. In 2011, Oliver Salonna brought us the gold with a 6:12; in 2012, David Sands defended it with a 6:14; and this year, James Barnett posted a personal best 6:19 to bring us our third consecutive Junior Men's Open Weight Championship!!!
The results were:
GOLD: James Barnett, HS Senior: Men's Jr. Open Weight with a personal best 6:19.4
SILVER: David Fox, HS Freshman: Men's Freshman with a personal best 7:03.3
BRONZE: Victor Sands, HS Freshman: Men's Freshman with a personal best 7:03.9
Chet Heldman, HS Senior; Men's Jr. Open Weight with 6:26.7 (for the second year in a row, bronze was shared in a dead tie with St. Marks, C. Baxley, who delivered a terrific performance. Recall that last year's tie was between Chet Heldman and James Barnett for the bronze in the same event.)
HONORS: Alyssa Sands, HS junior, posted a personal best of 7:35.6 to take 8th place out of 65 entries in the Women's Jr. Open event.
Winfield Salyards, HS senior, posted a personal best of 6:41.1 to take 8th place out of 46 entries in the Men's Jr. Open event.
Maverick Salyards, HS Sophomore, posted a personal best of 6:57.6 to take 18th our of 46 entries in the Men's Jr. Open event.
September 13, 2012
Congratulations to Katy Case and Kathleen Bentley, who in their first weeks as incoming Freshman rowers at Alabama, have tested out of their novice year. They are now competing for seats in the Varsity 8s because of their solid testing performance. We're so proud at the DRC to be so well represented at such a great program. ROW TIDE!!
U.S. Rowing Central Regional Championships, Oklahoma City, May12-13, 2012
Your DRC Juniors showed unprecedented determination in conquering the U.S. Rowing Central Regional Championships in Oklahoma City. We will be accepting 6 of the 7 earned bids this year for our largest ever showing at Youth Nationals in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Per US Rowing rules, the first and second positions of qualifying races get the automatic bid to enter the US Rowing Youth National Championships regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee this June. The qualifying races are all of the varsity sculling events that we row (singles, doubles, light doubles, and quads, both men and women). This year, we entered 6 of the 8 eligible sculling events, and 1 sweep event. The results speak for themselves:
GOLD (Youth Nationals Qualifying Events):
Men's Single: Oliver Salonna
Women's Single: Katy Case (Katy will not be accepting her singles bid so that she can concentrate on her double with Alyssa Sands)
Men's Double: Oliver Salonna, David Sands
Women's Double: Katy Case, Alyssa Sands
Men's Pair: Chet Heldman, James Barnett
Men's Quad: David McClain, David Sands, James Barnett, Nick Whitlow
GOLD (Non-qualifying Events):
Women's JV Double: Anna Anderson, Chandler Naidu
SILVER (Youth Nationals Qualifying Events):
Men's Single: David Sands (David will not be accepting his singles bid, but will be racing in the men's double and quad).
Women's Light Double: Anna Schwarz, Pascale Queralt
So many Kudos to give:
A special Kudos goes out to our women's novice quad which posted a fantastic fourth place finish in their first ever final (Madeline Brewer, Sam Goetz, Annie Cantu, and Anna Herbelin), and our Women's JV quad's fourth place finish (Alexis Jones, Lara Elmquist, Chandler Naidu, and Nicole Joseph). They're developing at a blistering pace to carry forward our DRC Juniors' championship legacy.
Another special Kudos goes out to Kathleen Bentley, who by the unluckiest draw imaginable in the Women's Single, was eliminated in her excruciatingly fast heat with one of the fastest times posted of all of the competitors in all 3 heats by a mere fraction of a second. Her time beat other lucky qualifiers by as much as one full minute and would almost certainly have medaled had she the opportunity to show her full potential in a final. Kathleen will get her sweet revenge in the NCAA at the University of Alabama rowing for the Crimson Tide with Katy Case by her side. Roll Tide!!!
Remember Victor Sands? You will. He just turned 14 this month and took fourth in the U-16 event in his single.
Finally, I'd like to thank the OKC timekeepers, who by whatever ways, means, or methods employed, posted a 6:07 for our men's double (Oliver Salonna and David Sands), which was the fastest time recorded for ANY event, heat or final, including ALL varsity eights. With an average erg score of 6:10 in the boat, is it any wonder? That puts them within 4 seconds of team France at the 2006 World Best Men's 2X time in Poland, and 4 seconds faster than the all time Olympic record. http://www.worldrowing.com/results. Dream on, boys!! And I'll be right there dreaming with you!!
Texas State Championships, April 28-29, 2012
The DRC Juniors turned in a great performance at the Texas State Championships with 3 trophies and 10 total medals.
GOLD:
Men's Varsity Quad: David McClain, David Sands, James Barnett, Nick Whitlow
Men's Pair: Chet Heldman, James Barnett
Men's Single: Oliver Salonna
SILVER:
Women's Varsity Quad: Katy Case, Alyssa Sands, Kathleen Bentley, Piper Hayden
Women's Varsity Double: Katy Case, Piper Hayden
Women's Lightweight Double: Anna Schwarz, Pascale Queralt
Women's JV Double: Chandler Naidu, Anna Anderson
Men's Varsity Double: Oliver Salonna, David Sands
BRONZE:
Women's Varsity Double: Alyssa Sands, Anna Schwarz
Men's Varsity Double: David McClain, Nick Whitlow
Athletes from open events, including the very competitive singles and light doubles with 2011 US Rowing Junior National grand finalists, were eligible to enter all beginner Junior Varsity events. The Dallas JV kids chose not to allow the cross-over, instead opted to row their novice and recent novice graduate status. The team's commitment to the championships was exemplified in our sole Sunday event, the Men's Pair (Chet Heldman and James Barnett). With only 3 boats in the final (DRC, ARC, and TRC), the ARC and TRC boats quickly crossed over into each other's lanes, tangling up and leaving our DRC boat rowing alone to claim an easy gold. Our boys instead risked disqualification by stopping their boat insisting on a re-start. The officials eventually allowed all three teams to turn back to the start, and our boys took an honest and hard-fought win!!
Hats off to our Junior Novice Women's Quad (Madeline Brewer, Annie Cantu, Sam Goetz, and Anna Herbelin) and David Sands in his first non-novice race in a Men's Single, turning in very competitive 4th place finishes.
Next stop, US Rowing Central Regional Championships in Oklahoma City to qualify for the National Championships in Oak Ridge, Tennessee!!
Bachman Junior Rowing Invitational April 14, 2012
GOLD
Men’s Varsity 2x Oliver Salonna and David Sands
Women’s Varsity 4x Piper Hayden, Alyssa Sands, Kathleen Bentley and Katy Case
Men’s Varsity 4x Chet Heldman, James Barnett, David Sands and David McClain
Silver
Women’s Varsity 2x Katy Case and Piper Hayden
Men’s Varsity 2x Chet Heldman and James Barnett
Bronze
Men’s Ltwt 2x Victor Sands and Nick Whitlow
Congratulations to Oliver Salonna
Oliver Salonna committed to row for Boston University under the esteemed coach, Tom Bohrer. Oliver recently pulled the strongest erg ever in our Central Region beating his own record of last year, and has brought our Club championship after championship. He will be in excellent hands. Tom Bohrer has over 20 years experience rowing and coaching. He is a two-time Olympic silver medallist (1988 and 1992) and a three-time medallist at the World Championships, earned in the 4- over eight years competing on the US National Team. In 1989, Tom was voted US Rowing Athlete of the Year. In 1992, he was captain of the US Olympic Rowing Team. Boston University's men's crew has thrived under his recent leadership. We're happy to contribute to Tom's philosophy of constant learning and growth of the whole athlete.
Heart of Texas
Your DRC Juniors opened the 2012 season in Austin, Texas at the Heart of Texas regatta with 5 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze:
Women's Quad, GOLD
Women's Light Double, GOLD
Women's Light Single, GOLD
Men's Quad, GOLD
Men's Pair, GOLD
Women's Single, SILVER
Men's Double, SILVER
Men's Single, SILVER
Men's Novice Single, SILVER
Women's Double, BRONZE
Men's Rec Single, BRONZE
A HUGE cheer goes to SUMAN CHEBROLU in the Men's Rec Single, who at age 12 was in a race with exclusively college men, held second place through the 500, and was only overtaken by one boat in the second half to claim his bronze. Another HUGE cheer goes to our novice, ANNA HERBELIN, who braved wind and chop to put together a tremendous performance in her first ever singles race. We shout out to our novice, ALYSSA SANDS, who finished fourth in the varsity single final and took gold in the women's quad. Last but certainly not least, we recognize CHET HELDMAN and JAMES BARNETT, who claimed the gold in the DRC Juniors first ever sweep event, the Men's Pair.
Kudos for Kathleen
A big congratulations to Kathleen Bentley who just signed to row with Division 1 University of Alabama. She will be rowing the Crimson Tide beginning in the Fall of 2012.
Although a relatively new addition to NCAA rowing in just 2005, within two years, the team has had 25 athletes earn SEC Academic Honor Roll honors and 16 earn Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete awards. For the 2007-2008 school year, Women's Rowing won the team service award by posting the most number of community service hours (over 1500) out of all women's sports at Alabama. Nationally, the Alabama women's rowing team has won both silver (in 2007) and bronze (in 2009) medals in the women's championship 8+ category at the legendary Head of the Charles regatta in Boston.
Roll Tide Roll!!!
October 29-30, 2011 Head of the Colorado (Pumpkinhead) Austin, Texas
The DRC Juniors showed up in Austin healthy, motivated, and ready to win. The results showed it with 6 Golds, 2 Silvers, and 1 Bronze:
Men's Quad (Salonna, D. Sands, Barnett, Whitlow): GOLD
Men's Double (Salonna, D. Sands): GOLD
Men's Single (Salonna): GOLD
Men's Single (Barnett): SILVER
Men's Novice Single (V. Sands): GOLD
Women's Lightwieght Double (Schwarz, Queralt): GOLD
Women's Double (Bentley, Hayden): BRONZE
Women's Lighweight Single (Schwarz): GOLD
Mixed Quad (Acker, Sands, Elmquist, Dau): SILVER
James Barnett's is a recent entrant into singles racing, and his silver against our own national silver medalist, Oliver Salonna, was his first singles medal. Victor Sands is our 6'5" 13 year old who is, mark my words, going to turn this region on its ear. They are both rising stars among our ranks demonstrating great character and drive.
October 22-23, 2011 Head of the Charles, Boston, MA
Oliver Salonna was accepted to row along with only 4 other junior rowers in the Championship singles event. Generally, juniors are encouraged to enter the Club Singles event which drew 15 junior entries. Oliver would have none of it. He wanted to be in the same race as Mahe Drysdale, the 5-time single scull world record holder. Well, as it turned out, no one was in the race with Mahe Drysdale. Mahe overtook 6 boats by the finish. From the shore as I watched him move past, I wondered where he was hiding the other 7 rowers in his small single. Nonetheless, out of 19 total junior singles entries, Oliver came in a very respectable 6th.
The boys double, David Sands and Nick Whitlow, tied last years performance coming in at 23rd of 40 entries. Not bad since they had very little practice time together. The original lineup was David Sands and Oliver Salonna; however, Oliver was ineligible to race the double once he accepted his singles invitation. Nick heroically stepped in with a solid performance.
The last boat to race was our quad of David McClain, David Sands, James Barnett, and Oliver Salonna. There was a 67 minute turn-around from the start of the men's double to the start of the quad race. David Sands was slated to row both events. On a 5k course, that's not much time. Hotseating at the recovery dock with the help of eager parents to claim the equipment, we had to transport the boys all the way down river where their boat was waiting at the start to be launched. Many traffic laws broken and unanticipated street closures later, the closest I could get them to their boat was one mile away with literally 12 minutes to start time. I don't know how they did it, but they ran, launched, lined up, and made their start in time to claim a very respectable 9th best raw time of 38 boats. Adjusted for handicaps, they came in a still respectable 17th.
8 GOLDS, 3 SILVERS, 2 BRONZE
This weekend (Oct 1-2, 2011) was the Head of the Oklahoma, our first race of the Fall head race season. The DRC Juniors put on a great show only 6 weeks into their training with 3 weeks to go until our largest ever appearance at the Head of the Charles (5 boys in 3 events; single, double and quad), and 4 weeks until our season closer in Austin at Pumpkinhead. The results for the Juniors at OKC were
Men's Youth Quad: GOLD
Men's Youth Quad x500 Night Sprint: GOLD
Men's Youth Double: GOLD
Men's Youth Single: GOLD (Oliver Salonna, Our 2011 Youth National silver medalist and currently among the fastest 2k ergs in the country!)
Men's Youth Single x500 Night Sprint: GOLD
Men's Youth Novice Single: GOLD
Men's Youth Novice Single: SILVER (Victor Sands is 13 years old, stands 6'4", and was only beaten by his big brother, David Sands, who posts the second fastest erg time in the known history of our Central Region. What an amazing family of athletes!)
Men's Youth Novice Rec Single: SILVER (Suman Chebrolu is 12 years old and all heart!)
Women's Lightweight Double: GOLD (Our 2011 Youth Nationals finalists!)
Women's Youth Novice Single: GOLD (Alyssa Sands's first ever race!)
Women's Youth Novice Quad: SILVER
Women's Youth Double: BRONZE
Women's Youth Quad: BRONZE (This was the first regatta ever for 2 of the girls in that quad; Anna Anderson and Alyssa Sands...brand new novices...wow! Even so, only Mile High and OKC beat our quad with depth to spare.)
With so many novices contributing to so many medals, the future indeed looks bright. Thank you all for your continuing support of the best youth sculling program in these here parts. You share as much in their success as the kids themselves.
Former DRC Junior, Jane Imfeld, qualifies for the US Under 23 lightweight quad
Jane Imfeld, our club's US Rowing Youth Nationals gold medalist in the light double for 2007 and our Texas State and Central Regional Champion in the single for 2008, has raised her game yet again. After years of tireless work earning her seat, she will be wearing the US colors in Amsterdam in the lightweight quad.
Her recent trial produced a qualifying time in the quad just 3 seconds off of the world record. Jane credits her time at the DRC in large part for her success, and I credit her for the success of our juniors program in the years following her departure. She continues to visit the juniors during practices and championships to lend her support and encouragement. Let's all shout out our support and wish her world record speed in representing the best of American sculling in Amsterdam.
June 10-12, 2011 U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
In a row nothing short of heroic, Oliver Salonna mounted a relentless attack in the Men's 1x. He was just a few strokes from 1st but 2k just wasn't long enough... luckily for his opponent. Oliver took Silver, our best showing ever in a junior nationals singles event.
The girls light double did what they were called upon to do. 15-year-old sophomores don't win state championships and don't get to nationals grand finals... like bumble bees shouldn't be able to fly, but there they were in both proudly wearing our DRC colors.
The boys' open double took a very close second in the Petite final, along with the girls' open double. Kristy Gudmundsson choked down a debilitating back injury to gut out a finish with Elizabeth Walker that was nothing short of heroic in its own rite.
We thank Kristy, Elizabeth, and Austin Boonyachai for their last row in DRC Junior colors and wish them great futures and happy returns to our masters ranks.
Our show at US Rowing Junior Nationals has produced our 3rd medal (1 gold and 2 silver) and our 11th grand final. Way to go Juniors!!!
May 7-8, 2011 Central District Regional Championship, Oklahoma City
The DRC Juniors were the top seeded scullers in 5 of the 8 varsity events going into the Central District Regional Championships in Oklahoma City. Our 9 state region brought the best of the best together for a 2 day regatta that brought home a gold in every one of those top seeds. Our women's quad also put on a great show with bronze and our novice men's double a silver. 7 medals later, here's the haul:
Women's 1x; Kristy Gudmundsson GOLD
Women's 2x; Kristy Gudmundsson, Elizabeth Walker GOLD
Women's Lt 2x; Anna Schwarz, Pascale Queralt GOLD
Men's 1x; Oliver Salonna GOLD
Men's 2x; Oliver Salonna, Austin Boonyachai GOLD
Women's 4x; Gudmundsson, Walker, Kathleen Bentley, Schwarz BRONZE
Men's Nov. 2x; David Sands, Benjamin Acker SILVER
Although qualifying 8 boats since 2006, the Dallas Rowing Club has never qualified 5 boats for a single US Rowing Youth Nationals event before. We're proud to have brought home one silver in the Women's 2x in 2006 and the gold in the Women's Lt 2x in 2007. Let's stay behind these great athletes for what we hope to be our best showing in DRC Junior history.
April 30-May 1, 2011 Texas State Championship, Austin
There are those times when I've been proud of our juniors, and there are those times when I've been almost speechless in my appreciation of their commitment to our beloved sport. This weekend presents the latter. I hope that you're as amazed as I am at what they have accomplished at our Texas State Championships in Austin on Saturday. The DRC Juniors entered 7 varsity sculling events and brought home 6 golds. You read correctly. Out of 7 varsity events, 6, count'em, SIX GOLDS!!! Did I mention 6 out of 7 State Champion varsity events? I just don't want to miss that point.
Men's Single: Oliver Salonna GOLD
Women's Single: Kristy Gudmundsson GOLD
Men's Double: Oliver Salonna, Austin Boonyachai GOLD
Women's Double: Kristy Gudmundsson, Elizabeth Walker GOLD
Women's Light Double: Anna Schwarz, Pascal Queralt GOLD
Women's Quad: Gudmundsson, Walker, Schwarz, and Kathleen Bentley GOLD
The Junios stand in your debt for your continued support, but be assured that the debt is secured by SOLID GOLD!!!
April 2, 2011 Bachman Junior Invitational Sculling Shootout, Dallas
One lesson taught to our juniors is that whether for practice or competition, showing up is half the battle. And show up they did!! Of the 7 varsity events entered, your juniors walked away with 5 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze:
M1x Oliver Salonna, Gold
W1x Kristy Gudmundsson, Gold
M2x Oliver Salonna and Austin Boonyachai, Gold
W2x Kristy Gudmundsson and Elizabeth Walker, Gold
WLt2x Anna Schwarz and Pascale Queralt, Gold
W4x Gudmundsson, Walker, Bentley, and Weill, Silver
M4x Salonna, Sands, Garber, and Boonyachai, Bronze.
The men's quad was the second ever run for our DRC Juniors program, the first being at the Head of the Oklahoma last Fall. Two of the boys, Sands and Garber, are novices. In fact, David Sands just took his first stroke in mid-February, Teddy Garber in the Fall. So to have that boat place third to established St. Marks and ESD quads was a great accomplishment. I'm looking forward to seeing that boat and our novice and junior varsity boats develop in the next month in preparation for the Texas State Championships in Austin and the Central Regional Championships in OKC the weekend after.
March 7, 2011 Heart of Texas, Austin
I'm beaming proud to announce that in the 10 events that we entered with 17 boats, we landed 6 golds and 1 silver for our club. We took gold in the following events:
GOLD: Mens Junior 1x (Oliver Salonna)
GOLD: Mens Junior 2x (Austin Boonyachai and Oliver Salonna)
GOLD: Womens Junior 1x (Team Captain, Kristy Gudmundsson)
GOLD: Womens Junior 2x (Kristy Gudmundsson and Elizabeth Walker)
GOLD: Womens Junior ltwt 1x (Anna Schwartz)
GOLD: Womens Junior ltwt 2x (Anna Schwartz and Pascale Queralt)
SILVER: Womens Junior Nov. 2x (Nicole Joseph and Alexis Jones)
I feel we could have silvered in the women's Junior 1x as well, but the foot stretchers of the competitor, Kathleen Behtley, came loose in the middle of the heat where she was in a strong lead. She finished essentially feet out with a competitive time.
Also, although our womens quad pulled near their best time in the final, OKC, TRC, and ESD brought their A-Game. Within a scant few seconds, we took 4th. The girls are committed to establishing their dominance, however, so please look out for them at State Championships in April.
Feb 19, 2011 S.W.E.A.T., Dallas
Congratulations to Oliver Salona for winning Gold in the Men's Junior event with a 6:12:1, the stongest finish of any competitor since the inception of the S.W.E.A.T. competition and 17 seconds faster than second place. Words to explain this feat? Just "Wow!!"
Congratulations to Teddy Garber for taking Bronze in the Men's Junior Novice Lightweight event with a 7:14:2. This was Teddy's first ergometer competition, and he beat 32 competitors to seal his medal. Only 2 rowers from Oklahoma beat him, which makes him the Dallas champion of this event!!!
IN OTHER NEWS
A hearty congratulations to Kristy Gudmundsson, our defending open single Texas state champion, who recently committed to row for Yale. She will be among the nations elite rowers in the class of 2015. Take a minute to review the press release.