BI Rowers bring home gold from Brentwood regatta

MILL BAY, British Columbia – Athletes from Bainbridge Island Rowing travelled to Brentwood College in Mill Bay, British Columbia recently for the 47th annual Brentwood Regatta.

The BIR junior rowers brought home several first- and second-place medals, despite trying weather conditions that closed the course several times due to wind and reduced heats and finals over the three days to just straight timed finals.

Highlights of the weekend include the girls lightweight 8+ and 4+ boats. The girls lightweight 8+ (Caitlin Deavey, Elsa Derrickson, Caroline Najarian, Lydia Goss, Ellie Genkinger, Sofia Wilkinson, Eve Hurd, EmilyFink and Mina Bianchi) took first place in 5:20.87, edging perennial favorite Holy Names Academy by 1.5 seconds over the 1,500-meter course.

Bainbridge led from the 250-meter mark, pacing a powerful 35 strokes per minute. The girls lightweight 4+ (Caitlin Deavey, Elsa Derrickson, Caroline Najarian, Lydia Goss and Mina Bianchi) placed second in their heat final, with a time of 6:00.78 to Holy Names (5:52:11).

Racing the faster of the two heats, Bainbridge beat out Mount Baker (6:02.47) and Vashon Island (6:03.21) for second place overall.

Bainbridge raced to fourth place in three of its other heat finals, those notable efforts being the girls varsity 4+ (5:47.11), the girls school 8+ (5:28) and the boys lightweight 4+ (5:33.61).

Overall, Bainbridge placed 12th overall out of 31 teams.

Bainbridge will send a boys and a girls varsity 4+ to the Windermere Cup next Saturday to be followed by the regional championships in Vancouver, Washington on Friday, May 19.