Rowers send two to nat’ls

The Bainbridge Island Rowing Club sent fifteen crews to the U.S. Rowing Northwest Junior Regional Championships at Vancouver, Wash. on the weekend of May 16-18 and will be sending a record six athletes to the National Championships in Cincinnati Ohio, June 13-15.

The varsity women’s four with coxswain came through a very tough draw in their preliminary heat, beating perennial powerhouses Green Lake and Lake Sammamish to earn a place in the final.

Jill O’Mara (bow), Haley Allen, Keziah Beall, Jackie Sullivan (stroke) and Lynn Anderson (cox) finished ahead of Mt. Baker, Rose City and Lake Oswego in the final to place third and earn a trip to Cincinnati.

Mikey McGuire was second in the women’s varsity single, and is ready to improve on her 13th place finish at last year’s National Championship.

Bainbridge Rowing head coach Morgan Seeley was quite pleased with his team’s performance.

“The women’s four has improved all year and is capable of even further improvement over the next four weeks,” he said. “Mikey clearly showed that she has the confidence to be competitive. We’re going to work hard to prepare for Nationals.”

Two other Bainbridge boats advanced to the Finals, but failed to qualify for Nationals.

Rowing the varsity women’s double, Amanda Goss, a sophomore and Jessica Molskness, a junior, were third in their preliminary heat but did not earn a necessary top-three finish in the final to qualify for nationals.

Scott Griffin, a junior, won his heat in the varsity men’s single but also did not finish in the top three of the final.

“Most of our athletes will be back next year, so their experience this year is invaluable,” said Seeley.

–With information supplied by BIRC’s Grant Dull

BIDC wins gold at home

The Bainbridge Island Diving Club played host to the Queen Anne Divers at the Don Nakata pool on the morning of Saturday, May 24.

In the intermediate girls 12-13 age group, Shannon Engelbrecht received two gold medals for Bainbridge Island with a first place finish in the 1 meter and 3 meter springboard events, scoring 179.35 points and 190.12 points, respectively.

In the intermediate boys 10-11 age group, Gregory Millican and Coleman Mitchell traded honors back and forth.

Mitchel took the gold in the 1 meter springboard event with 207.4 points and silver on the 3 meter board with 156.25 points.

Millcan’s gold came in the 3 meter spring board event with 189.75 points and silver on the 1 meter springboard with 195.07 points.

Three first time divers for BIDC performed well too, as all three divers had first place finishes and took home gold medals in their age groups.

Connor Midas earned his gold with a score of 148.45 points in the boys 11-13 age group where he performed dives on both the 1 meter and 3 meter springboards.

Rachelle Kresser competed in the girls 11-13 age group on both boards too and won her gold with a score of 143.3 points.

Georgina Milne took bragging rights for gold in the girls 10 and under age group event combining dives on both boards for a score of 134.7 points.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they performed at their first competition,” BIDC Tamara Tulou said.

–With information supplied by BIDC’s Chris Miller