Winsor Crew Finishes Fifth in the Nation
Winsor Crew’s spring season began positively with a sweep against Newton Country Day School and then gained momentum in each subsequent race.
At the USRowing Northeast Regional Championships, Winsor raced a Varsity 4+, a 2nd Varsity 4+, a Varsity 8+, and a Novice 8+ against New England’s elite club programs on Lake Quinsigamond. Each crew qualified for finals via fast time trials, heats, and semi-finals. The Varsity 4+ received a silver medal behind Greenwich Boat Club, earning a qualification bid for the USRowing National Championships. The Novice 8+ fought hard in the heats to place second behind Connecticut Boat Club and advanced to the finals on Sunday, also achieving their goal to break 8:00 minutes. Then in a speedy final, full of the usual fun surprises that novice races bring, the crew knocked 18 seconds off of their time to finish the 2000 meters in 7:37- ending their season in high spirits.
For the rest of the team, the season ended the following weekend at the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) championships, where Winsor qualified four boats to compete against other scholastic teams on Saturday May 27.
Winsor’s 4V – C- Zaara Mehra ‘26, 4-Bibi Noury-Ello ‘25, 3- Celeste Mittelman ‘25, 2- Abigail Stephenson ‘24, 1- Isabelle Fan ‘23– raced first in a qualifying heat, advancing easily to finals with a time of 5:57. They then went on to win gold in the Grand Finals, beating out boats from The Brooks School, Choate Rosemary Hall, Middlesex School, Buckingham Browne & Nichols, and Northfield Mount Hermon. In both races, this crew overtook and walked away, proving mightily that they were the fastest NEIRA 4V4+.
The next Winsor crew, the 3V– C- Allison Chan ‘23, 4-Amber Renthal ’25, 3- Sophie Fleishman ’25, 2- Stella MacLean ’24 1-Trisha Manda ’25– also raced a speedy heat, winning with a nine second margin over second place Groton. They advanced to the Grand Finals, earning a silver medal behind Nobles, and knocking 10 seconds off of their Heat time.
Winsor’s 2V – C- Audrey Copeman ’24, 4-Sylvia Jenkins ’24, 3-Leila Ness ’26, 2-Courtney FitzMaurice ’23 , 1-Amory Gordon ’23 – continued the success of the 3V and 4V by winning their heat. The crew stuck to a structured race plan to ensure that they would move past the other crews during the second 500m and sprinted to finish one second ahead of Groton. They took this speed into the final, finishing third overall ahead of Brooks, Choate, and BB&N.
Lastly, the Winsor 1V – C-Lauren Hogan ‘23, 4- Olivia Hochberg ‘23, 3- Austin Forrester ‘23, 2- Anne Moghtader ‘25, 1- Gabriella Kaluski ‘25 – hit the water with a high rate to win their heat and advance to the Grand Finals. In the Grand Finals, they fought out a third place finish over NMH, who finished barely a bow ball behind. With this win, Winsor became the only school to advance all boats into the Grand Finals and the only school to earn a medal in each qualifying boat, proving the depth of the team. These wins leave a positive outlook for the future success of Winsor Crew.
The Winsor crews’ accomplishments earned them enough points to tie Nobles for the NEIRA Team Trophy, however the winner of the 1V race (Nobles) is the tiebreaker, sending Winsor home as the second place team for the regatta. Despite this, NEIRAs proved to be an awesome end to the season with every Winsor crew taking a trip to the medals dock. However, five Winsor rowers were not finished yet!
**Nationals recap***
The 1V4+ ( C-Hogan, 4- Hochberg, 3-Forrester, 2- Moghtader ‘25, 1- Kaluski ‘25) got another chance to race their rivals – Nobles and Brooks –at the USRowing National Championships in Sarasota, Florida. Here, they competed against a combination of the top scholastic programs and elite club rowing programs from across the country. The Winsor crew began the regatta “red hot” with the second fastest overall time in the Time Trial, advancing them to the A/B Semi -Final. In the A/B Semi- Final, they rowed a controlled race to advance into the A final, finishing third behind St. Andrews Club from Georgia and Blair Academy from New Jersey. This multi-level and multi-day qualifying process ensures that the A Final showcases the fastest crews. The Winsor rowers left everything out on the water, with a powerful sprint to finish fifth in the nation. They had a wicked cool sprint– check the Livestream. They beat Blair Academy and their season rival, Nobles, which secured them the top finish for any scholastic boat in the nation.
The three seniors in the boat– Forrester, Hochberg, and Hogan– came off the water with full confidence; they finished their last race as Winsor rowers with everything they had, proud of the top five finish. The two sophomores –Kaluski and Moghtader– were happy to have raced their hearts out, proud of their crew, and are looking forward to putting in the work to return to the USRowing National Championships in the future.
