Riverfront Rowing Wins Big at USRowing's Masters National Championships
PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hartford, CT – August 19, 2022: Riverfront Rowing competed in the USRowing Masters National Championships, held August 11 – 14 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. The masters team won the Men’s Points Title for the third time in seven years. And, in a first for the program, the Men’s and Women’s teams won the Overall Points Trophy, bringing a national championship honor home to Hartford. USRowing hosts a national regatta each year for Masters athletes, for participants ranging in age from 21 to 80+, with the race format of 1000-meter sprints offering multiple opportunities to compete over the four-day event.
“This is the first time in our program’s history that we won the Overall Points Trophy,” said Jonathan Near, Riverfront Recapture’s Interim Director of Rowing Programs. “Recent growth in the women’s rowing program certainly helped us achieve this, and I couldn’t be prouder of our team. Many of these masters competitors learned to row here at the Riverfront Recapture rowing programs, and some of the masters rowers have raced with Riverfront for nearly 20 years.”
“Our community rowing program continues to amaze me,” said Michael Zaleski, President & CEO of Riverfront Recapture. “The program is inclusive and inspirational, from the opportunities it creates for youth and adult rowers from across the region, to our partnership with Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital/Trinity Health ‘s Connecticut Adaptive Rowing Program (CARP), to providing free Rowing & Kayaking classes to veterans, and, of course, winning National Championships.”
Over the four days of competition in Sarasota, Riverfront masters rowers medaled in 50 events: 17 golds, 14 silvers, and 19 bronzes. Forty-one Riverfront rowers each competed in six to 12 races over the four days in sculling and sweep rowing events to earn points. “We placed second in Efficiency Points, which is difficult for even the largest teams.” added Near. The Efficiency score is tabulated based on the number of total points achieved by the most efficient number of competitors.
“This is only the third time that the Riverfront men’s team has won this award,” said captain Mike Puckly. “The men’s team won in 2017, 2021, and now in 2022. It’s been exciting to see the recent success in the competitive program, which dates back to 2005.”
“We had double the participation from the women’s team this year compared to last year. It was particularly awesome to race with a strong group of women who represented the full span of age categories, from 21 to 74,” said Michelle Personick, a longtime Riverfront women’s team member, who competed in 12 events at Masters Nationals. “It was also great to compete as a unified Riverfront Racing Team, with men and women competing side-by-side in mixed boats, helping each other and cheering each other on.”
Riverfront Rowing will host and compete on October 2, 2022, at the annual Head of the Riverfront, held in Riverside Park. Learn more about Riverfront Rowing’s programs here.
