By Cathy Mizgerd and Kristen Loszewski
Pioneer Rowing concluded its spring 2023 championship season with a trip to St. Catharines, Ontario, for the 76th Annual Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association Championships (CSSRA). This regatta serves as the high school national championship of Canada. Races take place on a 2,000-meter course with entries classified by gender, age, sculling, sweep, and size of the rowing shell. The regatta hosted 128 teams from Canada, the United States, and beyond for three days of racing, culminating in finals on Sunday, June 4.
Built for racing, the pond’s elite Royal Canadian Henley course serves as the backdrop for many international competitions. The two-kilometer run features permanent buoy markers, alignment starting docks for the boats, and a viewing grandstand for spectators. The course’s length provided a new challenge for Pioneer’s rowers, who have raced exclusively 1,500 km distances in the United States this year.
The Pioneer crews were competing in the championships for the first time since 2019, due to the travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their return to competition did not disappoint as the team earned two sets of medals during the regatta. The women’s novice 8+ crew finished second, earning silver medals, while the men’s novice 8+ crew’s third-place finish won them the bronze medals in that category, as well.
Not only did these crews earn medals during the first year that novice events were part of this regatta, but this also marks only the third time in its history (including 2018 and 2019) when Pioneer rowing has medaled with two 8+ boats in the same year at the Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association (CSSRA) championship regatta.
Sketchy weather on Saturday altered this year’s cadence of competition from the usual. Normally, at the CSSRA championship regatta, heat rounds and semifinals on Friday and Saturday culminate in a final race for each event on Sunday. This year, however, high winds on Saturday afternoon led to some races being canceled that day. As a result, rowing times that were achieved during semifinal races ultimately became the final basis for determining medals for some events.
This regatta marked the final competition in the spring 2023 crew season for Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. For the high school seniors on the team, the regatta also marked their last opportunity to pull for Pioneer. The team honored its seniors in Canada on Friday evening, June 2. Pioneer Crew will begin preparing in August for the fall 2023 season, which will formally begin with the official start of the 2023-24 school year.
SILVER
Novice women’s 8+, with a time of 9.11.79: Sofia Mackler, Jordan Davis, Maeve Coffman, Sofia Becker, Chloe Parrish, Gabriella Soto-Ali, Padme Barclay, Margaret Cox, with Josephine Pinkelman as coxswain
BRONZE
Novice men’s 8+, with a time of 7.29.45: Austin Sexton, Nicholas Turenne, Kellum Colquitt, Oliver Germano, Samuel Price, Ellis Wyatt, Jude Mys, Ben Wemert, with Rocco Romeri as coxswain
Photos courtesy Kelly Sexton & Jerome Ng (main photo)
Pioneer Crew Earns Silver, Bronze at Challenging State Championship Regatta
