Costa Crew sweeps at Southwest Regional Junior Championship

Kathryn Cross
Staff Writer

On May 3 and 4, 17 Costa crew members competed against a total of 120 athletes at The United States Southwest Regional Junior Championship. After hours of strenuous rowing, the Mustangs placed in three different events.

During the championship, the Marina Aquatic Center, or MAC, crew competed and won a gold medal in the Women’s Novice 8, silver in the Women’s lightweight four, and a bronze medal in the Women’s Novice 8C.

“We won by 0.87 seconds,” freshman crew member, Abby Blair said. “We crossed the finish line and it was a fist bump in the air. Some of us started crying because it was awesome.”

While the gold medal race was an epic battle that ended with a triumphant victory, novice teams do not have a national championship to continue on to. However, with the Women’s Varsity 8 winning a bronze medal in the Southwest District, they qualified to move on to Nationals, which is set to take place on June 13-15.

“Our Women’s Varsity team, which needed to finish third in order to qualify for Nationals, was in fourth in the middle of the race, but they pulled through and qualified,” Coach, Zohar Abramovitz said.

Leading up to Nationals, the team will be focusing on taking an integrated approach to the whole athlete. The physical, emotional, and mental side will all be explored. The physical aspect is exercised with an approximate two hour practice per day, six days a week. A typical routine includes a warm-up with a one-mile run, 90 squats, rowing for one to two hours, washing the boats, and reviewing the progress of that practice.

“Starting crew has made me more physically capable, more responsible, and better with time management, especially with my school work,” Blair said.

However, with the epitome of the MAC crew season at its end, Abramovitz hopes for the best at Nationals, but is ecstatic for the progress of the team thus far.

“We won a lot of bronze medals this year, which was a huge achievement and the level of commitment and hard work that the kids put in over the course of the year was inspiring,” Abramovitz said. “So, hopefully they set a new standard for the new team coming in and they will be inspired.”