Maritime Rowing Club

At the Fall East Coast Speed Orders in New Jersey, one Connecticut junior program that committed to sculling early in the season earned the ultimate result, times two.

New Canaan High School, which shares a boathouse with a similarly winning group of sweep rowers for Maritime Rowing Club (see several fall head race articles in the “regattas” section of rowingnews.com) made sculling—specifically singles—a goal for the season.

“We had big support from everyone,” said Yan Vengerovskiy, Head Coach of the scullers at New Canaan High School Crew and Maritime Rowing Club. As fall got into full swing, Yan would be out on the water with 20 singles. The club has always focused on sculling, but historically had 6-10 singles out for a practice. This year the coaches, athletes, and parents all got on board with an emphasis on singles. Some parents purchased singles for their children, some donated singles to the club, and as racing started in the fall it all fell into place.

Both Andrew Campbell, a senior at New Canaan High School, and Marianne Hoeft, also a senior, won the Junior Single races at the Fall East Coast Speed Order. This was after an entire season spent on the top tier of the podium. Campbell and Hoeft won at the GMS Invitational in September, The Head of the Riverfront and Head of the Schuylkill in October and now Fall Speed Orders in November; many of these races by more than one minute. At the GMS race, Campbell won by approx. 1 minute, 10 seconds, Hoeft by 1 minute, 25 seconds. This established a trend early in the season—and they didn’t let up even as the competition become more intense. At the Speed Order, where arguably the elite juniors are poised and ready, Hoeft won by 16 seconds, Campbell by 44. Both from the same club, same coach. Coincidence?

Although at the Speed Order only the more advanced scullers from New Canaan/Maritime showed up to row, the team has filled results boards leading up to the November elite regatta.

At the Head of the Schuylkill Vengerovskiy’s boys scullers were enormously effective, placing 1^st (Andrew Campbell) 3^rd (Charlie Kelly) 4^th (Charlie Campbell) 5th (William Dannemann) 6th (Alec Buckenheimer) 7th (Roger Stone) , 11^th (Aaron Tass) and 12^th (Jonathan Rosow) and 35^th (Arthur Roski)—bumping perennial top-finishers Malvern Prep down in the results.

“We needed to not just be ‘today faster’ but faster for the long term, and be consistent,” said Vengerovskiy. He adds: “We also needed to be faster at the right time and the right place, which is not easy to do.” The fact is: his goals, the clubs goals, were realized more often than not this year, and as every week went by this fall more top finishes were racked up for the Connecticut crew.

Worth noting also is that three of the top male scullers in the program were recently accepted by Princeton: Andrew Campbell, Alec Burkenheimer and Charlie Kelly.

“We are trying to do more for the athletes at the club—the whole environment at the club is healthy, more advanced....our main target is to make strong athletes first,” says Vengerovskiy, “not just win races.”

“If you want to achieve something, you have to work hard to make it happen,” concludes Vengerovskiy.

The program had 5 athletes on the National team for the U23 World Championships in the Czech Republic this summer including Campbell and lightweight double partner Alec Buckenheimer, and had two New Canaan/Maritime graduates on the Senior National team. (More evidence this is a successful sculling program, if you needed it.)

At the Fall East Coast Speed Orders, it was Campbell and Hoeft’s day, though in the Junior Men’s 1x brother Charlie Campbell came in 3rd, with Alec Buckenheimer 6^th and Roger Stone 8th. The club also sent 12 boats to the Bill Braxton Memorial Regatta on the same day in Philadelphia (see how they did here). Note that Campbell is winning against heavyweights in many of his races while weighing in at only 150 pounds.

Campbell has been rowing since 2004 at Maritime, and has won big races almost since the beginning, including Junior B double and quad at the US Rowing Club National Champs in 2008 and second at the 2008 Head of the Charles in a double. “He is a high performance athlete,” says his coach, “and has continued to develop his skills.”

Hoeft, a relative “newby” to the sport, started rowing in February 2007. Five months later she was at the US Rowing Youth National Championships. Now two + years into the sport, she is dominating the Youth Single, though not a National team member like her New Canaan team mates. “She is strong, very athletic, a hard worker,” says her coach. Hoeft is considering rowing at Cal or Georgetown so far, but there is still time for more acceptance letters, yes?

Right now the duo has another season at the epicenter of youth rowing to look forward to, and with the facilities available at Maritime Rowing Club, they can train through until spring in the ‘healthy’ (and successful) atmosphere at MRC on the Norwalk River.

For the full results of Fall Speed Orders, look here