Agnes Irwin crew earns gold, bronze medals at SRAA national regatta

The Agnes Irwin School’s crew team launched four boats at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) National Championships Regatta May 26-27 on the Cooper River.

The highlight of the two-day event for AIS was the gold-medal performance of the Lightweight 4x (Maya Brown-Hunt, Gabby D’Arcangelo, Juliana Jaskot, Caroline Richardson). After finishing first in Friday’s preliminary heat, they closed their 2017 season with an open water victory, almost 10 seconds ahead of the silver medalists from Western Albemarle (Charlottesville, Va.)

The JV 4x (Emma Bonner, Anna Cayley, Rose Lawrence, Lexi Short) returned to their winning ways after struggling with an equipment issue at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta a week ago. They finished second in Friday’s preliminary heat and earned bronze medals on Saturday, crossing the finish line behind local rivals Conestoga (gold) and Baldwin (silver).

The Freshman 4x (Peyton Bond, Madeline Briddell, Ella Haines, Eliza Pendergast) also turned in an impressive performance. They raced to a second place finish on Saturday morning to earn a spot in the afternoon final, where they finished fourth, just 0.477 seconds behind the bronze medalists from Saratoga High School (Saratoga, N.Y.)

Also competing for AIS on the national stage was the JV 2x (Sydney McCarthy, Anisah Thomas). This young team faced some tough competition in Saturday morning’s preliminary heat; they finished fifth, four seconds behind Burnt Hills Rowing Association (Burnt Hills, N.Y.)