The Y Quad Cities Junior Rowers recently competed in the USRowing Virtual Youth National championships taking a gold, two silver, and one bronze medal. This outdoor event would have taken place in Sarasota, FL in mid-June but was cancelled due to COVID-19. This virtual championship format was instituted in its place consisting of the athletes completing a 2000-meter effort on a rowing machine.
The gold went to the Girls 4-Person event. Delaney Evans (Pleasant Valley graduate; will be rowing at University of Michigan); Emma Mask (Pleasant Valley graduate; will be rowing at University of Iowa); Elizabeth Tessen (Pleasant Valley junior); and Ella Saunders (Liberty High senior) finished over 9 second ahead of the next finishers from Connecticut. The Y QC team holds a 6-year streak in the outdoor version of this event.
Taylor English took silver in the Girls Individual U19 event with a time of 7:01.0. English recently graduated from Pleasant Valley and will be attending the national rowing powerhouse, Standard University.
Another silver medal was won by Bella Miletich (recent Bettendorf graduate) and Christina Li (Pleasant Valley High School) in the Girls Lightweight 2-person event.
Tristan Wakefield (Bettendorf High School junior) took bronze in the Boys Individual U17 event with a time of 6:23.7.
Several other Y QC rowers participated in the National Championship event taking 4th, 5th, 11th, and two 15th places. During the COVID-19 crisis all rowers trained in their homes with rowing machines while traditional training options were unavailable. Rowing at the Bass Street YMCA & Sylvan Boathouse is now reopened, but these athletes currently train with single-person boats to maintain appropriate social distancing.