The Burton Beach Rowing Club was invited to Vancouver Lake last Sunday for a scrimmage with seven other clubs from Washington and Oregon.

Regatta director and coach of the Vancouver Lake Rowing Club, Alan Stewart, organized the regatta on the same course that USRowing’s Northwest Regional Championships will be held on May 18 to 20, and it was a great opportunity for the young rowers at Burton Beach to test themselves on the championship course.

Leading the way for the club were novice boys Jordon Rutschow and Dylan Carmody. Rutschow won the JV single, competing against more experienced rowers, and Carmody took the victory in the novice single. Rowing together in the novice double event, the two powered to achieve the fastest time among all 11 entries and brought home the gold.

“I really enjoyed the competition, the rowing, and the weather was great,” Rutschow said. “It was really an awesome way to tune up for Regionals in a couple of weeks.”

The girls also had a strong regatta, with Ava Lorentzen looking powerful while winning the varsity single by three lengths, and Kate Kelly and Gabbie Graves dominant in the pair. Ros Bellscheidt won the novice single with another strong performance, and the lightweight girls’ double of Mabel Moses and Olivia White also grabbed the gold, coming from a length down to overtake strong entries from Oregon and Vancouver Lake. Kelly, Graves, Lorentzen and Ruta Milewski later combined for a win in the girls’ four.

“The whole day was a great experience for the BBRC rowers. We got a chance to compete against some good teams on the championship course, and we had some very strong results. Now it’s time to fine tune for NW Regionals, but that was a great way to start our final push,” said volunteer coach Richard Parr.

Up next for BBRC is USRowing’s NW Junior Regional Championships.

— By Heidi Tosterud, parent of a Burton Beach junior rower.