By JANET WILLIAMS

For The Beachcomber

Over the weekend, 16 junior rowers and 13 master rowers from Vashon Island Rowing Club traveled to Victoria, British Columbia. They competed in two races. The first was the Head of the Gorge, a challenging 4.5-kilometer race with bridges, turns and a place in the course where only one boat can pass under the Tillicum Bridge at a time.

Competing for the masters’ women were Kim Goforth, Holly Zapel, Joanne Kicinski and Su DeWalt. Taking first place in the men’s master quad were Bob Horsely, Colby Atwood, Eric Gill and Bruce Morser. Another men’s master quad — Steve Haworth, Ed Zapel, John Jannetty and Gary Schoch — finished in the middle of the pack. In the junior men’s double were Isaiah Mosser-Rohe and Alec Spencer, who placed sixth. In the junior women’s quad were Avalon Koenig, Meaghan Connors, Laney Williams, Marja Haflinger and cox Sarah Warner. They placed third.

The junior men’s eight — cox Olivia Sayvetz and rowers Steven DeWalt, Tim Hansen, Thane Gill, Will Kicinski, Ky Burton, Wes Paulsen, Wade Hankin, Nolan Shinn — also took third.

The day after the Head of the Gorge, the team packed up the boats and moved to Elk Lake for the eight-kilometer Head of the Elk.

In the junior men’s double were two younger rowers, Mosser-Rohe and Spencer, who competed against college athletes because there were no novices signed up to row in the doubles race. They placed ninth.

The men’s master quad — Horsely, Haworth, Ed Zapel and Morser — finished second. DeWalt, Holly Zapel, Lisa Huggenvik and Goforth placed fourth in the master women’s quad.

The junior men’s eight and the junior women’s quad both placed second.

Vashon Island Junior Crew is a program for athletes in eighth through 12th grades. Drop by the Ober Park building to sign up for the spring season.

— Janet Williams is a crew mom.