More than 100 Vashon Island Rowing Club youth rowers, families, and adult rowers trekked off-island at 4:40 a.m. Sunday to race in Seattle at the Tail of the Lake Regatta hosted by Holy Names Academy.

Collaboration, communication, and cheering were the themes of the day. Boats came on and off the water from seven in the morning until the early afternoon, each rowed multiple times by different lineups of all ages.

“Between the adult and youth teams we saw a lot of support and team spirit which lends itself to great racing,” head coach Ben Steele said. “The youth team on both the novice and experienced sides put in a lot of work leading up to this first regatta, and their success showed it.”

Podium finishes on the youth side included first-place finishes from the men’s U19 coxed quad (Xander Nelson, Jack Revello, Henry Cooper, Lance Westbrook, and coxswain Alekos Dalinis), the men’s novice single (Dominic Cooper), and the men’s novice coxed quad (Finley Graham, Grant Fitterer, Jonas Maxfield, Dorian Britz, and coxswain Tao Riley).

Second-place finishes took place in the men’s U17 un-coxed quad (Xander Nelson, Henry Cooper, Quentin Cherry, Lance Westbrook), men’s novice single (Eli Nelson), women’s novice coxed quad (Phoenix Ayers, Etta Chait, Gwen Tomlinson, Ren Colvos, and coxswain Ruby Sorensen), and men’s novice coxed quad (Grayson Hamilton, Brendan Blower, Alden Metler, Rowan Grace, and coxswain Colin Simpson).

Third-place finishes took place in the men’s U19 coxed quad (second lineup Mitchell Grossman, Owen Dempsey, Quentin Cherry, Tyler Davis, and coxswain Max Kline), women’s U17 quad (Laurel Calhoun, Gwyn Ranney, Rose Ely, Selene Dalinis), and the men’s novice double (Eli Nelson and Dominic Medeiros).

Novice Eli Nelson poetically summarized the experience “First time racing small boats in a place not remote, and I was not smote by a seaplane and I will not refrain from the thrill invoked by rowing with hope.”

Speaking about the over 40-person youth team, Steele said, “We are proud to have a growing, experienced youth team who are seeing results from their focus on honing their skills. Our novices also experienced immense success at their first regatta after just a month of rowing.”

On the other end of the widespread age group at VIRC, the adult rowing team (also called the masters) found success in the women’s masters quad (Therese Smith, Jeannette Bannink, Gail Brownell, Su DeWalt) with a second-place finish, and the mixed masters quad (Kim Goforth, Francois Ribalet, Sean Waldron, Lea Heffernan) with a third-place finish.

“We were very excited to see these placements in these two boats,” said Coach Aidan Teachout. “Both lineups will be racing at Head of the Lake, our fall capstone regatta. The overall commitment from the group of masters rowers who raced at Tail of the Lake was great to see.”

“It was a great day of racing with some tough competition,” masters rower Kim Goforth said, “but, a fun time was had by all with the sunshine and good water conditions. The masters appreciated all the equipment help from the juniors and the food provided by the parents. They made the regatta very enjoyable.”

Next up for both the youth and adult teams is the American Lake Fall Classic in Lakewood, Washington on Oct. 8. For one of these boats, the men’s U19 coxed quad, this will be the last local race before they fly out to race at the 2023 Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, Massachusetts, on Oct. 20th-22.

Delany Steele is the boathouse director and novice coach of the Vashon Island Rowing Club.