Malvern Prep and Mount St. Joseph capture historic USRowing Youth National Championships
Malvern's quad boat and the Mount's second varsity eight placed first at the regatta to cap a historic season. The last time these two schools secured wins at nationals was nearly two decades ago.
Two boats, two schools, two historic national championship wins.
Malvern Prep and Mount St. Joseph Academy competed in the USRowing Youth National Championships from June 11-14 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla., and brought home first-place trophies.
The regatta featured 235 of the top youth teams from around the nation. Malvern Prep’s youth quadruple sculls, which featured Will Bentley, Rory Coleman, Jack Arbogast, and Brendan Schuck, crossed the finish line in 5 minutes, 48.120 seconds to beat 28 other programs competing in the event.
Mount St. Joseph’s second varsity eight team won gold, with a time of 6:34.70. The championship boat included Kayleigh Costello, Ella Kurek, Addison Marques, Aubrey Sheehan, Megan Bell, Addison Ross, Christian Robinson, Ava Kristel, and Zoe Nguyen.
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The last time these schools won at nationals was roughly two decades ago. Malvern won in 2008, and Mount St. Joseph won in 2006.
The two teams supported another from the sidelines. Malvern cheered on the Mount girls from shore, and vice versa when the boys were in the water.
“There’s only so many crews that are coming down from this area,” Mount St. Joseph coach Alanna McCoy said. “We all often are on the same stretch of water, so we took all the boats on one trailer and made it one trip — it was cool to come home with two trophies.”
‘Fueled the fire’
Malvern sent four boats to Nathan Benderson Park.
Beside from the youth quad boat, the youth double sculls, under-17 double sculls, and under-17 quadruple sculls also competed in the regatta.
Malvern’s spring has been filled with wins, including a first-place finish in the quadruple sculls at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America championship in May.
But placing second in a race at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta “unlocked this second gear,” Bentley said.
“That was hard for us,” he added. “This fueled the fire for our training going into nationals, so I think it really helped us.”
First-year coach James Konopka helped cultivate that determination.
“It was the willingness from the guys to make changes, to do the work, to really push themselves into moments of discomfort,” Konopka said. “At times, I’d argue, we were maybe the hardest-working team on the river. These guys worked so hard for this win.”
Three Friars from the boat will move on to college rowing this fall.
Bentley will row at Holy Cross, Schuck at the University of San Diego, and Arbogast at Wesleyan University. Coleman will return next season as a senior and plans to row in college.
“It’s bittersweet to leave the program you spend so much time pouring hours and hours of effort into,” Schuck said. “But I know we left it in a place better than we found it.”
‘Doing it for our sisters’
For the Mount, inspiration and drive came from a more unconventional source.
“[Coach] gave us this book, The Little Engine That Could,” Sheehan said. “Before our races, we read it, and it was interesting to go into the unknown with the idea of, ‘I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,’ and that kind of pushed us through the race.”
With that mentality, the varsity eight boat crossed the finish line nearly two seconds ahead of the second-place boat. The group credited its teamwork and training for a successful final race of the season.
“We would come to the boathouse in the morning, row on the water for two hours, go home, and then come back and go again for a few hours, and then do it all again for the whole week,” said Kurek, who will row at George Washington next season. “I think that extra training is a really big push, especially for this boat, because we came together so late.”
McCoy said the team shares a “unique bond,” despite nationals being the group’s first race competing together.
“They all spend a ton of time together,” she said. “They’re together at school, they’re together after school, they’re together at the boathouse. They also are very good friends and hang out with each other outside of the boathouse.”
Added Marques: “The main theme for our races is always to think about the legacy of the team. Doing it for the people who cheer us on, doing it for our siblings, doing it for our coaches, but the main thing is doing it for our sisters in the boat.”