Rowing State Championships

Duxbury Bay Maritime School High School Rowing Team raced to the end of their season at the Massachusetts Public Schools Rowing Associations’ (MPSRA) State Championships Sunday May 25th on the Merrimac River. Duxbury medaled in 11 of the 16 events they entered and produced three State Champion boats on the 1500m course in Lowell, MA.

The first State Champions of the day were Katie Porter and Katie Brasington rowing in the Girls Double event. Duxbury’s gold was complimented by bronze medals for Chrissy Padula and Maggie Hickey coming in third in the same race.

Up next were the Boys Double with Ben Potash and Buzz Ryan who placed second. Kyle Dame, Nick Mulone, Nick Tinkham and Jonathan Frye of the Boys Novice team raced in the Boys Quad event and missed first place by only 1.01 seconds to Worcester High and settled for silver.

Dame, Mulone, and Frye turned to sweep rowing and raced again in the Boys Novice Four A Boat with Conor Clark and coxswain Caroline Hickey and became State Champions by beating rowing powerhouse Wayland-Weston by 2 seconds. They also won the MPSRA perpetual trophy for the year for winning the race.

The Boys Novice Four B Boat were also State Champions with Nick Tinkham, Andrew Whalen, Anthony Umbrianna, Matt Antaya and cox Caroline Hickey racing to gold and beating the second place boat by an impressive 6 seconds.

Girls Novice Eight A boat had a strong showing placing 5th in their heat. The B boat (Brighid Davis, Michele Segalla, Emily Hutchinson, Susie Caffrey, Jenica Casey, Alena Casey, Maggie Rains, Maggie Dunn and cox Amy Laputz) placed 3rd in their heat and made it to the finals where they placed 5th overall.

The Boys Varsity Four with Potash, Ryan, Alex Porter and Pat Sullivan easily won their heat and moved onto the finals were they won bronze medals for their efforts.

Girls Varsity had a strong showing in the Girls Quad with rowers Amanda Doolin, Emily Desmery, Beth Paret and Tess Wankum winning silver. Cruising to finish line right behind them was Natalie Bowen, Emmi O’Day, Margot De Deyne and Neave Schmitt for bronze medals.

Girls Varsity shined again in the sweep events. Desmery, Doolin, Paret and Wankum took home silver medals in the A Boat with Marissa Demos as their coxswain. Demos won silver again with the B Boat (Bowen, O’Day, De Deyne & Schmitt). In the C Boat, Katie Porter, Kerri Shaughnessy, Ann Marie Gochis and Katie Brasington also won silver with coxswain Amanda Woodgate.

It was a stellar day for DBMS Rowing, placing 8th overall against the 23 other public school competing. “We couldn’t be more proud of these athletes” said Novice Boys Coach Kristen McCarthy. “Everyone worked so hard all season and it paid off in the end. Duxbury has three state champion boats and dozens of medals to show off! It’s really an amazing end to a great season.”

DBMS Policies. Photos by David Grossman and site design & development by Mark Lewis.