Sagamore qualifies 7 boats for nationals
It's a good thing the Sagamore Rowing team didn't have to row home from the state tournament in Saratoga Springs last month. Not so much because of the distance, but having all those medals as cargo might have weighed them down.
The team had seven boats place in the top three -- five that earned gold or silver -- and qualified for the Youth National Championships that begin Friday in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
"The feeling was overwhelming, knowing we're going to nationals," said Rob Caderas, who teamed with Blake Berger in the boys pair boat that took gold in the club division and silver in the scholastic division. "Seven [boats] qualifying is awesome. It wouldn't be fun to go alone."
Sagamore Rowing, also known as the Crew Club of Oyster Bay, is composed of students from Long Island high schools, including Locust Valley, Northport, Oyster Bay, St. Anthony's, Harborfields and Friends Academy.
"It's a little hard to believe," coach Troy Smith said of the team's most successful season. "But it's great. It's been a great year and right now, we have a lot of great rowers."
The girls lightweight 4-plus boat (Liam Gagliano, Sigal Markowitz, Micailah Donner, Gabby Dell'Aquilo and Amanda Massey) won gold in the club and scholastic divisions, as did the boys double (Mackenzie Blanz and Gabe Rohrberg). The girls pair of Shannon Dennington and Emma Gugerty took gold in club and silver in scholastic. Nina Vascotto earned a scholastic division silver in girls singles.
"We usually just get one boat a season to qualify," said Smith, the coach since 2001. Their best showing in nationals was second place in girls singles in 2004.
"I definitely think all these boats can be in the top six," Smith said. The top six finishers in each event advance to the finals. "They'll probably have to race against 36 boats, but I wouldn't even want to take them [to nationals] if I didn't believe we could do well."
