2023 USRowing Southwest Youth Championships

Marin Rowing Association has wrapped up another year of its regular season competitive youth rowing program. Hundreds of middle and high school-aged kids tried out for the 2022-2023 team in late August to early September 2022, with 175 making our final roster.

Another year away from the canceled 2020 & 2021 seasons, this year was almost entirely back to “normal.”

USRowing Southwest Youth Championships (AKA regionals, AKA CJ’s - due to the race formerly being called "California Juniors Championships”) was held at Lake Natoma hosted by the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, May 5th-7th. There were 622 entries from 37 clubs representing California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. The regatta hosted 53 events, and MRA had 35 entries in 27 events.

Racing began on Friday, May 5th, with time trials. Athletes raced head race style to secure a spot racing later on the weekend. Depending on the entries, boats had to finish the top 21, 14, or 7 to progress. Events that are eligible for Youth Nationals held Semi-Finals on Saturday. Boats racing on Saturday must finish in the top 2 or 3 (again, depending on the number of entries in their event) to secure a spot racing on Sunday in the Grand Finals. This year, our region was granted four positions at Nationals per eligible event. In years past, boats had to finish top 3 to receive an invitation to race at the national-level championship regatta.

We had 35 boats race in Time Trials on Friday. Twenty-one boats raced on Saturday, and 31 in Grand Finals on Sunday. Of the boats that raced on Sunday, 27 of the 31 received a medal. 13 Gold, nine silver, and five bronze. We qualified 17 boats to race at Youth Nationals.

Full results from regionals can be found on HereNow.com. Our boy’s team won the Regatta Points Trophy with 13 entries earning them 223 points. The girls came in second with 12 entries earning them 231 points. You can view this custom results spreadsheet for a summary of MRA-only results.

USRowing Youth Nationals will occur from June 8th to June 11th at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. MRA is sending nine 8+’s to the event; Men’s Youth 8+, Men’s Youth 2V 8+, Men’s Youth 3V 8+, Women’s Youth 8+, Women’s Youth 2V 8+, Men’s U16 8+, Men’s U17 8+, Women’s U16 8+ and Women’s U17 8+.

Be sure to follow @marinrowing on Instagram for up-to-date training and regatta coverage.

*Bolded boats are defending national champions.