BEST OF 2023: HONORABLE MENTION CREW OF THE YEAR

BEST OF 2023

HONORABLE MENTION

CREW OF THE YEAR

U19 Girls 8+, U16 Girls 8+, U19 Boys 2V 8+, U16 Boys 8+

Rowing News Magazine has recognized Marin Rowing Crew of the Year with an honorable mention.

BY CHIP DAVIS | PHOTO BY LISA WORTHY

The 2023 Best Of Series features the athletes, events, and moments that mattered in the year in rowing.

Crew of the Year - Honorable Mention

The San Diego Crew Classic trademarked the motto “The Rowing Season Starts Here,” but this year, as in so many others, when it came to women’s youth rowing, Marin owned it. Marin won its Crew Classic Youth Cup heat by 17 seconds and the final by about a length at the start of the season and the USRowing Youth National Championship over Greenwich at the end of the season. Greenwich then went overseas to win the Henley Royal Regatta in a tight final over Deerfield Academy, the top U.S. school (not club) crew.

Coach Sandy Armstrong’s perennially fast youth crews won on multiple levels at Youth Nationals: under-19, under-16, and on the boys’ side as well. She’s been the girls head coach and executive director of the Marin Rowing Association for 39 years and credits her staff with adapting to the new age-based categories of Youth Nationals.

“The staff is pretty deep; everybody probably could coach each other’s team successfully,” Armstrong said. “We stuck with trying to keep like ages together and like grades together for a little bit, but each season is bringing new information we can apply to the next season.”