Porter, girls eight eye experience
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Cate Porter’s dreams have come true sooner than she could have anticipated.
Just an eighth grader at The Hun School, Porter will row in the Mercer Junior Rowing Club’s lightweight girls eight at the USRowing Youth National Championships that begin today in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Porter is in one of the four boats from MJRC to qualify for nationals.
”It’s one of the coolest things that’s happened to me,” Porter said. “It’s such a great experience. All of my friends have been telling me about their past trips to nationals. They always describe it as being so amazing and inspiring. I’m glad I finally get to be there and share the experience with them.”
Porter learned to scull in sixth grade from her brother, Carrick, a Hun graduate. She did a novice camp before the start of her seventh grade year, then joined MJRC in the spring of her seventh grade year. She can’t join in the conversations about senior proms, but she’s fit in fine with the team.
”At first, I was scared and worried about making friends,” said Porter, a Hopewell resident. “They’ve taken me on so well. Some of my closest friends are at Mercer now.”
And they’ll be rowing together against the best in the country this weekend. Joining Porter in the girls eight are: Bianca Carnevale (Princeton High), Rachel Calabro (Robbinsville), Katie Sessa (Mt. Saint Mary’s), Beatrice Sclapari (Princeton High), Robin Linzmayer (Princeton Day School), Rena White (Princeton High), Abby Gross (West Windsor-Plainsboro North) and Emma McElligot (West Windsor-Plainsboro South).
”That’s by far the youngest boat,” said Director or Mercer Rowing Programs Sean McCourt. “We have three or four freshmen, two seniors and everyone else is a second-year rower. That’s very young, but they’re moving really well right now. We put that together right before the regionals and they finished second. We made some adjustments since then, some personnel changes and it’s going really, really well. That’s the boat we’re the most excited about because they’re so young.”
Porter believes just one of the girls in her boat has been to nationals before, which makes this year’s experience so valuable.
”We have two freshmen, a bunch of sophomores, no juniors, and only a couple seniors,” Porter said. “We’re all young. We’re like the feeders for the program. We’re developing so young when most people haven’t even started rowing yet. It’s amazing to be rowing already.
”We have a girl that was moved up from the novice team (this spring). She started rowing this fall, and did winter crew which is the time when people really develop. I was playing hockey at that point. I really like hockey too.”
Porter, though, is looking forward to the chance to help the Mercer boat to a good finish at nationals. The boat has come together quickly over the last weeks.
”It was a little rocky the first couple days, then we got used to each other,” Porter said. “It’s gone so much better. We’re pretty fast now. We have really good chemistry. Our friendship helps us. We want to pull for each other.
”I hope we just have fun and do our best and make a good showing so people know that Mercer is up there with some of the best teams.”
In its 10th year in existence, MJRC is still going strong and still producing fast boats. Mercer will also send three other boats in addition to its young lightweight crew. The girls varsity four with coxswain consists of Daisy Wu (Princeton High), Laura Foster (West Windsor-Plainsboro South), Emily Goodman (Princeton High) Samantha Woo (West Windsor- Plainsboro South) and Victoria Jorgensen (West Windsor- Plainsboro North).
”The four should be the most competitive,” McCourt said. “They’re definitely hoping to come home with a medal. We’re leaving the Monday, once we come back from nationals, and flying to the Women’s Henley (in England). That’s a pretty senior boat. We’re hoping for big things from them.”
Reina Gabai (Princeton High) and AJ Edenzon (Montgomery High) will row in a girls pair.
”They’re two of the top kids that came out of the (original) eight,” McCourt said. “They’re probably girls five and six. AJ is a junior and Reina is a senior. We’re trying to see what we get out of them. They’re both very competitive.
”The pair is a hard event. It’s one of the newer events. It’s only the third year they’ve run it. It’s hard to gauge the level of competition. Events that have been around, you know who the good clubs are. There could be small clubs that have a couple of good rowers, and there could be bigger ones like ours sending a good team. I would think they’d do pretty well.”
The boys varsity eight has Truman Levine (West Windsor- Plainsboro South), Clay Centis (Princeton High), Sean Kelly (Princeton High), Joe Shavel (Princeton High), Tim Lee (West Windsor- Plainsboro South), Andy Ie (Princeton High), Dan Kennedy-Moore (Princeton High), Kyle James (Princeton High) and Cameron Ward (West Windsor- Plainsboro South).
”It’s totally awesome that they’re going,” McCourt said. “It’s definitely a really, really competitive field. The teams that are coming, it looks like it’s going to be a great race. Anyone could win it.
”We sent a boys eight last year, but it was more like development,” he said. “Two years ago, we were competitive. This boat, I think will be competitive.”
McCourt is hoping the trip is a positive experience for all the rowers, and something that inspires those that have the chance to return, like the majority of Porter’s lightweight girls boat.
”They definitely get that experience level,” McCourt said. “You see how fast you really have to go to be competitive with everyone. The great thing I like about this group being young, they don’t know any better. You have to pull hard. They just don’t know it’s hard. They’re almost like fearless. Sometimes inexperience is just as good as experience.”
Whether experienced or not, the Mercer rowers can agree that a trip to nationals is quite an accomplishment to conclude their year. And for Porter, it’s just a start.
”It was always like a dream and something I hoped to do,” she said. “I definitely didn’t expect to be doing it. Now that it’s here, I know it’s something I always wanted to do.”