By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Katarina Stough and Rena White joined the Princeton National Rowing Association’s Mercer Rowing Club when they were just in eighth grade.
Neither of the now Princeton High School seniors knew then how far they would go in the sport that was introduced to them by Stough’s older sister, Alexandra.
White rowed in the open girls eight that finished second and Stough was the coxswain for the lightweight girls eight boat that finished third at the USRowing Youth National Championships on Sunday in Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.
“We had six seniors on our boat, including our coxswain,” White said. “We’re really close. We’ve been rowing together for a long time. We’re a close knit boat. When we crossed the line, we were all overwhelmed by the fact that we did it, we finished second, and also we were really sad because we knew it was the last strokes we’d take together. It was really special that we got to end on that note.”
Stough helped to guide a newer group to a bronze medal. It was the best finish she had enjoyed at nationals.
“It was an amazing experience just because I never made A final at nationals,” Stough said. “Making A final and medaling on top of it, it was amazing for me, especially because our boat didn’t really know what to expect going into it. The only concrete goal we had was to be happy with the race we executed and whatever placement came with it, we’d be happy. We were ecstatic to do so well.”
Joining White in the silver-medal boat were co-captain senior Hayley Bork (Robbinsville High School), senior Alex Natale (The Hun School) who will row at the University of Virginia, seniors Kelly Fischer and Badia Shehab (both from Hopewell Valley High School), juniors Kate Hickey (Notre Dame High School) and Caitlin Cleary (Princeton High School), sophomore Katie Lustig (Council Rock North High School) and coxswain senior Kate Edmondson (Westfield High School).
“From last year, there were seven of nine from the boat returning,” said Mercer head coach Ted Sobolewski. “This year, we have six seniors in the boat. It’s definitely been a three-year build to this point where we can go and medal in that event. There’s a lot of strong clubs competing.”
Only Saugatuck Rowing Club out of Connecticut could stay ahead of Mercer in the final. Mercer closed the gap on them towards the end but never could overtake them.
“They definitely had a strength advantage on us,” White said. “But we were really happy with the way we performed in the final. We closed a lot of ground on them. In the race, we put up a pretty good showing against them. I think we were happy to end our season that way.”
White will continue to train over the summer with Mercer and compete with the club at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in August before she continues her career for the lightweight program at Stanford University.
“I’m really excited to step it up and see new levels of rowing and see that other gear,” White said. “I’m excited for everything, for the new team, for the new experience and being able to work my way up again. The coach there, Derek Byrnes (the national Coach of the Year), he’s really awesome. I’m excited to experience that.”
White has come a long way to get to being a college rower. There was no indication she would go that far when her career began at Mercer.
“I didn’t go in with any expectation of what I wanted to get out of it,” White said. “I wasn’t very serious as a novice and I was pretty terrible.”
She stuck with it through the first year and in her second year of rowing, when she was still a freshman, she made a significant jump.
“I started out very, very bad,” she said. “I started out on our third novice eight, then when I came up to varsity that fall, I was on third varsity. I got invited to do winter. I got more serious about winter. I ended up being on first varsity eight that spring and ended up going to nationals with lightweight eight that year.”
Her boats have risen as well. As a sophomore, she was part of a lightweight eight that went to nationals, but last year she was in an open eight at nationals. They finished fifth to set themselves up for this season.
“That was pretty interesting the way we trained and the way we thought of ourselves,” White said. “I think it made us a lot more motivated over the summer and going into the fall knowing we wanted to improve on that and really keep our momentum. We’ve had pretty much the same lineup for the last two years.
“Throughout the year, we didn’t have the best spring,” she added. “After we came back from San Diego, we had a rough patch through that April. Into May and after regionals, we kind of got back on track. We had some problems with our lineup but we got back on track for nationals training and it started to come together.”
Just as the open eight peaked the right time, so did a far younger lightweight boat. Stough was one of only two seniors in the lightweight eight.
“In the lightweight, last year we didn’t take a lightweight eight to nationals, we took a lightweight four,” Stough said. “Coach Ted told us he had this idea of taking a lightweight eight and heavyweight eight to nationals this year. He started planning out a preliminary lineup early in the season. We got to race together for a couple of races, not in the exact lineup, but in a similar one. What made us go so fast, is we felt very, very connected as a boat. It’s the closest boat I’ve been on. We were pulling for each other and to make each other successful.”
Stough kept the boat together in the race as the coxswain. She was responsible for keeping their cadence steady and in position to compete for a medal.
Said Stough: “I had to help them execute the race plan and help them stay together and push them through it.”
Stough got her start as a coxswain, and next year she will cox at Georgetown University. It’s farther than she ever anticipated crew taking her.
“I don’t really know what lies ahead, but I’m excited for it,” Stough said. “It’s been an awesome journey with Mercer. I’m excited to see what comes ahead.
“This is much more than I imagined,” she added. “When I started off, I didn’t really think about doing it in college. When I started talking to coaches, I couldn’t really deal with the idea of not coxing any more. I love the sport. Medaling at nationals is more than I could have ever expected.”
Joining Stough in the lightweight boat were: senior Hannah Ash (Princeton High) who will swim for Occidental College, freshman Sara Hansen and junior Eileen Hu (both from West Windsor- Plainsboro South), juniors Elise Gorberg (West Windsor-Plainsboro North), Jenna Kugel (Montgomery High School), as well as sisters junior Kathryn Miller and sophomore Lauren Miller (Steinert High School) and sophomore Celia Varga (Princeton Day School).
“They were great,” Sobolewski said. “They’re a scrappy group of racers. In that boat, we have two seniors. There’s a freshman in there. They did great. They lost to Mount St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia at regionals. They made a ton of progress. We felt the same way as with the varsity — they peaked.”
Stough was thrilled to see the development of the boat late in the year. They put everything into a final push for a medal.
“We had raced only a couple of the teams before that were going to be there,” Stough said. “We had changed our lineup regionals to nationals. We didn’t know how much speed we had dropped. We didn’t really know how we would line up. Over the course of a week, we dropped around eight seconds, so we got a lot faster collectively.”
The strong finish sets into motion high aspirations for next year. While the graduating seniors will be off beginning their college careers, the returning rowers will be gearing up to try to live up to some high expectations of this year.
“In the lightweight, there are only two of us leaving,” Stough said. “They’re set for next year. Nationals is at our lake next year. We’re going to be there cheering for them. Hopefully they’ll do just as well next year. In the heavyweight, we do have a lot of seniors leaving, but the underclassmen are a strong group. I’m sure they’ll be just as successful.”
In the girls four with coxswain, Mercer’s team of 13th senior Lauren Colanduoni (Hopewell Valley Central), senior Megan Botsch (Robbinsville High School), junior Rachel Mumau (Millstone Township), freshman Bridget Parker (Princeton High) and junior coxswain Sydney Holgado (Robbinsville High School) placed 13th.
On the boys side, Mercer finished 11th in the nation in the boys eight and finished 12th in the nation in the boys lightweight four with coxswain. The boats included senior co-captain Elias Abilheira who will row for Cornell University and senior Alex Levine who will row for Princeton University (both from Princeton High School), senior Dan Gleim (West Windsor-Plainsboro South) who will row for Jacksonville University, senior Scott Hanks (The Hun School) who will row for Hobart University, senior Aaron Goodman (Princeton High School) who will row for Northeastern University, senior Mark Hayton (Hopewell Valley Central), senior Ron Haines (Hamilton High West), senior Griffin Petri (West Windsor-Plainsboro South), junior Kevin Borup (South Brunswick High School), junior John Tanguay (Hopewell Valley Central), and sophomores Carter Levine (Princeton High School) and Andrew Hickey (Notre Dame High School) as well as junior Jason Fleurial (Princeton High School) as the alternate rower. Coxswains were co-captain senior Matt Perez (Robbinsville High School) and junior Nikhil Modi (West Windsor Plainsboro South).
“The boys had an improvement from last year for sure,” Sobolewski said. “It’s been a tough year for them. They had a coaching change. We didn’t settle it until the fall. We have a good group of guys. We have two seniors in the boat, and there are some guys in the boat to build for next year. Their coach, Justin Ochal, is building the program up so they can be competitive in the varsity eight.”
