Montclair HS Rowing Team Captures NJ Wins, Earns Regatta Gold

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of the Montclair High School Rowing Team. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

The Montclair High School Rowing Team opened its spring 2025 season in dominant fashion, continuing its legacy as one of the top public school rowing programs in the country.

On Saturday, April 26, Montclair clinched another back to back New Jersey State Championship title at the New Jersey State Scholastic Rowing Championships in Camden - the largest scholastic athletic event in the state - while also securing the Women’s Points Trophy for the third straight year. Montclair Rowing has held this State Championship title since 2009 and is showing no signs of slowing down.

The State Championship, held on the Cooper River, featured fierce competition from 42 New Jersey high schools and over 280 boats vying for state titles. True to Montclair’s winning tradition, all 11 of its boats medaled, resulting in six state championship golds, two silvers, and three bronzes. Montclair secured gold in the Men's and Women's Varsity 8+, Women's 2V8+, Men's JV8+, Women's Novice 2x, and Women's Freshman 4x. This dominant showing adds to Montclair’s impressive total of 75 State Championship titles, positioning the team strongly for the upcoming national championships on May 10, 2025. (A full list of results and athletes is provided below.)

But there was no rest for the weary! Select Varsity boats returned to the Cooper River the very next day to compete in the Cooper Cup, a premier scholastic and club regatta featuring over 1,800 athletes and 70 of the top rowing clubs and high schools on the East Coast. Facing a double header regatta weekend and a fierce field in extremely challenging weather conditions, Montclair Rowing swept Gold in both the Men’s and Women’s Varsity 8+ category, capping off an extraordinary championship weekend.

"Winning three consecutive State Championships and Women’s Points Trophies is an extraordinary achievement for any program — even more so for a public high school," said Head Coach Jeremy Michalitsianos. "To then turn around and sweep gold in both the Men’s and Women’s Varsity 8+ at Cooper Cup the very next day, in brutal conditions, speaks volumes about the strength, resilience, and talent of our student-athletes. They have trained relentlessly, and we are extremely proud. Now, we shift our focus to Philadelphia Cities, Mid-Atlantics, Stotesbury, and SRAA Nationals in the weeks ahead."

Montclair High School Rowing has built a national reputation for excellence, a remarkable feat for a public school program competing against elite, privately funded prep schools and clubs. Celebrating its 23rd anniversary this year, the program is rich in diversity, spirit, and academic excellence, producing high-achieving student-athletes who are consistently recruited to top collegiate rowing programs in the US and abroad.

In the U.S., graduates have gone on to compete for powerhouse academic and rowing institutions including MIT, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, Cal Berkeley, Brown, Duke, Tufts, Columbia, Northeastern, and the University of Washington and many others.

Internationally, the program’s presence is also fast growing. Five Montclair alumni are currently training and racing with top UK rowing clubs and will compete this summer at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames in England, one of the most historic and revered rowing events in the world. Known for its elite, invitation-only format and unique head-to-head racing, it attracts top crews from across the globe and is considered a pinnacle achievement in competitive rowing.

Montclair alumni are also making headlines on some of the sport’s most storied stages, both in the U.S. and abroad. Just this past weekend, Montclair athletes were in the spotlight at one of the most iconic stages in American collegiate rowing: the Washington vs. Cal Dual. Class of 2024 alumni Xavier Gagnon (Cal) and Colin Phariss (Washington) went head-to-head in the historic rivalry dating back to 1903 and famously portrayed in The Boys in the Boat. Cal emerged victorious in a tightly contested race. Adding to the moment, University of Washington Head Coach Nate Goodman — also an MHS alum — now coaches Phariss, a powerful reflection of Montclair’s enduring influence in top-tier collegiate rowing. And last summer, Kenny Coplan, another Montclair alum, raced for Cambridge University in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, one of the most tradition-rich and widely viewed events in the sport. Held annually on the Thames, the race pits two of the world’s oldest universities in a side-by-side contest followed by millions worldwide. Coplan helped lead Cambridge to victory, marking another proud milestone in Montclair’s growing international legacy.

These individual achievements reflect the strength and depth of the program as a whole. Under the leadership of internationally experienced coaches Jeremy Michalitsianos and Lorna Rundle, Montclair Rowing has captured dozens of titles and earned recognition as one of the most successful scholastic programs in both New Jersey and the nation. Over the past two decades, the team’s accolades include championships at the Stotesbury Cup, SRAA Nationals, Mid-Atlantic Regionals, and Philadelphia City Championships, along with standout performances at Youth Nationals and Henley, where Montclair crews earned a bronze medal and semifinal placement in the Thames Challenge Cup in 2018.

With momentum on their side, Montclair now turns its sights toward the Philadelphia City Championship Regatta this weekend and the Mid-Atlantic Junior Regional Championship the week thereafter. To follow Montclair Rowing’s spring schedule or learn more about the program, visit www.friendsofmontclairrowing.org.

Registration is now open for Montclair Rowing’s Summer Camp, available to all Montclair Public School students interested in learning more about the sport. For inquiries, contact Coach Lorna Rundle at lornarundle@hotmail.com

Montclair High School Results

NJ State Championship - 280 entries

Overall Points Trophy- NJ State Champions Overall Girls points Trophy

Gold - Womens HS Sr 8+

Madeleine Young, Caitlyn Cecere, Olivia King, Zora Tracy, Sonia Haynes, Aurora Auld, Olivia Langton, Ava Lane, Avril Callanan (Coxswain)

Gold - Mens HS Sr 8+

Benny Read, Boden Pirkle, Dawson Chacon, Jacob Miller, Sam Moon, Finn Wilson, Joe Walker, Sam Gagnon, Caroline Loscalzo (Coxswain)

Gold - Womens HS 2nd 8+

Isla Gladstone, Olivia Pearce, Vanessa Valera, Taylor Douno, Olive Sterry, Charlotte King, Bridget Phariss, Ella Kondic, Maria Cummins-Astor (Coxswain)

Gold - Mens HS Jr 8+

Jack Nelissen, Connor Anderson-Howard, Sheehan Jeydel, Julian Veccione, Oliver Ford, Oliver Friedman, Charles Burns, John Murphy, Brooks Bateman (Coxswain)

Gold - Womens HS Freshmen 4x

Charlotte Klein, Lily Mingione, Seraphina Fedele, Claire Anderson-Howard

Gold - Womens HS Novice 2x

Ava Nobles, Isabelle Hayes

Silver - Womens HS Jr 4+

Talia Bender, Brynn Foley, Isabel Meyer, Charlotte Wurmser, Ruby Smith (Coxswain)

Silver - Mens HS Freshmen 8+

George Michalitsianos, Joaquin Cespedes, Zion Pollard, Waylon Shroff, Diego Cruz, Magnus Baden-Campbell, David Oliphant, Jacob Weker, Connor Griffith, (Coxswain)

Bronze - Womens HS Ltwt 4+

Kearin Hunt, Kate March, Eliana Richardson, Matilda Nicolai, Francie DiCarlo (Coxswain)

Bronze - Mens HS 2nd 8+

Noah Qaim-Maqami, George Oliphant, Hoody Qaim-Maqami, Ben Virella Feld, Jonah Bandieramonte, Matteo Cachola, Gabe Bruggeman, Lucas Townsend, Sam Strome (Coxswain)

Bronze - Mens HS Freshmen 4x

Keiran McCarthy, Adrian Hunt, Emre Gumus, Levi Fedderson

Cooper Regatta (Club and Scholastic) 626 entries

• Gold (out of 21 boats) - Women’s U19 8+
• Gold (out of 27 boats) - Men’s U19 8+
• 9th (out of 40 boats) - Men’s U17 4+

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