Montclair Rowing Team Makes Big Splash At State Championship

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

The Montclair High School Rowing Team has once again hit the water strong, setting new program records for the spring 2023 season.

On Saturday, April 29, Montclair clutched the State Championship title at the Garden State Scholastic Rowing Championship in Camden, the largest scholastic athletic event in the state, winning BOTH the Men’s and Women’s points trophies and sweeping gold across all women’s categories entered. Montclair High School has a strong legacy at States, having won 62 State Championship titles and simultaneously capturing both points trophies three times since their program start.

In Montclair rowing tradition, they dominated the space with 10 out of 12 boats walking away with medals, including 7 more state championship golds and 3 silver finishes. This strong showing on the Cooper River puts them in prime position for Nationals on May 24th, 2023.

“This is a huge achievement by our team,” said Head Coach Jeremy Michalitsianos. “We are extremely proud of all our athletes here today. They’ve trained hard and sweeping gold across all the women’s categories they entered including the Varsity 8 and securing both men’s and women’s points trophies for another State Championship makes us very happy. But our job’s not done. Now we set our sights on Philadelphia Cities, Stotesbury and SRAA Nationals.”

The Montclair High School Rowing Team has a long legacy of winning national and international championships – a huge feat for a public high school rowing team which competes in a landscape of prestigious, privately funded prep schools and clubs. The program, which just celebrated its 20-year anniversary last year, is rich in diversity, talent, and spirit and comprised of high achieving student athletes who are consistently recruited and accepted into the most prestigious universities in the country every year. This year alone, the team has athletes who have been recruited to MIT, Duke, Northeastern, and Villanova.

Under the guidance and training of internationally experienced coaching duo, Jeremy Michalitsianos and Lorna Rundle, Montclair Rowing has won countless Championships and is considered one of the most respected scholastic rowing programs in the country. In the 2021-22 season alone, they were Stotesbury Champions, SRAA Champions, and Philadelphia City Champions and are well positioned to exceed this winning legacy in 2023.

Given this recent success at the Garden State Scholastic Championships, Montclair isn’t showing signs of slowing down and is well positioned as they look to the Philadelphia City Championships, Mid-Atlantic Junior Regional Championships, Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s (SRAA) National Championship, the Stotesbury Cup, and US Rowing’s Youth National Championship. They close their season in June.

To follow their schedule, learn more or sign up for any of their rowing programs, visit www.friendsofmontclairrowing.com.

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

Montclair High School Team Results:

• Women’s 1V8+ - 1st place
• Men’s 1V4+ - 1st place
• Women’s LW4+ - 1st place
• Women’s JV8+ – 1st place
• Men’s JV4+ - 1st place
• Women's JV2x - 1st place
• Women's F8+ - 1st place
• Men’s 1V8+ – 2nd place
• Men's F8+ - 2nd place
• Men's N8 - 2nd place
• Men’s LW2x - 5th place
• Men’s JV2X - 14th place

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