Orcas Rowing Juniors Compete at NW Regionals

Jake Zier to travel to Nationals in Tennessee

Jake training with coach Tina on Memorial Day at Cascade Lake.

By Martin Taylor
Community Journalist

Orcas Island Rowing (OIR) junior team traveled to Vancouver, Wash. for the NW Regionals regatta that took place May 18 through 20. It was three days of intense racing. OIR was in 16 events that qualified them to compete in four final races.

The races take place over a 2000-meter buoyed course with seven lanes — intense head-to-head racing over a gut-busting distance.

One of the boys, Jake Zier, took a bronze medal coming third in his final and that qualified him to go to the US Rowing junior “Nationals” regatta in Oak Ridge, Tenn, from June 8 through June 10.

This was one of the most successful Regionals ever for Orcas. They took home medals from several events. Garett Pietsch & Jay Zier took home gold medals for first place in the final of the “2nd boys varsity double”s event. Liam Nutt & Sky Bear Aguilar took home bronze medals for third place in their “timed final” of the “novice boys double” event. Devon Mann got a bronze medal for third place in the “girls lightweight single” event.

Then there was the “high school eight” which is an extra fun event. It isn’t a qualifier event for “Nationals” but costumes are encouraged. This is a special event for the Orcas crew as they never otherwise get to row in an “eight” and they rarely get to “sweep” row (where each rower has one oar each instead of “sculling” where each has two oars). One of the rowers Jay Zier was sweep rowing for the first time, so his training consisted of the warmup row to the start line. The Orcas boat also had two novice rowers: Liam Nutt and Sky Bear Aguilar. Orcas got to row in a very nice $40,000 new boat loaned to them by Vancouver Lake Crew, the local rowing team. Amazingly they took 2nd place and silver medals in their “timed final”. That equated to 7th overall out of 12, but still a great performance, and a true “blast” for the Orcas rowers.

Congratulations to the entire team on a very successful regatta. This is a close- knit coed team that trains together five days a week, typically starting at 6 in the morning before school. They all enjoy each others success and support each other through the tough times.

Head coach Tina Brown and co-captain Max Blackadar are training with Jake for Natonals and will both be traveling with him for the three day event in Tennessee. Jake will have to row in at least three intense 2k races and possibly four on his way to the finals. At that level of competition that will be tough! Not to mention it will be 85 to 90 degrees at the course.

You can follow along with the training and preparations leading up to the event as well as live reporting from the course by watching the Orcas Island Rowing blog at https://orcasislandrowing.org/blog or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/orcasrowing.