Kelli Saunders
Staff Writer
The Marina Aquatic Center Junior Rowing team (MAC) will be attending the National Rowing Championships on June 10 in West Windsor, New Jersey. There will be two teams, the Varsity 8 Lightweight, consisting of girls who weigh in below 130 pounds, and Varsity 8 Openweight, with girls of any weight. The two teams will be traveling to compete in this regatta, which is a series of boat races.
“We are all super excited to be able to compete here,” Mira Costa junior Tori Delvalle said. “We have been working so hard as a team and can’t wait to give it our all.”
The Princeton National Rowing Association is partnering with USRowing to host the Youth National Championships. The MAC Junior Rowing team will be competing against a wide variety of teams from all over the United States.
“Nationals is the biggest regatta I have ever been too,” junior Abby Blair said. “It is super fun to compete at such a high level in a new place.”
The team consists of girls from schools all over the south bay with varying years of experience, but consistent skill levels. The team qualified for nationals by taking 3rd at the Southwest Regionals on Lake Natoma in Gold River, California on May 6th.
“At the Southwest Regionals my team and I pulled as hard as we could so we could continue on to nationals,” Blair said. “All of the long hours and grueling workouts were all worth it for that one moment and we were so excited to earn an extra month of training.”
The team has been preparing for this regatta by having nine to ten practices weekly. They train at the Marina del Rey boathouse, where they have a double practice made up of training in the morning and after school three days per week.
“Having two practices per day helps us to build our strength as a team so that we will be able to compete against our opponents at nationals,” Delvalle said. (replace with coach)
The team’s workouts consist of one intense workout on the water before school and one technique-building lower intensity workout after school. A normal high intensity workout starts off with 30-40 minutes of drills and then they transition into the workout, which varies from day to day.
“After a workout I am so exhausted, but then the endorphins kick in and it feels amazing,” Delvalle said. “The sense of accomplishment I get from being able to put myself through that is what motivates me for practice the next day.”
After nationals the girls will be parting ways to either move on to college or participate in various summer programs. Delvalle will be rowing with a club and Blair will be training at her boathouse in Marina del Rey.
“Over the summer all of us are going to train really hard to come back stronger for the next year,” Delvalle said. “We all want to get better so we can go to nationals again.”
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