M-A grad Will Carhart is part of winning team at US Rowing Youth National Championship

A rowing team from Norcal Crew is the national champion in the lightweight four with coxswain event, winning the gold medal at the US Rowing Youth National Championship at Lake Natoma, CA, last month.

Will Carhart (a graduated senior from Menlo-Atherton High School), Misha Hindery, Marcelo Buxton, Chris Skokowski, (all three are rising seniors at Palo Alto High School) and Miles Bowman (a graduated senior from Aragon High School) defeated a field of 21 boats from across the United States to win the national title.

In the six boat final, Norcal defeated Los Gatos Rowing (silver medal) and S.A.C./Capital (bronze medal) with a winning time of 7:11:757. Norcal had a remarkable race and defeated the other crews by more than a boat length of open water, repeating their margin from the qualifying heat on Friday and semi-final on Saturday. In a 2,000 meter race, Norcal took the lead during the first three hundred meters of the race and steadily increased their winning margin.

Nathan Walker coached the boys’ crew. This is Coach Walker’s second Youth National Championship in two years. Last year, he coached the Norcal lightweight girls to the lightweight double national championship.

Norcal Crew had two other boats compete at the US Rowing Youth National Championship. Katie Kelly (a graduated senior from Menlo-Atherton High School) finished six in the Grand Final of the women’s youth single, out of an overall field of 14 boats. Alex Warner (a graduated senior from Palo Alto High School) and Janet Titzler (a graduated senior from Gunn High School) finished third in the B final of the women’s youth lightweight double, for ninth place out of a field of 21 boats.