Racing Starts at the 2026 USRowing Youth National Championships

The USRowing Youth National Championships are officially underway at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. 

Almost nine hundred boats took to the water today to begin the journey to the podium, starting with the time trials. In a time trial, boats go down the race course one at a time. The objective is to post the fastest time possible, as trial results determine seeding for the next two days of racing. For all events (including those with fewer than 16 entries), the top 16 finishers will advance to tomorrow’s A/B semifinal in hopes of getting a spot in Sunday’s A finals. Finishers 17-24 will head to Saturday’s C finals, and the remainder will head to D finals, which will also be held on Saturday.

The morning started strong with the men’s and women’s youth single sculls. In the women’s youth single sculls, Shay Triepel from Coastal Virginia Community Rowing (Virginia Beach, Vir.)  had a great race, finishing five seconds faster than second place. Similarly, in the men’s youth pair, Miami Rowing and Watersports Center (Miami, Fla.) had a demanding win in their time trial with a margin of over eight seconds, and the Women’s Youth Quad, where Los Gatos Rowing Club (Los Gatos, Calif.) finished almost ten seconds ahead of the next fastest boat.

In the open gender youth double, Star Rowing Center (Derby, Conn.) finished ahead of River City Rowing Club (West Sacramento, Calif.) by just a hair with a margin of 0.46 seconds. All of the crews from this race will be heading to the A/B semifinals tomorrow, so they will get a chance to face off in head-to-head racing.

The most exciting result of the day came from the Men’s Youth eight where Marin Rowing Association (Greenbrae, Calif.) finished ahead of Deerfield Academy Crew (Deerfield, Mass.) by only 0.01 second. Both crews were closely followed by Norcal Crew, who finished 1.8 seconds behind the top two finishers.

Tomorrow promises another full day of competitive racing. Action begins at 7 a.m. with eight time trials that were postponed due to weather. The first A/B semifinal of the day, the men's single sculls, is scheduled to start at 8:17 a.m.

Saturday’s schedule also includes U16/U17 B finals along with C and D finals. Racing concludes on Sunday with A finals and the remaining B finals, bringing the championship weekend to a close.

The Graduation Ceremony is rescheduled for tomorrow evening. It will take place at 6:30 PM at Nathan Benderson Park. All families, teammates, spectators, and supporters are welcome to attend. 776BC Co-founder and two-time Olympian and 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist in the Australian Men’s 4-, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, will be giving the keynote commencement address. 

Racing will be streamed live on Overnght.com. Results will be available here.