RFH Girls Crew Varsity Boat Heads to Nationals

A team of high school girls from Rumson-Fair Haven (RFH)  Crew has advanced to compete in the National Championships Regatta of the Scholastic Rowing Association of America on Memorial Day weekend on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, NJ. The two-day SRRA National Championships began in 1935, and have been held every year since.

It is the first time ever that a boat from Rumson or Fair Haven has qualified to compete at a National Championship. The RFH Crew team will be racing against teams from the Midwest, Florida, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania as well as others from New Jersey. The winners of the regatta will be the 2011 North American Champions.

The athletes for the RFH Crew Womens Senior 4+ team are Juniors Tessa Liberi, Mercy Lister, Grace Mullan, Claire Walsh, and Senior Sophia Minassian (coxswain), with alternates Hope Knochenhauer (rower) and Shannon Swikart (coxswain).

This is the third spring season that Liberi, Lister, Mullan, Walsh and Minassian have rowed as teammates. The team conditioned all wintert with morning work outs at 5:00 a.m. before school on the ergs (stationary rowing machines) so they would be ready for the racing season. 

The team members, all students at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, finished a strong season on Saturday, May 14th, when they took second place in the Girls Varsity 4+ at the Noxontown Regatta #5 at St. Andrews School in Middletown, Delaware. By then, they had already qualified for the SRAA National Championship with their performance at the Garden State Scholastic Championship on April 30th.

RFH Crew is an independent rowing club for high school students from the towns of Rumson and Fair Haven. The club is run by the Rumson Fair Haven Rowing Foundation, formerly the booster organization for the crew team of Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School.

The club secured equipment, several area sponsors, and a stellar coaching staff of Shauna O’Donnell, Kathy Richardson and Mike Owdij. Fair Haven Yacht Works graciously hosts the RFH Crew team which rows on the Navesink River. Approximately 50 athletes - from novice to advanced - have trained and competed this spring for RFH Crew in a number of regattas.