Local Junior Rowers Head to U.S. Nationals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOULDER – For the first time in team history, three rowers from Colorado Junior Crew have qualified to row in the USRowing Youth National Championship. High school juniors Matthew Toles (Niwot High School), Zander Maitland (Fairview High School) and Saylor Strugar (Fairview) will compete June 10-12, 2016 at Mercer Lake Marina near Princeton, New Jersey against rowers representing more than 200 junior rowing teams from across the United States.

All three scullers earned their bids to US Nationals after competing in the Mountain West Youth Regional Championship in Park City, Utah last month. Toles and Maitland will compete in the Men’s Lightweight Youth Double and Strugar will row in the Women’s Youth Single. They are coached by Breckenridge resident Marika Page, a former member of the Women’s National Team and coach/consultant for several college teams including MIT, Bucknell University, and Harvard. Since qualifying for nationals, the athletes have participated in daily multiple-practice sessions on Boulder Reservoir and Lake Dillon in preparation for their events which begin with time trials on Friday. The Youth National Championship is sanctioned by USRowing, a nonprofit membership organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the national governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States.

Colorado Junior Crew was started in 2007 and calls Boulder Reservoir home. The club trains young athletes, ages 13-18, year-round in both sculling and sweep rowing. With more than 60 active members from 19 middle and high schools throughout Boulder, St. Vrain Valley, and Jeffco School Districts, CJC is the largest youth rowing program in Colorado. Learn-to-Row summer programs as well as training for experienced junior rowers is offered throughout the summer at Boulder Reservoir. Find out more about Colorado Junior Crew and summer sessions at www.cjcrew.org.