LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Oakland Strokes Athletes medal at Head of the Charles Regatta


From left: Kate Miles (8 - Campolindo HS), Martha Yates (7- Acalanes HS), Amanda Alessandria (6 - Campolindo HS), Bridget O'Kelly (5- College Preparatory School), Caroline Ricksen (coxswain - Miramonte HS), Lilly Mei (Dougherty Valley HS), Anna Elmgren (Oakland Tech HS), Sarah Coufal (2- Miramonte HS) and Caroline Birdsall (1 - San Ramon Valley HS) Photo Renata Sos

It was another successful year for the Oakland Strokes youth rowing club at the Head of the Charles fall rowing classic in Boston, coming away with a third and a fifth place in the Youth Women's and Youth Men's V8+ and with both teams breaking previous course records.

Attracting Olympians, world champions and international athletes of all ages, the Head of the Charles Regatta is the world's largest two-day rowing event with over 11,000 athletes from around the world competing.

Against stiff competition from 85 of the top high school rowing teams from North America and the UK, the athletes once again demonstrated the strength of the Oakland Strokes program, with eight Lamorinda athletes in the lineup.

The women's team put on a powerful display to capture the bronze medal, navigating the winding three-mile course to post a time of 16.35.5, beating the previous course record by an impressive 14 seconds.

Their head coach, Allison Dobb Ray, noted: "Achieving a top three finish in such a competitive field with the top five crews beating the previous course record is an outstanding achievement. The result was fantastic, but it's how we achieved it that is most fulfilling. How hard the V8+ trained, how focused they remained despite the air quality limiting the final weeks of practice, and how bought in they were to the process is what we are most proud of."

The Women's Varsity 8+ was crewed by Kate Miles (Campolindo HS), Martha Yates (Acalanes HS), Caroline Birdsall (San Ramon Valley HS), Amanda Alessandria (Campolindo HS) Sarah Coufal (Miramonte HS), Anna Elmgren (Oakland Tech HS) Lilly Mei (Dougherty Valley High School), Bridget O'Kelly (College Preparatory School) and Caroline Ricksen (Miramonte HS) coxswain.

The quality of the competition and excellent course conditions were also on show in the Men's Varsity 8+ competition, where the Oakland Strokes men gained fifth place, again beating the previous course record.

"The boys rowed a solid race, three seconds under the previous record. Unfortunately, on Sunday you had to go 35 seconds under the record to win. With three of last year's winners aboard it was a disappointing result, but we know that it's early in the year and there is plenty of work left to be done. We are looking forward to improving our speed through the rest of the fall and preparing ourselves well for a productive winter," said Men's Head Coach Brian de Regt.

The Men's Varsity 8+ boat comprised Kai Hoite (Berkeley HS), Noah Kim (Independent Charter High School), Spencer Dettlinger (San Ramon Valley HS), John Mark Ozaeta (Miramonte HS), Cameron Kumagai (Acalanes HS) Andrew Simpson (Berkeley High), Richard Reid (SJND) Jack Woll (College Preparatory School) and Audrey Gates (Miramonte HS) coxswain.