Two National Championship wins on June 9, 2024 marks a total of 13 National Championship wins for the programs history book!
The hardware, trophies and pearly whites were on full display on Sunday. The Darien natives and incoming Dartmouth University Freshman Caroline Krantz and Annika Nelson brought home a 2 peat in the 2- race! Together they have raced the 2- at Nationals three times (medaling each year but with a gold medal in 2023 and now 2024). It should be no surprise that the 4- is the exact rowers that won the prestigious Head of the Charles regatta in October. The 4- was led by Caroline and Annika, the bow pair Sophie Bell and Callaghan Nickerson. This was sadly the crews last race all together after nearly two years of racing and training together.
Krantz summarized her 2024 Nationals experience, “The best way to describe today was gritty- being able to win two national championships in one morning was hard but one of the most rewarding experiences. In our pair race, Annika and I’s goal was to finish first with the least amount of effort possible. We were up and out off the start which allowed for us to settle into a competitive but relatively controlled base. We ended up finishing the race first- we were definitely tired and had worked hard, but we had some gas left in the tank for us to attack the four. Annika and I then spent around thirty minutes recovering in Liz’s car with the AC blasting while Sophie and Callie got the four ready to race. In our four race, we were pretty much down by open water until 500 meters to go. Being down for most of the race didn’t scare us though- we were confident that when it was time for the sprint we would be able to push forward. That’s exactly what happened- we took a big push coming through the 500 and in 20 strokes walked through Rye. We ended up finishing first with open water. It was such a fun day being able to accomplish something amazing with my best friends. It was very bittersweet being our last CBC race ever, but I couldn’t have asked for a better last race.”
The Sunday finals racing continued with CBC’s quad finishing 10th in the country! On Saturday’s finals CBC had some strong finishes in the largest National Championship Regatta to date. Both the U17 4+ and U16 4x+ finished 13th in the country! Our strong and mighty U17 4x finished 22nd in the country!
What an incredible academic calendar yearly of racing it has been for the entire CBC squad. If you are interested in joining the team, please feel free to reach out! You could be the next CBC National Champion.
