EVERETT, JUNE 9: An upstart crew of Everett rowers, short on experience but long on enthusiasm, chases a national championship opportunity this week at the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida.
The four team rowers, Kayleigh Baker, Kiri Withington, Adeline Palmiter and Ruby Eagan-Heffernan, power the shell directed by coxswain, Aurora O’Brien.
The U-17 team qualified for nationals in May by winning second place in their division at the Northwest Youth Regional Championships in Vancouver, Wash. involving 28 teams and more than 600 entries from across the Pacific Northwest.
Thursday, June 11 in Florida, the Everett Rowing Association U-17s grip the oars for a time trial that will determine if they make the top 16 on the national stage and advance to the semi-finals on Friday. They’re competing against 22 other teams for a time trial spot in the top 16.
“The (national) qualification of these young athletes is a testament to the staggering amount of work they put in to get here,” Jon Campaña, Executive Director of the ERA told EverettPost.com
“These young women,” Campaña added, “demonstrated that with hard work, determination, and teamwork you can make it to the most competitive regatta in the country in your very first year.”
The journey, says 10th grader, Kayleigh Baker, began at the team’s first race in March this year at Greenlake in Seattle, “We went to Green Lake, which is a smaller regatta…and we rowed faster than we expected to. So, we thought, ‘oh, this could be like something that we could end up doing at regionals’.”
As belief and future possibilities started to grow, Baker explains, “Towards the end of the season, we seat race for it, which determines who’s in the bow (or critical seat position within the shell) kind of like an audition. And that’s just how we made the boat (4-person team).”
According to coaches, a seat race is a highly structured on-the-water selection trial utilized to determine the fastest crew combinations. By methodically swapping athletes between two boats over several race pieces, coaches measure how individual rowers alter the overall boat speed, allowing them to objectively compare athletes.
One of the fastest rowers turned out to be 8th grader, Ruby Eagan-Heffernan. “I was originally going to join the middle school team”, Eagan-Heffernan tells EverettPost.com, “but the coaches there told me that they needed more novices on the high school team, and considering that I knew the training would be more (significant), and I already had an athletic background. I wanted to do that team that would challenge me more.”
Eagan-Heffernan had been a distance runner for school teams prior to joining crew, saying “Apparently distance runners make good rowers”. She ran cross-country and track, explaining, “Aside from the occasional relays, track is, they’re both very individual sports. Then it (rowing) was a much more technical sport. Running is just a natural movement. Your body kind of knows how to run, but rowing is completely new. I had to figure out how to do this thing. That didn’t seem what I like, what my body would want to do. So I had to learn all that, but that was all right.”
The Northwest Youth Regional Championship last month on Lake Vancouver served as the entry point to this national competition, says Baker. “Going into it, we haven’t practiced this boat a bunch before regionals, and we just went into the time trials, which determines where we are in the final heats, not really knowing where we would place. And we just said, ‘okay, let’s just go out there and have some fun and go fast’. So, we ended up placing third in the time trials.”
Baker elaborates, “And then, for the finals, we started off up in the race, which was good with one (boat) ahead of us, and we just held it like that. The whole race.” That one boat out front was a swift Sammamish team, but Baker says, “We knew Sammamish was gonna go. So we just focused on beating the two other boats that were close to us.”
When they clinched second place, Baker says, “We were all just really happy and excited and it was just like a great experience, a lot of jumping around and hugs.”
Baker is one of the veterans on the young squad, now rowing in her third year, saying, “It’s been really fun”, alluding to the younger teammates, “because they have a fresh perspective on everything and coming into the sport, they just want to have fun and pull hard, and they’re not like really concerned a bunch, and it’s just been a really great energy to have around and to experience.”
The youngest member is coxswain, Aurora O’Brien, a 6th grader, who says her interest in rowing began with her older brother. “So my brother, he used to talk to me all the time about rowing because he’s on the guy’s team,” O’Brien begins. “I was, like, oh, I don’t think I’m interested in that until one night he started talking about someone who was a cox (coxswain) and I was, like, oh, what’s the cox then?”
Her curiosity piqued, she says, “And he told me all the stuff about the coxswains. I was like that would be fun, and he said there was a day that you could bring a friend in, so he brought me and I was gonna be on the guy’s team originally, but then I joined the girl’s team, and I learned a lot, and I found it most comfortable for me, so that’s where I started.”
The coxswain is the only crew member that doesn’t have an oar in the boat. O’Brien uses a microphone and speaker to communicate to the rowers to keep them in synch and power the shell as efficiently as possible. “A lot of the time it’s about being a part of their team, also being kind of like a family. But also making sure they understand you (speaking strategy to them) and where everybody sits in that boat.”
The 2026 USRowing Youth National Championships bring together the nation’s top youth rowing programs. This year’s regatta is expected to feature 238 teams and more
than 800 entries from across the country.
Campaña credits Varsity Women’s Head Coach Mallory Potts and Novice Women’s Lead Coach, Matthew Lacey, with the U-17 four’s ascent. “The achievement reflects a strong culture of athlete development within the program”, he says, adding, “competing against older and more experienced crews throughout the season, ERA’s athletes have continued to demonstrate composure, resilience, and maturity.”
Baker sums up the national championship chase, “I just want to mainly have fun and compete, knowing that we’ve done our best and just leaving it all out on the water.”
Founded in 1984, Everett Rowing Association, has programs for athletes of all ages and experience levels to promote leadership, teamwork, and community while creating opportunities for individuals throughout Snohomish County to experience the sport of rowing.
Click the photos below to see pictures of the shell house and the preparation that goes into a U-17 practice session.
