Woodlands rowers rank in nationals

Rowing Club of The Woodlands ranked 11th in the nation

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- Rowing Club of The Woodlands Juniors (RCTWJ) qualified two rowers to compete at the US Rowing Youth Nationals held June 10-12 on Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, TN. The journey to the US Rowing Youth National Championships started a year ago. The Championships features more than 1,500 athletes from high school and junior rowing programs across the country competing for national titles in 18 classes.

Last year RCTW Juniors qualified four rowers and one of the other members of the team went as support. From that experience, he started on his quest to see if he could make it to Youth Nationals. Together with his doubles partner they accepted the challenge put forth by the coaches and started training. Getting to that level where you compete in a sport as difficult and as physically demanding as rowing 2,000 meters against the best high school rowers from the USA takes you into unknown territory. Thomas Eastwick and Hugo Gomez pushed themselves harder than anything they ever had before and then head Coach Leonard Anderson and assistant coach Mike Rosman pushed them even harder. Thomas and Hugo worked for hours perfecting their rowing stroke skills and then more hours and many kilometers working on endurance and boat speed.

At times the coaches wondered if they could get Eastwick and Gomez to nationals with only one year of dedicated work. Eastwick has been rowing for RCTW Juniors for 4 years but didn't have a regular doubles partner and wasn't able to put in the time and hard work until Hugo came along. Hugo started rowing last year. Together they decided to devote this past year to the task. It paid off. They won their event at our qualifying regatta held in Oklahoma City.

In the first heat in Oak Ridge they found out just how fast the field was; these were the best high school rowers from the US. The heat winners went straight to the semi finals and all others had to row in the repechages to get into the semis. In Thomas and Hugo's repechage, they rowed as well as they had in any regatta this past year and qualified for the semi finals. They really didn’t know what they were capable of until that point. From the semis they qualified to compete in the Petite Finals and finished fifth. Over three days, Thomas and Hugo competed in four 2000 meter races against the best high school rowers from the US and did very well for their first trip to Youth Nationals.

Eastwick is going to continue rowing in college and hopefully Gomez will continue to improve and qualify next year to compete again in the US Rowing Youth Nationals. He knows he will need to work hard and focus on rowing as if nothing else matters or he won't get back.

“It is tough going from uncontested in the region to competition that doesn’t yield. The water was awesome. We were as prepared as we could be without any prior national’s experience. I’m ready to go back these next two years and win,” Gomez said. “When I tell Hugo he can do anything anyone else can do he knows it takes more than just desire, it takes a lot of dedicated work,” said head coach Leonard Anderson.

"Competing at the national level for rowing has been my dream for a very long time and I was not disappointed. The competition was fierce and challenging," said Eastwick. "My doubles partner, Hugo Gomez, and I are very pleased to have done so well competing against the fastest boats in the nation. And it was a blast!"

Located at North shore Park in The Woodlands, the club is dedicated to the advancement of rowing and is a registered member of the United States Rowing Association (US Rowing), the national governing body for the sport in the US. Established in 1882, US Rowing is America's oldest amateur sports association. Open to high school students from The Woodlands High School, College Park High School, Oak Ridge High School, John Cooper School, Woodlands Preparatory Academy as well as to homeschoolers, we provide training in the sport of rowing and compete in both head races as well as regattas. Rowing Club of The Woodlands, Inc. is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation.