The 2026 USRowing Youth National Championship was an exposition of the best junior rowing in the United States. For Dallas United Crew it was a profound opportunity to line up against the best of the best- and show the depth, durability, and desire that our athletes have been honing all year long. Two national Final A’s. Seven events in the championship weekend bracket. A 5th-place national finish in the Women’s U16 4x+. A Men’s U17 4+ racing on Sunday morning against the best Under-17 coxed fours in the country. And a story inside one of those boats that captures exactly what this program is building toward.

Outdoor racing in the Southeast comes with weather, and Sarasota delivered it — lightning delays that collapsed schedules and left crews waiting on and off the water with no clear answer to when the racing would resume. DUC’s athletes handled it the way well-prepared athletes do. When the horn sounded, they were ready.

That readiness doesn’t come from one week in Florida. It comes from the culture of doing the work. The athletes back home — everyone who trained alongside these crews, pushed them in practice, and built the culture that traveled to Sarasota in seven boats. This result belongs to all of them.

Thursday’s time trials opened the championship the way they always do — no excuses, no tactics, just each crew and the clock. All DUC entries pushed their paces, committed to their plans, and adapted to the course around them with the drive that makes rowers so famously tough. Five of the seven crews punched their tickets to the Semi-Finals- a guaranteed rank of top sixteen crews in the country.

The Women’s U16 4x+, coxed by Penelope Gorman, qualified cleanly and set up the race that would define DUC’s week. The Men’s U17 4+, coxed by Graham Ruibal, positioned themselves for a Sunday morning. The Women’s Youth 2V 8+, coxed by Katelyn Gerhardt, the Women’s U17 4+ coxed by Abby Goldman, the Men’s U16 8+, coxed by Aneesh Sai Koneru, the Men’s Youth 8+, coxed by Tyler Koo, and the Women’s Youth 8+, coxed by Mimi Tafel— all through to the weekend, all in the draw, all ready.

One of the athletes in the Women’s U16 4x+ came to Dallas United Crew through RowDallas — DUC’s outreach and development program at St. Philip’s School and Community Center in South Dallas. She joined the inclusive on-the-water program, developed her skills, and competed at the USRowing Central Regional Championships this spring — where she earned her boat’s qualification to Nationals on merit, against the field.

Then she went to Sarasota and raced in a Final A.

That arc — from RowDallas to a national championship final — is what intentional investment in athlete development looks like when it works all the way through.

On Friday, the Women’s U16 4x+ drew Semifinal 2 — eight boats, top four to Final A. Newport Sea Base. Marina Aquatic Center Junior Rowing. Port Rowing. Atomic

Rowing. No soft spots, no room for error.

Penelope Gorman called the race from the bow. At 1,000 meters DUC was sitting third, less than three seconds clear of Port Rowing in fourth. They held it. They raced the second half the way you race it when the preparation is real — and crossed third in Semifinal 2. Sunday morning. Final A. Top eight in the country secured.

Sunday morning at Nathan Benderson Park. The Women’s U16 4x+ Final A. Eight boats — Redwood Scullers, Newport Sea Base, Marina Aquatic Center, Los Gatos, Maritime, Miami, Port Rowing — and Dallas United Crew, with a RowDallas athlete in one of the seats.

The race ran tight through every meter of it. At 1,000 meters DUC was in the lead pack, racing with the composure of a crew that had been in hard races before and knew how to hold. Through the second half — no one passed them.

At the line: 5th in the nation. 7:54.51. Three-tenths of a second to 4th. 6.90 seconds to the national champion. A Final A decided in fractions, and DUC in the middle of it from start to finish.

Then, twenty minutes later, Graham Ruibal coxed the Men’s U17 4+ into their own Final A — against Eugene Rowing Club, Newport Aquatic Center, The Bolles School, Saugatuck, Row New Jersey, and Belen Jesuit — and brought them home 7th in the nation in the Men’s Under-17 coxed four. Two Final A’s. Back to back. Sunday morning in Sarasota.

The rest of the weekend finals told the same story in different boat classes.

The Women’s Youth 2V 8+, stroked by Brenda Nolan, competed in Final B against Green Lake Crew, Winter Park, Oakland Strokes, Saugatuck, Newport Aquatic Center, and St. Andrew Rowing Club — a national championship weekend final earned through a week of racing that included weather holds and shifting schedules that never rattled this crew.

The Men’s U16 8+, bowed by Weston Alexander, reached Final B and finished 5th, 13th in the nation in a field of 24 under-16 eights. These are some of the youngest athletes DUC brought to Sarasota, and they raced in a national Final B. The pipeline is producing at every level.

The Women’s U17 4+, coxed by Abby Goldman, competed in Final B, finishing 8th, coached by Cherie Farmer, whose program placed boats in two national finals this week including the women’s quad that went 5th in the country.

The Men’s Youth 8+, stroked by Rohan Nijhawan, reached Final C and finished 7th, racing hard in one of the deepest open eight fields in American youth rowing under Coach Ben Williams, who managed the full men’s program across a weekend that tested everyone’s patience and preparation.

The Women’s Youth 8+, stroked by Diana Farnworth, finished 4th in Final D, racing to the last stroke of their season against Austin Rowing Club, Pelham Community Rowing, St. Louis, Rose City, West Side, and Ursuline Academy of Dallas.

This is what a program with depth looks like. Not one boat, one age group, one result, seven events, seven finals, two Final A’s, athletes at every level competing on the national stage and coming home with results that mean something.

To Coaches Williams, Chan, Farmer, and Lavandera, thank you for preparing these athletes to perform when it counted. To Ken Brown, who trailered the boats to Florida and made sure not a single crew ever had to think about whether their equipment was ready, this program runs because you make it run. To the DUC parents and families who made the trip possible and cheered from the shore through every delay and every race, it was felt. And to every athlete back home whose work in the boat and on the water built the culture these crews carried to Sarasota, this result is yours too.

The work that produced a 5th-place national finish and two Final A appearances in 2026 is the same work that starts again on White Rock Lake this fall. The standard is set. The program knows exactly what it is capable of.

See you on the water.