Rising sophomore Graham Richardson won three races during Ridgewood Crew’s 2025 summer season, the last of which was a historic gold medal in the Mens Under 17 singles event at the prestigious Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in St. Catharines, Canada. (Photo credit: Mark Riedel)
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Crew scored the first international gold medal in its 21-year history to cap off a 2025 summer rowing season that saw standout performances — and 15 top-three finishes — across two regattas in New Jersey and Canada.
The team’s second and final competition of the summer took place in early August at the 141st Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in St. Catharines, Ontario. This six-day regatta, on a 2,000-meter course, featured some of the best rowers from around the world and this year included more than 3,000 competitors from 129 clubs across nine countries. Ridgewood fielded 19 boats and brought 23 athletes to the event, a record number for the club.
As it turned out, Ridgewood’s last race of the regatta, in the Mens Under 17 Singles final, was among its most exciting and historic. After cruising to victories in his initial heat race and semifinal earlier in the week, rising sophomore Graham Richardson jumped out to another fast start in the Saturday final and set a torrid pace through the first 1,500 meters. One challenger made a late push but could not dent Ridgewood’s one-boat margin lead, and Richardson ultimately secured a wire-to-wire win (7:04.700). It was Ridgewood Crew’s first-ever victory in international competition.
“Our team just had one of its most successful summer seasons ever,” said Head Coach Boris Roque-Alvarez. “We had everyone from young novices to rising seniors and even some returning alumni achieving personal bests and winning races against stiff competition. And this win at a prestigious regatta like the Henley just proves how far our program has come and how talented these rowers are.”
As a testament to that depth, more than half of Ridgewood’s boats qualified for semifinals at the Henley, which required finishing in the top two or three of an initial heat race out of six or seven entries. To make the finals, boats once again had to finish in the top two or three of the semis.
In all, Ridgewood sent three boats through to the Henley finals. Besides his singles win, Richardson also served as the stroke seat for a Ridgewood U17 Quad boat that claimed second place overall (6:47.010). He was joined in the boat by fellow rising sophomores David Pasternak and Kai Bissie, and rising junior Atticus Smith.
Rising sophomores Graham Richardson, David Pasternak, and Kai Bissie along with rising junior Atticus Smith claimed second place in the Mens U17 quad race at the 141st Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, in St. Catharines, Canada. (Photo credit: Mark Riedel)
Ridgewood’s third finalist in Canada came in the U23 Lightweight Singles race, where Michael Balsamo finished fifth on a blustery day against a strong headwind (7:55.490).
Other notable team performances at the Henley included the Mens U19 Quad featuring rising junior Tristan Riedel, rising seniors Will Nasr and Sam Scharfenberg, and recent 2025 graduate Lucas Evers. This crew just missed the finals in a photo finish, coming in a mere .11 seconds behind the second-place boat in a hard-fought semifinal where just 1.5 seconds separated first from third (6:07.800).
The Henley represented the last Ridgewood Crew race for Evers, who will now be rowing for Drexel University, as well as for recent 2025 graduate Julie Smith, who competed in the Women’s U19 single and will now be rowing for Sacred Heart University.
Rising freshman Jaya Suri claimed two second-place finishes at the 2025 Overpeck Summer Sprints, and raced her way into the semifinals in the Womens U17 Singles race at the 141st Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, in St. Catharines, Canada. (Photo credit: Mark Riedel)
Rising freshman Jaya Suri, fresh off a top 10 finish at the USRowing Youth Nationals two months earlier, also showed off her skills in the Henley’s Womens U17 Singles event, which had a massive field of 67 competitors to start. She fell just short of qualifying for the medal race, coming in third in one of the event’s three semifinals (8:19.680).
The team also enjoyed some reflected glory at the Henley thanks to former Ridgewood Crew rower Sam van Adrichem Boogaert. A Ridgewood class of 2023 graduate who now rows at Skidmore College during the academic year, Boogaert claimed second in the Mens U23 Singles final and grabbed gold in the Mens U23 Quad event racing for the Green Racing Project.
At the race, Boogaert was also reunited with his former Ridgewood teammate and 2023 alum Nate Harris. Now entering his junior year rowing at Northeastern, Harris returned to Ridgewood to serve as an assistant coach for the team’s 2025 summer season.
At the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, Ridgewood Crew Head Coach Boris Roque-Alvarez (left), Ridgewood Crew rising sophomore and 2025 Mens U17 Singles champion Graham Richardson (center left), former Ridgewood Crew rower and 2025 Mens U23 Quad champion Sam van Adrichem Boogaert (center), former Ridgewood Crew rower and summer 2025 Assistant Coach Nate Harris (center right) and Assistant Coach Bob O’Connor. (Photo credit: Reed Richardson)
Ridgewood Crew kicked off its summer competition with a dominant performance at the Overpeck Summer Sprints in Leonia, New Jersey, in late July. In all, the team sent 15 boats through to the A finals, earning 13 medals overall, including four golds.
The two-day Overpeck regatta included 566 entries from 47 clubs across the northeast and mid-Atlantic regtions, with events split between youth races on Saturday and masters races on Sunday. Competitors in the U17 and up categories competed in 2000-meter time trials and finals while U15 and novice rowers had single, 1000-meter flights.
Ridgewood’s first medal of the day came in the Mens U17 2x event, where David Pasternak and Atticus Smith teamed up to grab silver (7:31.907). The pair were later joined by Graham Richardson and Kai Bissie for the Mens U17 4x event, where the group easily cruised through the time trial and then took home the gold with a 15-second margin of victory in the final (6:41.621).
Richardson and Bissie also did double duty, racing in the Mens U17 1x event. There, the pair went one-two in the time trial and then claimed gold and bronze, respectively, in the final (7:33.661, 7:54.688).
Ridgewood also placed two on the podium in the Mens Open 1x final, as Michael Balsamo and Charlie Latimer came in second and third, respectively (7:16.473, 7:27.559).
In the Womens U17 1x event, Jaya Suri claimed silver in a final (8:32.083) where the top two rowers dominated, both of them finishing more than 30 seconds ahead of the bronze medalist.
Suri also joined rising freshman Lucia Krauza in the Girls U15 2x race, where the pair came in second, racing over 1000 meters (4:21.469). This event marked Krauza’s debut rowing race.
Ridgewood enjoyed success in the doubles events throughout the regatta.
In the Mens Open 2x event, Balsamo and Latimer joined forces and easily bested the field, taking home the gold (6:51.495). Their counterparts in the Womens Open 2x event, Ridgewood class of 2024 graduates Anais and Elsa Friedrich, raced their way to a silver medal (7:58.409).
Among the upperclassmen races, rising seniors James Ryan and Daniel Hept finished first in the Mens U19 Lightweight 2x event (7:27.546).
Ridgewood just missed a full sweep of the podium in the Mens U19 2x event, with its three boats finishing second, third, and fourth in the event’s A final. Lucas Evers and Will Nasr took home the silver (6:56.198), Sam Scharfenberg and Tristan Riedel the bronze (7:02.704), and rising seniors Luciano Saladino and Michael Shkop came in fourth (7:09.053).
Those silver and bronze medal 2x crews came together to take home the silver in the Mens U19 4x final (6:30.903), while the Saladino and Shkop joined up the Ligthtweidt duo of Ryan and Hept to claim fourth place in the A final (6:56.441).
The crew of Ridgewood’s Mens U19 4x boat featuring Lucas Evers, Will Nasr, Tristan Riedel, and Uhmjoo Han won two medals each at the 2025 Overpeck Summer Sprints. The groups came in second in the quad final and then Nasr and Evers claimed silver, while Scharfenberg and Riedel took bronze racing in the Mens U19 2x event. (Photo credit: Mark Riedel)
Full times and results for Ridgewood Crew at the 2025 Overpeck Summer Sprints (https://legacy.herenow.com/results/#/races/21357/results) and the 2025 Royal Canadian Henley Regatta (https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2?job_id=9649&org_id=0).
In the program’s 20-year history, Ridgewood Crew rowers have competed and excelled in both national and international competitions and its athletes have attracted interest from top rowing colleges and universities around the country. Ridgewood Crew offers several ways for you to experience our mission: join the team, volunteer, or donate. Student athlete programs begin with Learn-To-Row for middle schoolers. For more information contact Ridgewood Crew at http://www.ridgewoodcrew.com.
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