Ridgewood Crew swept the medals in the Boys Freshman 2k race (left to right): Coach Bob,O’Connor, Kai Bissie (2nd place), Graham Richardson (1st place), David Pasternak (3rd place), Head Coach Boris Roque-Alvarez. Photo Credit: Reed Richardson
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Lyndhurst NJ, Ridgewood Crew flipped its race-day switch to fast at the 2025 Winter Watt Farm erg race on Saturday. Racing in its home boathouse, the Bergen County Rowing Center, Ridgewood won five of its nine youth events and took home a combined nine medals overall. Both totals were the second-most among the 16 clubs competing. The indoor rowing event, hosted by the Passaic River Rowing Association, featured more than 300 rowers from middle school to masters categories, competing individually on erg machines.
Home Cookin’: Ridgewood Crew scored five golds and nine medals overall at the 2025 Winter Watt Farm Regatta
“As our second indoor erg competition of the year, this was a great benchmark to measure our progress and conditioning so far this winter,” said Ridgewood Crew head coach Boris Roque-Alvarez. “Our team really rose to the challenge, pushing themselves with very impressive performances across the board, but particularly among the younger athletes.”
Those standout performances by the team’s youngest members began with Ridgewood’s first race of the day, the Mens Middle School U14 1,000-meter race. In that competition, eighth-grader Graham Glidden was in fourth place after the first 250 meters, but slowly reeled in the leaders one by one. He finally took the lead with 130 meters left and pressed on the gas down the stretch to take the gold (3:45.7), winning by more than three seconds..
Two races later, Ridgewood made its most dominating statement of the day, sweeping the top three places in the Mens High School Freshman event, which featured 23 racers in total. In that 2,000-meter race, ninth-graders Graham Richardson and Kai Bissie took control and distanced themselves from the rest of the field by the halfway mark. Still essentially tied through the first 1,500 meters, the pair then kicked into an extra gear and sprinted to their fastest split of the race for the final 500 meters. In the end, Richardson cruised home to gold (6:53.7) with Bissie grabbing silver, finishing just a few seconds behind (6:56.2).
Fellow Ridgewood freshman teammate David Pasternak was locked in a close battle for third for much of the race, but he also turned on the speed at the end to take the bronze (7:06.9).
Eighth grader Jaya Suri completed Ridgewood’s sweep of the Middle School U14 races. In the 1,000-meter event, Suri edged the second-place rower by four seconds and finished just under the four-minute mark (3:58.2). Suri’s fellow Ridgewood teammates Sophia Velichkova and Lucia Krauza came in fourth (4:02.9) and fifth (4:07.7), respectively. This was Suri’s second consecutive win in this event, as she also took first place in 2024 as a seventh grader.
Ridgewood also swept the 2,000-meter Lightweight Youth races. In the Mens event, junior Luciano Saladino powered his way to an easy victory (7:02.1). After a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle for second, junior James Ryan took home the bronze (7:17.2), finishing less than a second behind the silver medalist.
Senior Julia Smith took the gold in the Womens Lightweight Youth race, pulling out to an early lead and winning easily by more than 18 seconds (8:26.2). Hers was the fastest time of the day for the Ridgewood women’s team.
The team’s final medalist of the day came in the Womens Novice Youth 2,000-meter event. There, junior Ilaria Cupi took on a field of 18 rowers and brought home the silver (8:31.8). Fellow newcomer Tinsley Loonam finished fourth (8:39.1).
Ridgewood Crew’s women’s team scored three medals at the 2025 Winter Watt Farm (from left to right): Jaya Suri (first place, Middle School); Julia Smith (first place, Youth Lightweight); and Ilaria Cupi (second place, Youth Novice). Photo Credit: Ilaria Cupi
Ninth grader Zurie Yela just missed the medal stand in the Womens Freshman race, coming in fourth (8:46.5).
Ridgewood’s fastest row of the day in the Mens category was pulled by senior Lucas Evers, who scored a new personal best and finished sixth in the Youth 2,000-meter race (6:45.8).
Full times and results for Ridgewood Crew at the 2025 Winter Watt Farm can be found at https://regatta.time-team.nl/wwf/2025/results/events.php.
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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