Ridgewood Crew Scores at the 2024 Haddon Hammer, Bringing Home Six Medals Including Two Golds

Will Nasr, left, posted the fastest 2000- meter time of any youth competitor at the 2024 Haddon Hammer, winning the Mens Junior Open. Sophomore

(Photo credits: John Nasr – Nasr Gold and Basheer Ali – Mincey Silver)

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Westmont NJ, Ridgewood Crew wrapped up its indoor rowing season with a sterling performance at the 2024 Haddon Hammer, earning six medals overall, including two golds. Hosted at Haddon Township High School, this event first began in 2010 and is billed as the New Jersey Indoor Rowing Championships. 

Ridgewood Crew head coach, Boris Roque-Alvarez, noted the team’s impressive history competing at this event and hailed the success of the team’s youngest rowers. “Ridgewood Crew’s performance at the Haddon Hammer was exceptional, with our younger athletes, from sophomores down to 8th graders, bringing home six medals, including two golds. Will Nasr’s third consecutive win underscores the high level of dedication and skill within our team. This achievement reflects the competitive spirit that is driving the team towards the beginning of the water season. I’m proud of every rower’s commitment and the results they’ve achieved.”

Sophomore Will Nasr delivered the most dominating individual performance of the day, and exemplified Ridgewood’s winning track record at the Haddon Hammer. On Sunday, in the last race of the day, he posted the fastest youth 2000-meter time of the entire meet (6:26.2), winning the Mens Junior Open race going away. This victory marked Nasr’s third straight year of taking home gold, as he won the Mens Middle School 1000-meter race in 2022 and the Mens Junior Novice race last year.

Ridgewood started off its podium finishes in the first event of the day, the Womens Junior Novice 2000-meter race. In it, sophomore Ryan Mincey (7:54.5) took home the lone medal for the Ridgewood Crew women’s team, coming in second. She was Ridgewood’s sole female competitor in this race featuring 31 total rowers.

It was the Mens Junior Novice 2000-meter race, however, where Ridgewood put on its best overall team performance of the day. In a race with 39 total rowers, Ridgewood scored two medals, had three finishers in the top four, and seven in the top 10. Freshman Tristan Riedel (7:03.7) led Ridgewood with a silver medal, and was followed to the finish less than a half-second later by sophomore teammate Michael Shkop (7:04.0). Sophomore Andrii Onichuk (7:06.6) took fourth. Freshmen Andrew Segura (7:23.3), Joshua Reynolds (7:24.7), and Chris Liang (7:25.8) were tightly clustered in sixth, seventh, and eighth places, respectively, while Oliver Ilin-Schneider (7:28.6) came in 10th.

Ryan Mincey, right, was the Ridgewood Crew’s highest female finisher, earning nsilver in the Womens Junior Novice race.

In the Womens Junior Lightweight 2000-meter race, twin sisters Anais Freidrich (8:23.4) and Elsa Friedrich (8:34.3) finished in eighth and 13th places, respectively. Aoife Ali (8:26.5) landed between the two seniors in 11th place.

Senior Daniel Kelly (7:04.4) just missed a medal in the Mens Lightweight 2000-meter race, coming in fourth. His time was just 1.1 seconds behind the bronze medal finisher. Uhmjoo Han (7:09.0) came in sixth, while Ridgewood teammates Henry Rivera (7:18.2) and James Ryan (7:19.4) raced neck and neck and side by side on adjacent rowing machines, finishing in 10th and 11th places, respectively.

The youngest competitors of the day rowed in the Middle School 1000-meter races. Ridgewood’s Valentina Pizza (4:13.3) and Jaya Suri (4:15.3) took sixth and seventh place in the Womens race. In the Mens Middle School race, eighth graders Graham Richardson (3:22.5) and Kai Bissie (3:25.0) dominated, sweeping gold and silver in the event and far outpacing the third-place competitor by nearly 30 seconds.

The penultimate youth race of the day, the Womens Junior Open 2000-meter race, saw Ridgewood sophomore Thelma Flowers (7:51.6) come in fifth overall out of 37 rowers. 

Other Ridgewood finishers of note behind the gold-medal winning Nasr in the Mens Junior Open included juniors Lucas Evers (6:51.9) and Will Carroll (6:58.1), who came in 13th and 20th overall, respectively, out of 49 total competitors. 

Full times and results for Ridgewood Crew at the 2024 Haddon Hammer can be found at http://www.haddonhammer.com/2024-results.html.

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.

 

Tell your story #TheRidgewoodblog , #Indpendentnews, #information, #advertise, #guestpost, #affiliatemarketing,#NorthJersey, #NJ , #News, #localnews, #bergencounty, #sponsoredpost, #SponsoredContent, #contentplacement , #linkplacement, Email: Onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com