Newport Aquatic Center has a record-setting Youth Nationals

They came, they saw and they made history.

Eleven graduating senior girl rowers of the Newport Aquatic Center program certainly went out strong last weekend at the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Fla.

The women’s varsity eight finished in third place Sunday, medaling for the first time in program history after crossing the line in 6 minutes, 31.55 seconds, about three seconds behind champion Marina. The NAC boat included coxswain Hannah Hykes and stroke seat Millie Clark, Corona del Mar High graduates. Newport Harbor graduate Vivi Spitz was the other local senior in the boat, which also included Lauren Brown of Canyon High and Huntington Beach High juniors Sydney Harris, Charlotte Dozier and Julia Channel.

Olivia Aceves of Los Alamitos High and Chloe Sorensen of San Juan Hills High, also both juniors, made up the rest of the winning octet.

The Newport Aquatic Center women’s varsity eight rows at the Youth Nationals in Florida.

(Courtesy of Thomas Hauge)

“I think we were all super-excited,” said Hykes, bound for the University of Michigan, in a phone interview. “That was our goal going into nationals, to get a medal. The NAC women had never done that before, so it was really cool getting to see all of our hard work this season pay off. It was definitely years in the making.

“Throughout my high school career, we were really building momentum. It was really cool to see the program improve consistently. I went from getting ninth place at nationals in this event my sophomore year, to getting third in this event.”

NAC’s JV eight women’s boat, undefeated throughout the season, also medaled for the first time in program history after placing second in 6:43.14. Senior leaders for that boat included CdM graduates Kat Odeen and Ruby Srinivasan, and Newport Harbor alumna Michaela Banta.

The NAC Under-17 four-person boat placed second in 7:32.12, and the third varsity eight boat was the fastest “3V” in the country after finishing in 7:02.00.

“To have success across all the boats that we brought was really a great thing to be a part of it, getting to see the program as a whole see so much success after the season,” Hykes said.

Newport Aquatic Center’s men’s varsity eight boat also placed third in the country, in 5:53.55. The eight included Travis O’Neil, Kian Aminian, Auggie Laster, Cooper Sitzman, Evan Guild, Brennan Duntley, Nick Gonzalez, Charlie Talley and coxswain Eva Hauge.

The Newport Aquatic Center men’s varsity eight finished third in the country at the Youth Nationals in Florida.

(Courtesy of Nick D’Antoni )

“The men’s youth eights field has gotten deeper and faster than last year,” NAC men’s coach Nick D’Antoni said in a text message. “The defending national champs from Greenwich [Conn.] didn’t even make the final, and neither did last year’s other medalists and fourth place crew. We were the only crew to repeat as medalists from last year’s final and we overcome an early-season loss of 11 seconds to the team from Marina, beating them out for a medal by 1.5 seconds.

“It was a great season of building speed, trying new things and looking for new ways to improve. Very proud of how far all the boys came and how determined they remained throughout the entire season.”

O’Neil and Aminian also won gold in the youth pair competition, finishing in 6:52.69, about six seconds better than the second-place tandem.

It’s the eighth national title for the NAC men’s team and first in the pairs competition, D’Antoni said.