Santa Ynez High School sophomore Jacie Dingman led the way as the Santa Barbara Community Rowing team turned in a strong performance at the US Southwest Regional competition at Lake Natoma near Sacramento in early May.
“I was really pleased with our team this weekend,” SB Community Rowing coach Gracie Barbara said. “We had our biggest travel squad ever at 10 athletes. This was the first regional championship for several of our athletes, and it’s a big deal with over 35 clubs and 1000+ athletes.
“We are lucky to be racing in one of the fastest regions in the country.”
Dingman captured first place in the U17 Women’s Single to punch her ticket to the US Rowing Youth National Championships in Florida for the third consecutive year.
“We set out for Jacie to win her event again, which she did,” Barbara said. “She was really consistent this year, which shows her growth and maturity with racing. She finished over 10 seconds ahead of her competition in each race.”
Meanwhile, the duo of Aidan Chase and Liam Moore secured a third-place finish in the Men’s U16 Double. Chase also added a fifth-place showing in the U16 Men’s Single.
“Aidan and Liam are best friends and go to Alpha School together. That friendship absolutely made an impact on their ability to gel and push each other to win bronze in the final,” Barbara said.
“It was also great to see the three teams that medaled in the men’s U16 2x happened to be Central Coast clubs— Casitas, Channel Islands and SBCR. Now we have to look forward to Nationals and we will train hard for that over the next few weeks.”
The U15 Coxed Quad team of Finn McCauley, Will Allen, John Asher, Campbell Allen and Lucy Loya rounded out the SB Community Rowing squad with a seventh-place mark in their race.