On Sunday, July 18, Claire Carver-Ritter, 17, and a member of Asheville Youth Rowing Association (AYRA) won Gold at USRowing Summer National Championships (formerly called Club Nationals) in the Women’s U23 quad.
Claire attended the OKC High Performance Camp in Oklahoma after having been selected to attend by USRowing. Attendees at that camp competed at the Summer Nationals in Camden, New Jersey against other youth from all over the United States. Claire, who is 17, rowed in the U23 quad (each rower holds two oars) which means that she was competing against other rowers who were not older than 22 years of age.
In June of this year, Claire also competed at USRowing Youth Nationals in Sarasota, Florida where she won the C Final in the Woman’s 1 Varsity Four. At Youth Nationals, crews competed against other crews from all over the United States.
AYRA’s Men’s U17 4 won Gold at USRowing Youth Nationals on June 12. That boat, composed of youth who are all under the age of 17, won the A Final with a time of 6:58 minutes, a full 8 seconds faster than any other boat in the Final. The crew is composed of Charlotte Fisher, coxswain, Dylan Paull, stroke, Sam Pruitt, 3 seat, James Lilly, 2 seat and Luca Antonescu, bow.