NorCal Crew comes back from San Diego Crew Classic regatta with two titles — the Men's Youth 8+ and the adaptive Men's Youth PR3 crowns

When John Kaitz took over the NorCal boys’ program ahead of the 2024 season, he quickly put the team on the map. Just a year later, the 2024-25 NorCals eights boat finished seventh at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Massachusetts in the fall of 2024, before earning an invitation to the prestigious Royal Henley Regatta on the River Thames in England in the summer of 2025.

Was this a new golden era for the NorCal eights boat?

“I thought it was last year. The guys who were varsity (in 2024-2025) last year, rowed for four years,” Kaitz said.

The 2025-26 boat has since picked up the baton and taken the NorCal program to the next level. At the 2025 Head of the Charles Regatta, the NorCal boat moved up three spots, finishing fourth. Last weekend, NorCal posted its first major title, winning the Men’s Youth 8+ championship at the San Diego Crew Classic, which started in 1973.

The win highlighted one of the strongest performances by the club, as whole. In addition to winning the boys’ eights, the NorCal adaptive Men’s Youth PR3 team of Hayden Htun, a junior from Carlmont, and TC Gunther, a senior at Design Tech, won the inclusive double scull title.

“It was a good event for the entire program. It showed everyone (on our team) is getting faster,” said Beth Anderson, NorCal executive director, which oversaw a trip to San Diego that featured 11 boats and 87 athletes.

“It was a lot,” Anderson said.

In addition to the two titles, the NorCal women’s youth 8+ team — featuring coxswain Elise Riney (Menlo-Atherton), Sadie Zweig (Priory), Aarya Seshaadri (Castilleja), Ana Ciechanover (Lick Wilmerding-SF), Scarlett Shenk (Menlo-Atherton), Vienna Farano (Castilleja), Aidyn Eglington (Burlingame) and Katie Friedman (Burlingame) won its heat finished fifth in the final with a time of 7:26.628.

NorCal rival, Marin Rowing Club, took home the championship with a time of 7:21.126.

“It was the women’s best-ever finish. … It was definitely more competitive on the girls’ side, because a lot of teams from the East Coast were there,” Anderson said. “As a program, we’re definitely building.”

Another statement performance

The NorCal boys’ eights boat has quickly established itself as a premier boat in a short amount of time. When Kaitz, a former college coach at USC and UC Santa Barbara, took over the boys’ youth program at NorCal in 2024, he instantly went about building the eights program — which is the premier event in the sport of crew.

And Kaitz has been coaching long enough to know that past success is no guarantee for future success, but the 2025-26 crew — consisting of coxswain Jasper Tam (Serra), Henry Pecore (Menlo-Atherton), Liam Bai (Khan Lab School), Alex Ochoa (Woodside), Henry Allison (Woodside), Peter Ward (Serra), Thor Dakin (Sacred Heart Prep), Soren Phillips and Miles Sosnowski (Serra) — is proving to be an even better version than the 2024-25 squad.

“This group was, basically, my No. 2 or No. 3 varsity (athletes last year),” Kaitz said. “But I saw the potential and knew they would be faster than (last year).”

NorCal won its heat in San Diego with the third-fastest time of the 12-team, four-heat event, posting a time of 6:25.128. Newport Aquatic Club and Los Gatos Rowing Club, racing in Heat 4, posted the top two times — with Newport AC having the fastest qualifying time of 6:21.021 and Los Gatos finishing with a 6:24.333.

Marin Rowing Association, NorCal’s rival, also made the final, cruising to the win in Heat 1 with a time of 6:32.963.

Turns out those were mostly pedestrian times, but in the finals, the teams put the pedal to the metal and no one was faster than NorCal, posting a time of 6:15.796, holding off a Marin boat that finished nearly four seconds behind at 6:19.318 — about a boat length.

“The win was epic. It was open water. It was dramatic,” Kaitz said. “Marin was second at nationals last year, the only Southwest Regional team in the top six. Marin is really fast again this year, the fact that we beat them … it was a statement win for the program.”

It also threw down the gauntlet as NorCal now becomes the team to beat at the Southwest Regional regatta May 1 at Lake Natomas in Sacramento. A top-five finish there would earn NorCal a trip to Sarasota, Florida for the national championships.

The Southwest region is, “One of the fastest regions in the country,” Kaitz said. “Every crew we’re going to face in the Southwest region was there (in San Diego). You are ranked by how you finished at San Diego.”

Between now and then, however, is another first for the NorCal boys’ boat as it earned an invitation to another prestigious event. It will take part in the Mercer Lake Sprints in New Jersey, hosted by the Princeton National Rowing Association April 18-19.

NorCal will participate in the Mercer Invitational, which is a six-team field comprised of some of the fastest boats in the nation, most of which are based on the East Coast.

“They are trying to get the best teams in the country. I need faster people who will pull us down course faster,” Kaitz said. “You never know what you’re going to get (year to year). This is the year we’re at our peak, so we want to see how far we can go.

“The guys are working really hard.”