As spring kicks off, the rowing world enters its sprint season, marked by races at 1500 or 2000 meters. 

For the four girls of Waterford's quad—sophomore Suzy Reardon and seniors Emery Chamberlain, Gillian McLane and Bella Raemisch—there's a big goal ahead: qualifying for the youth nationals and making a name for themselves.

McLane and Raemisch, both veterans of the sport, already made waves this past fall. They raced in the 3-mile Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, the world’s largest rowing event, which attracts more than 12,000 athletes from around the globe to compete in 73 events. The regatta, held over three days, is a major highlight in the rowing calendar.

“This is larger in size than the Henley Royal Regatta in England or the Olympic Regatta,” said Waterford coach Daniel Salerno. “There are so many high school athletes, college athletes, master athletes and elite athletes. This year, they ended up winning the whole thing in the varsity girl event, which was a pretty incredible accomplishment for them.”

McLane and Raemisch have been paired up since spring 2023. After six months of practice, they clinched first place in their under-17 category at the Head of the Charles, finishing fifth overall in the varsity girls' event.

“They practiced in that boat for off and on two years and they have grown close,” Salerno said. “They've had great moments. They've had not great moments. They know each other so well as teammates. They know what each other needs and when they need it. They're just connected. It's amazing to see the growth of these two.”

Raemisch remembers some early adventures when they took the boats out freshman year.

“My first time rowing, I was in a single, and I flipped it over twice that day,” she said. “Then McLane and I started rowing the double, and we didn’t know what we're doing or how to steer the boat. We flipped it twice in the freezing cold Great Salt Lake. It was miserable, but it's a learning progress.”

Their first race together also was eventful. A spring storm cut the racecourse short, and before the West Coast Scholastic Regatta was canceled, the duo had already flipped their boat in the warm-up. Despite these challenges, they pushed on and emerged victorious—even with an extra 50 pounds of water in their boat.

Fast forward to the 2024 Head of the Charles, where 55 boats in their division competed. The race starts with boats leaving 20 seconds apart.

“I don't think either of us were expecting to win,” said McLane about their gold medal performance. “The two-person boat is a lot more intimate; you're each responsible for 50% of the effort. You have to rely on each other, and there's a lot more trust. My double partner knows what I need and will say it to me in the moment, and I, vice versa, which I feel like is a relationship we've kind of accumulated over the past four years of rowing together.”

McLane said they had been paired together early in their rowing careers. 

“There were only six girls who joined the team when I was a freshman, and my partner was one of them. We started practicing on the indoor machines together and then moved to the double boat. By sophomore spring, we were rowing together every day, and it's been our main boat ever since.”

Raemisch said last year’s race was a first for Waterford.

“One year ago, it was a huge shock we placed at the Head of the Charles because we are such a small team from Utah. Our school had never done this before; it was the biggest race we've ever attended,” she said.

Despite being seeded 42nd last year, the pair worked their way into the top five. This year, they were seeded fourth.

“This year, heading into the race we knew we were clicking,” Raemisch said. “We knew we could do something since we made it to youth nationals last spring. We knew we had something good, but because we’re in Utah with limited resources, we didn’t know how good or big it was.”

The night before, Raemisch said they did mental exercises and journaling to calm their anxieties and focus on the race.

“It felt like we were one,” she said. “We knew it was the best race we could have had.”

Afterward, the coach came and asked them how the race felt. McLane remembers they were telling each other “how proud we were and how grateful we were to be each other's partners. When we told him it was the best race we ever had, because we pulled together so well, and we were synced up, he turned the phone around and showed us the race results,” she said. “We both started crying as we got off the dock. It was amazing.”

Waterford Athletic Director Craig Morris said the program launched around 2000 because of interest and experience of a faculty member.

“It seems to be a sport that meets the personality of our student body well,” he said. “I wasn’t sure that it could happen logistically, but it grabbed hold and has grown steadily since then.”

In 2022, Salerno started coaching the team of about 25 boys and girls.

Salerno runs intense practices, averaging 12-14 hours a week. The team trains at the Jordan Surplus Canal and on indoor rowing machines, adding weightlifting three days a week to their regimen. Despite the narrow and short venue, Salerno focuses on making the most of it, emphasizing the importance of the athletes rather than the facilities or equipment.

“It's not about the venue that you participate on or the equipment that you have to use. It's really about the athletes who are in the boats—and we just have some phenomenal athletes,” he said.

In addition to fall regattas, the team competes in sprint races in the spring. Waterford Rowing competes in scholastic races, including the West Coast championships and national championships, as well as club races, where they aim to qualify for the youth nationals. The southwest regionals in early May will be crucial for the girls quad, who aims to qualify again this year.

Last year, the quad won the scholastic national championships with former Waterford rower Anika Holtey, who graduated and is rowing for Harvard. Earlier the new teammates won the San Diego Fall Classic. 

Salerno’s background as a competitive rower, both in high school and at the University of Delaware, shaped his coaching career. Despite initially not being interested in crew, his love for the sport grew over time, and he eventually coached at various programs in New Jersey, later moving on to coaching at the University of Washington. Now in Utah, he’s dedicated to successfully guiding Waterford, the only school in Utah to have a rowing team.

“Crew is not only a racing sport, which I love, but it's a team sport. It's unique, because in most endurance sports are racing sports like swimming or track, it's very individual, where your team can succeed or do poorly, but you can have your own unique performance. In crew, your performance and your teammates performances are linked to your team success, so you have to rely on your teammates and they rely on you,” he said. “Rowing is the sport that makes you work closest with your teammates to achieve success.”

McLane and Raemisch, both advanced placement students, have given up other sports to dedicate themselves to rowing.

Raemisch, who played soccer, basketball, and did taekwondo before discovering rowing, immediately fell in love with the sport. “I loved pushing myself to see what I’m really capable of,” she said.

McLane gave up years of ski jumping for the sport, quickly realizing rowing was her true passion. 

“It’s mentally and physically demanding, and you grow in ways you can't in other areas of life,” she explained. “Rowing challenges your pain threshold and mental stamina. When you accomplish something hard, it’s incredibly rewarding.”

Both plan to continue their rowing careers after high school. 

Raemisch will row at the University of Miami on an academic-athletic scholarship, while McLane, who recently attended a rowing camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, is awaiting word on a selection development team which could lead her to compete in the World Championships in Lithuania. She also plans to continue at Cornell University in New York.

Morris said to achieve the Head of the Charles win from a landlocked state is remarkable.

“We are, of course, thrilled for the girls,” he said. “They have worked so hard, and it’s just amazing to see all their efforts rewarded. We never had any idea that we would even be able to enter a boat in a prestigious regatta like the Head of the Charles, let alone win when we started all this. All the credit goes to our amazing student-athletes and our extremely dedicated coaches.” λ