The Washington-Liberty High School crew team gathered April 18 at Columbia Island Marina to celebrate the christening of the girls’ newest eight-person-plus-coxswain racing shell.
It’s named in honor of distinguished alumna and rowing pioneer Ellie Cochran.
Athletes from three Arlington high schools provided the muscle to unload 2,000 Christmas trees in preparation for an annual fundraising sale.
Members of the Yorktown, Washington-Liberty and Wakefield crew teams, plus the Yorktown and W-L lacrosse squads, were up early this morning (Wednesday) to remove the Optimist Club of Arlington’s trees from three tractor-trailers that had arrived overnight from Galax, Va.
Growing up, Isabelle Young-Smith participated in many different sports. Among them: Dance, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, lacrosse and basketball.
But when she entered Wakefield High School as a freshman and took up another — crew — it significantly changed her interest in athletics and, in some ways, life as well.
Members of the Wakefield Warriors girls varsity eighth shell achieved a number of goals in reaching the finals of the national high-school crew regatta.
Wakefield finished fifth in a time of 5:04.29 at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s National Championship Regatta in New Jersey over the Memorial Day weekend. The winning time was 4:49.52 by Winter Park of Florida.
Highlights were few for Arlington crew teams at famous, but this year weather-shortened, Stotesbury Cup Regatta.
Storms, heavy rain and dangerous water conditions on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia caused the semifinal and championship races to be canceled. Only the first-round heats were held.
Arlington’s long and proud history in high-school crew was embellished at this spring’s second weekend of the state-champion regatta.
That’s when two varsity eight girls and boys shells from Arlington schools finished first in the premier races at the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association competition on the Occoquan Reservoir.
On the first of two weekends of Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association competition, the Wakefield Warriors had a champion in what is known as the novice states regatta.
The Wakefield girls novice 4 finished first in 6:29.1, coming in ahead of five other shells in the race on the Occoquan Reservoir. In the finals, Battlefield finished second in 6:35.7.
With most of the finals in each race canceled because of afternoon thunderstorms, the Wakefield Warriors’ crew program still had a strong showing at the annual Al Urquia Regatta.
The high-school event was Saturday (April 26) on the Occoquan River, and was the first regatta of the season for Wakefield.
Two accomplished athletes from Wakefield High School have been selected to participate in the 2025 USRowing Under-19 National Team Selection Camp, held this coming summer.
The camp is to help participants prepare for the 2025 World Rowing Championships. At the camp it will be determined which shells the rowers will be members of at the World Championships.
High-school crew teams from Arlington began practice in recent days for the upcoming spring season, which starts in April with area regattas.
As shown in the photo with this coverage, a couple of Wakefield High School girls eight shells practice in the early morning on the Anacostia River. The Wakefield boys and girls teams alternate morning practices on the Anacostia.
In recent competition, boats from the One Arlington Rowing club reached the medal stand at the Head of the Charles Regatta, held on the Charles River in Boston.
Rowers from One Arlington, consisting of students from Arlington’s three public high schools, showcased their skill and determination at the regatta.
After 75 years at the same location, the Washington-Liberty High School crew program is leaving the only home it has known.
By the end of 2024, the program will move its operation from the Potomac Boat Club on Water Street in D.C. after three-quarters of a century to the Columbia Island Marina in the Pentagon lagoon near the interchange of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Interstate 395 in Arlington.
