Schoolboy’s golden girls (and boy)

Kairsen Frick was celebrating her second Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association championships gold medal Sunday.

The Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill won gold in 2023 in the double and Sunday her second came in the 63-kilogram lightweight single.

“It is so exciting and it was such an exciting race. I was doubting myself at the start because I was in third/fourth for the first 500. It wasn’t until the 1,000 when I thought I had to go now. I started slowly making my way through second and first and then I was thinking I had to get the lead bigger so they can’t catch up.”

It was a thrilling moment when she crossed the line in first place.

“I was so excited. I had been thinking about it the whole season and I can’t believe that it actually happened.”

It was the result of a lot of work.

“It was training every day, twice a day on the weekends on mostly the double and then a few times in the single in there.”

She came second in the lightweight double Sunday morning with Pippa Soyka-Rozendaal after the lightweight pair won the open double at the Stotesbury Cup regatta. She also won gold at Stotesbury last year.

Frick started rowing in Grade 10 and stroked the novice eight to a CSSRA bronze medal and a St. Catharines eight to a second at Henley.

When the summer is over, Frick is heading to Stanford to compete for that school’s lightweight rowing program.

“Racing in big boats will be exciting because I am mostly racing in small boats now.”

Before she heads to Stanford, there will be lots of work.

“Just more training. My doubles partner and I will be trialling for the junior national team on Tuesday.”

JUNIOR GIRLS SINGLE

What a difference a year made for Saint Paul’s Virginia Gates.

The Grade 10 student couldn’t crack the semifinals in the junior girls single at last year’s CSSRA championships but Sunday at Henley Island she finished atop the podium in the same event.

“I don’t even know how I did it,” the 15-year-old Niagara Falls Rowing Club member said. “It was a lot of hard work and dedication. I have been really trying my best to get better and it feels really good.

Gates, who also won the Mother’s Day and London regattas, has found plenty of motivation for the sport.

“I want to be the best that I possibly can and keep going because I know this isn’t as far as I could possibly go and I can do better.”

Gates started rowing in the winter of Grade 9.

“I just thought, ‘Why not. I might as well try stuff.’

She also placed fourth in the Schoolboy quad in 2023.

Gates will be rowing at the Niagara Falls Rowing Club this summer and hopes to compete at the university level.

“I love the sport and I love the environment. A lot of rowing is about you and self improvement and I really like that.”

Gates also teamed with Sabrina Cottringer to win the CSSRA gold in the senior girls double. 

Cottringer, a Grade 12 student, had previously won CSSRA bronze in the junior girls double in Grade 10.

“Last year all the cancellations happened and we ended up in sixth. This is a definitely an upgrade,” she said.

Cottringer described the win as absolutely incredible.

“Going into it we knew we had a pretty good chance because we got second at Stotes (Stotesbury Cup) and we did well at the Mother’s Day Regatta here.”

She credited Gates with the victory.

“I owe it all to her. She has been killing it in her races in the single and we had lot of confidence.”

It was a perfect partnership.

“We row really similar and we have lots of good energy and determination. We both wanted a victory because we had never won a championship at this club before and our coach said that we were chasing championships. She got two and I got one.”

The Niagara Falls high school had six boats in finals this year, topping the previous high of five in 2004.

“Our coaches have been really adamant about chasing championships. We are such a small club and we wanted to show ourselves and make a name for our School. And we wanted to show rowing is a pretty cool sport at our school.”

This fall, Cottringer will be a scholarship rower at Temple University where she plans to major in general sciences and education in hopes of becoming a high school teacher.

Temple was one of the only official visits she went on.

“The coaches were incredible and staying with people who were already on the team made me want to go there.”

She started rowing in Grade 10 but she did take part in Zoom workouts during COVID.

“After elementary school I didn’t have any sports and rowing really helped me get some motivation back and working out in.”

MIXED DOUBLE

E.L. Crossley’s Sarah Graham and Aaron Jackson made the most of their first week of racing in the mixed double by winning CSSRA gold Sunday.

“It went really well. We just went in trying our hardest,” Graham said.

The Grade 11 student said the boat’s success came with trust in each other.

“We knew we were there for each other.”

For 17-year-old Graham, it was her fourth Schoolboy gold after topping the junior lightweight quad in Grade 9 and 10 and the novice quad in Grade 9. She also rowed for Crossley Sunday in the senior women’s eight and won gold.

Jackson, a 17-year-old Grade 11 student, was celebrating his first Schoolboy gold after earning bronze in the lightweight coxed quad and heavyweight coxed quad in his first year of rowing.

“It’s awesome. Ever since last year when I got the bronzes I was happy with that but I was waiting to come back this year and get the gold.”

It was a great win.

“We just kind of threw this boat together one day and it really seemed to work, The past two weeks we have been working on it and obviously it paid off,” Jackson said. “We were hoping to do well because we saw from our times that we were doing fast times. We thought we could pull out a top three but the gold is amazing and we are happy about that.”

Jackson was unable to stand atop the podium at the grandstand because the boat and blades were needed for an upcoming race.

“It kind of sucks to not get on the podium because it is a really cool experience but I am still so happy with the gold.

Jackson would race later in the day in the senior men’s pair.