They came. They saw. They conquered.
Never mind that they came from the smallest state and one of the smallest rowing centers in the nation. At the end of the day, having left some of America’s finest youth rowers in their wake, 10 young women from the Narragansett Boat Club in Providence stood atop the final standings as USRowing Youth National Champions.
Gold medalists.
And we’re talking serious competition here, folks, not some little regatta on the Seekonk River. Serious as in Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, site of U.S. Olympic Trials and World Championships on its 2,000-meter course.
Serious as in 4,000 high-school athletes and 1,000 coaches from 231 clubs from coast to coast and points in between.
Serious as in traditional powerhouses like the Los Gatos Rowing Club and Marin Rowing Association from California, and RowAmerica from Rye, N.Y. As in 5,000 spectators during the four-day regatta in mid-June. As in the 30th annual championships being the largest yet, according to USRowing.
The Narragansett Boat Club (NBC) qualified 27 rowers, the most in its history. And a long history it is. Founded in 1828, the NBC says it is the oldest rowing club in America.
NBC’s Women’s Youth Coxed Four and the Women’s Under-17 Coxed Four emerged as the best of the best, an NBC first. Plus, the Women’s Youth Four finished eighth. On the men’s side, the U17 Quad Sculls finished 9th and the Quad Sculls 12th.
Time out for a little rowing terminology: Coxed means with a coxswain, usually a small person, sitting in the back of the boat and shouting orders and encouragement. In a four-person boat, the cox sits in the front, steers and communicates through a headset. The stroke, usually the strongest rower, sets the pace. Sculls are boats in which the rowers pull on two oars each. Sweeps are boats in which each rower pulls on a single oar. Got all that?
Araminta “Minty” Gaitskell, a 2025 Lincoln School graduate, was the stroke on the Youth Coxed Four. She wasn’t brimming with confidence heading south.
“This was my first season sweeping, and our boat club as a whole is pretty new to sweeping. Going into nationals we were sort of considered the underdog,” she told me. Still, based on consistent top three results during the spring season, she and her teammates were hoping to reach the final.
Gianna Vigliotti, a Barrington High School grad rowing in the second seat, was more optimistic.
“We’ve had the privilege of being able to work together for the past four years. I’ve gotten to know them really well as athletes, so going into Sarasota I felt very confident. I trusted them a lot,” she said.
But after a pause, she added this: “I did not expect to win the A final.”
The rest of the boat included home-schooled Bailey Scott in the bow, Elsa Panagos of Wheeler School in the third seat and cox Tessa Adams of Wheeler. They studied — “stalked” as Vigliotti said with a laugh — the other 35 boats in their division and learned they would be racing against members of national teams.
“Intimidating, for sure,” Vigliotti said. “None of us have had the honor of competing at that high level.”
True enough, but they could dream.
“I definitely dreamed of winning,” Vigliotti said. As a freshman and sophomore she had a seat on second-place finishers.
“It was definitely exciting, and at the same time it definitely fueled a lot of power for me to be better in the future. Going into my senior nationals, I really wanted to make something really special happen,” Vigliotti said. “I think a lot of these girls felt the same way. Elsa Panagos came in second with me my sophomore year. So did Bailey Scott. I definitely think that it fueled the fire for more to come. I’m super happy to say that it did.”
After finishing fourth in the time trials and second in their semifinal heat, they started slowly in the final.
“I believe within the first minute or two of the race we were actually second-to-last out of the eight finalists,” Vigliotti said. “That definitely was challenging because you can’t see any of the boats that are ahead of you because obviously we’re facing backwards.”
They kicked the pace up a notch and slowly but surely passed the other seven boats. They finished in 7 minutes, 8.19 seconds, 1.2 seconds ahead of second-place Noble and Greenough School of Dedham, Mass.
“It definitely makes winning sweeter when you cross the finish line and you can see everyone ahead of you and know that you were able to put down the fastest time of anyone on the racecourse and be the first one across the finish line,” Vigliotti said.
Rowing for these champions did not end that Sarasota Sunday. Vigliotti will head to the University of Virginia next month. Panagos is going to the University of Oklahoma. Tessa Adams will study and row for the University of Washington. Gaitskell is going to Harvard. Each was recruited to row.
Catherine Starr coaches these young women and was effusive in her praise.
“They are really special athletes,” she said “Every one of them is unique, and they come together to form a fast boat. Every person brings something to the mix and lights it up.”.
The champions in the U-17 boat will return to high school in September: cox Isabel Guerra to East Providence, stroke Madeleine Hardison to Barrington, second seat Molly DiGiacomo and third seat Maylie Conway also to Barrington, and bow Amelia Collins to Wheeler.
They were loaded with confidence in Sarasota. Three of them had rowed to a sixth-place finish in the 2024 nationals.
“We knew we could do better. We knew we could win,” Collins told me last week.
And they did, crossing the line in 7:21.54, 2.03 seconds ahead of TriStar Rowing from Louisville, Tenn.
“We could see everyone else finish. That’s what’s awesome about rowing,” said Collins, a Barrington resident and rising junior at Wheeler.
This is NBC’s fun boat.
“Every one of them is a phenomenal athlete,” Starr said. “They’re little firecrackers. They’re a group of people who get excited about coming to practice.”
“Most of us live in Barrington, and we’ve grown close,” Collins said. “We try to do stuff together outside of practice. Team bonding. We come to practice to have fun and get faster.”
Starr told me their potential is great.
“If they set a goal, they can do anything they want. It’s their choice,” she said. “We’ll sit down and set some big goals. What scares us — and then go after it.”
The eighth-place Women’s Youth Four consisted of Halsey Hallenbeck of Providence Country Day, Constance Schmults of Moses Brown, Nicole Rainone of La Salle Academy, and Molly Hanratty of Barrington. They finished 22.39 seconds behind the Marin Rowing Association entry.
Enrik Attemann from Moses Brown, George and Danny Eid from La Salle and Johan Idris from Classical finished ninth in the Men’s U-17 Quad Sculls. Oskar and George Idris from Classical, Aiden Lynch from North Kingstown, and Matthew Doepper from La Salle finished 12th in Men’s Quad Sculls.
Reilly Hughes from Moses Brown, Nigel Fortes from East Providence, Colin Angert from Barrington and Enzo Sansone from Cranston West rowed in the Men’s Second Quad Sculls.
And Olivia Welch from La Salle, Maura Tehan from Bishop Feehan, and Emilia DiBernedini from Barrington competed in the Women’s Pair Coxed.
Starr offered this perfect description of the NBC’s 2025 Sarasota experience.
“It’s fun to work with people who want to go fast,” she said. “These athletes work hard. They’re really motivated.”
