Xavier Crew Makes a Big Splash in 2026!

• By Olivia Moshiri, Xavier College Prep, Class of 2028

The Xavier College Prep Crew Team has had great success this year across all regattas with their racing. For the first time ever, we sent our boats to the Scholastic Rowing Association of America in Oakridge, TN, and brought home a third place, bronze medal. The SRAA National Championship is one of the most prestigious high school racing programs in North America. Founded in 1935, It draws in the most competitive high school teams across the United States. In addition to this, we also sent one boat to the USRowing Youth Championships in Sarasota Florida, where our rowers competed and earned themselves 7th place in the Grand Final. USRowing events include both scholastic programs like ours, but also very large club programs, often having double and triple the number of rowers gathered from various high schools. This year we were the only true scholastic (high school) program that made the finals at USRowing Youth Nationals in Florida. This year our team has trained relentlessly and given it their all every single day, and it shows in their race results.

Qualifying for USRowing Youth National Championships, Sarasota, Florida

In order to qualify for the USRowing Youth Championships, teams from all around the country sent their best boats to one of the 10 regional qualifying events around the nation. We brought one boat to Nationals this year:

-U17 Quad:

• Emma Perry in stroke,

• Lauren Aldrete in 3,

• Raphy Capozzi in 2, and

• Olivia Moshiri in bow.

 Our qualifying event was the Southwest Youth Championships in Sacramento, California. At each of these regional championships, the top three or four crews in each race earn a bid to Youth Nationals. In a three day racing event involving time trials, semi finals, and grand finals, among the 14 crews who competed in our Southwest Region, our Under 17 Quad earned a top 4 position which automatically qualifies them for Nationals in Florida. 

Youth Nationals is one of the most competitive regattas we attend at the end of our season, and it is a three day event where our Quad competed against 28 of the best boats from around the country. We competed in time trials, into semi finals and all the way to the Grand Final where we earned an overall 7th place finish in the Nation. This was Xavier’s best finish in its history (since 2000) at Youth Nationals in Sarasota. 

Qualifying for SRAA Nationals, Oakridge, Tennessee

In order to qualify for the Scholastic Nationals, there are various regional Scholastic Championships. However, because we competed in USRowing Southwest Regionals, we did not compete in the West Coast Scholastic event. Therefore, after SW Regionals, we entered applications to be accepted into Scholastic Nationals based on our performances at SW Regionals. We had two boats accepted to compete at Scholastic Nationals:

-Junior Quad:

• Cara Boyle in stroke,

• Izzy Castro in 3,

• Alayna Zimmerman in 2, and

• Sienna Goforth in bow

-Freshman Quad:

• Naina Agrawal in stroke,

• Lili McGalla in 3,

• Daisy Gonzales in 2, and

• Liv Seagrave in bow. 

Because we got a last minute bid for this regatta, our two boats trained rigorously for two weeks before heading out to compete. Of these two boats, our Junior Quad competed through time trials, and into semi finals, achieving a place in the Grand Final in which they raced to an exciting 3rd place bronze medal, edging out the 4th place boat by just 100ths of a second! This was our top finish at Scholastic Nationals since 2015. 

To race at both SRAA and Youth Nationals, and earn top 8 Finishes in the Grand Finals is a huge accomplishment, especially for a little program like ours! We are so extremely proud of all of our athletes this year, and grateful to all of our coaches who dedicate so much time into the athletes:

• Geoffery Stricklin: Head Coach

• Kevin Boyle: Assistant Coach

• Chase Hoyt: Assistant Coach 

• Carmen Slack: Assistant Coach

This year our team has trained relentlessly and given it their all every single day, and it shows in their race results, and we are so excited for what the next season will bring!