Montclair HS Rowing Opens Season With Championship Dominance

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of the Montclair High School Rowing Team. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

The Montclair High School Rowing Team’s spring 2026 season is off to a strong start, reinforcing itself, once again, as one of the top public school rowing programs in the nation.

Last weekend, Montclair defended its back-to-back New Jersey State Championship title as the team points trophy winner at the New Jersey State Scholastic Rowing Championships in Camden, and clinched its 4th consecutive women’s points trophy. Montclair Rowing has held the NJ State Championship title since 2009 and is showing no signs of slowing down.

The State Championship, held on the Cooper River, featured fierce competition from 41 New Jersey high schools and over 263 boats vying for state titles. Consistent to Montclair’s winning tradition, eight of its boats medaled, resulting in five state championship golds and three silvers. Montclair secured gold in the Men's first and second varsity 8+, the Women's Varsity 8+, Women's Lightweight 4+, and Women's Novice 2x. This dominant showing adds to Montclair’s impressive total of 71 State Championship titles, positioning the team strongly for the upcoming national scholastic championship on May 23, 2026. (A full list of results and athletes is provided below.)

And the dominance continued as select Varsity boats returned to the Cooper River the very next day to compete in the Cooper Cup, a premier scholastic and club regatta featuring over 2,000 athletes and 73 of the top rowing clubs and high schools on the East Coast. Facing a double header regatta weekend and a competitive field, Montclair Rowing swept Gold in the Men’s first and second Varsity 8+ categories with the first varsity men’s boat clinching first place by a commanding 12 second lead and open water finish.

"Winning four back-to-back State Championships as the Women’s Points Trophy winner is an extraordinary achievement for any program and a testament to the incredible work our girls are putting in under Coach Lorna’s leadership," said Head Coach Jeremy Michalitsianos. "To then turn around and sweep gold in the men’s Varsity 8+ categories and secure medals in all other categories entered at the Cooper Cup the very next day, speaks volumes about the talent and grit of our student-athletes. They have trained hard for this, and we are extremely proud of all our athletes. Now, we shift our focus to Mid-Atlantics, Stotesbury, and SRAA Nationals in the weeks ahead."

Celebrating its 24th season, Montclair Rowing has defied expectations for a small public-school program, consistently outperforming elite private and club teams throughout the state and nation. Led by former Great Britain national team rowers, Jeremy Michalitsianos and Lorna Rundle, the program has developed a legacy of producing student-athletes who excel both academically and athletically. Recent graduates have gone on to attend and be recruited to elite DI rowing universities including Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, Cal Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Northeastern, Washington and the U.S. Naval Academy. This year alone, the team sent recruits to prestigious programs including MIT, Tufts, Wesleyan and the University of Washington.

Montclair also remains well represented in the USRowing/Team USA national pipeline, with Caitlin Cecere winning silver for Team USA at the U19 World Championship in Bulgaria last summer and alumnus Xavier Gagnon, a current Sophomore at Cal Berkeley, stroking the U.S. Men’s Eight to a fifth-place finish at the U23 World Championships in Poland in one of the fastest men’s fields in U23 history.

Montclair High School Rowing alumni also continue to make waves internationally. Three former Mounties, including Kenneth Coplan, Alex Abuhoff and Amelia Cataldi, took home championship titles at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in the UK last summer, one of the most historic and competitive rowing events in the world. Coplan also won The Boat Race for Cambridge versus Oxford back in 2023.

Over the past two decades, the team’s accolades include championships at the Stotesbury Cup, SRAA Nationals, Mid-Atlantic Regionals, and Philadelphia City Championships, along with winning the 2025 Youth National Championship last summer and a bronze medal and semifinal placement in the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley in 2018.

These achievements truly reinforce the strength and depth of this Varsity program, the prowess of rowing as part of the Montclair High School Athletics umbrella, and the importance of youth sports in public schools.

With momentum on their side, Montclair now turns its sights toward Mid-Atlantic Junior Regional Championship and the Stotesbury Cup the week thereafter. To follow Montclair Rowing’s spring schedule, join a summer camp or learn more about the program, visit www.friendsofmontclairrowing.org.

Registration is now open for Montclair Rowing’s Summer Camp, available to all Montclair Public School students interested in learning more about the sport. No Experience Required. For inquiries, please contact Coach Lorna Rundle at lornarundle@hotmail.com.

STATES - Montclair High School Results

Gold - Womens HS 1V8+

Caitlin Cecere, Olivia King, Vanessa Valera, Taylor Duomo, Isabel Meyer, Bridget Phariss, Charlotte King, Olivia Pearce, Dylan Henry (Coxswain)

Gold - Mens HS 1V8+

Sam Gagnon, Benny Read, Ben Clark, Jacob Miller, Sam Moon, Finn Wilson, Oliver Friedman, Charlie Burns, Caroline Loscalzo (Coxswain)

Gold - Mens HS 2V8+

Jack Nelissen, George Michalitsianos, Julian Vecchione, Oliver Ford, Joaquin Cespedes, Zion Pollard, Magnus Baden-Campbell, Drystan Oothuizen, Brooks Bateman (Coxswain)

Gold - Womens HS Ltwt 4+

Kearin Hunt, Matilda Nicolai, Jamie Clemente, Seraphina Fedele, Gwen Demming (Coxswain)

Gold - Womens HS Novice 2x

Emma Yagci, Sophie Seigal

Silver - Womens HS JV4+

Claire Anderson-Howard, Charlotte Wurmser, Isabelle Hayes, Charlotte Klein, Francie DiCarlo (Coxswain)

Silver - Mens HS Freshmen 8+

Julian Simpson, Colin Maloy, Max Karlsen, Dylan Jacobsen, James Rea, Henry Hudson-Plush, Charles Simpson, Cooper Chamberlain, Wes Rothman (Coxswain)

Silver - Women’s Freshman 8+

Sadie Shvetz, Arden Tourtelot, Sarah Clark, Gabrielle Frazier, Aliana Lambert, Tabitha Bergen, Bianca Jacobsen, Madeline Bethards, Maya Padilla (Coxswain)

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