It's been six years in the making.

A classic Northwest drizzle, windy lake currents, a blaze of hot afternoon sun—to be a rower is to be at the mercy of the weather. But a love for the water and the rhythmic sound of the oars hitting its surface keeps Prep athletes coming back to field the crew team year after year. And it’s worth it. This year the team reaped dividends when it earned two new honors: a division regional championship and a record qualification of boats at nationals.

Prep established its rowing program as a varsity sport in spring 2016. That inaugural season kicked off with 17 Panther athletes. This year 72 students participated in the program.

This year’s brilliant finish stared with stellar early season races where Prep racked up a staggering 16 wins and 17 silver medals in the first two competitions of the year. The strength of the team lead to an invite to the prestigious Windermere Cup Regatta hosted by the University of Washington, Seattle Yacht Club and Windermere Real Estate.

Despite rowing through the Montlake Cut daily this honor marked the first appearance of Seattle Prep at this event. Racing over 2000 meters, roughly 6.5 - 7.5 minutes, the mens quad took silver by one second while the women blew away the competition by over nine seconds.

In the Regatta Regional Championship, Prep competed in 20 events against 28 other teams from the region. The Panthers brought home three bronze, three silver and three gold medals, as well as qualified 12 crews to Youth Nationals and won the Division 2 Regional for mid-sized programs, by over 50 points. This historic win was a first ever for this six-year new program.

During the last week of the school year, the Seattle Prep crew team traveled to Florida to compete at the Youth National Championships with 24 qualifying athletes—an all-time record. With seven regions and an average of 120 crews per event competing for the 28 slots at nationals, this is the pinnacle of junior rowing.

At the regatta, four of Prep’s eight crews placed in the top 12, four placed in the top 20. Both groups advanced to the finals.

The dynamic duo of Claire Rulyak ’24 and Natalia Peng ’24 raced their way to the podium and secured the bronze medal. This marked the first-ever medal at Youth Nationals for Seattle Prep women and only the second in the program’s history.

All five Prep seniors, Nora Conaty, Lily Brecht, Liam Bell, Hayden Kosiara and Joe Bannecker, represented Prep in its flagship boat, the quadruple sculls, and posted school records in their finals, with a time of 6:26.8 for the men and 7:06.6 for the women.

Winning aside, Coach Tom Kellet says, “We had a truly remarkable season that really took the efforts of everyone in the program to get ourselves into a position to win the Division Championship. That in itself is as exciting as winning medals. Having everyone come together to produce that win is really our biggest accomplishment.”