By: Julia Valencia

Editor-in-Chief

Since the club’s founding in 1979, Los Gatos Rowing Club (LGRC) has been making waves in the junior rowing sector of the United States. With a plethora of regional titles, over a dozen national titles, and participation in a few international regattas, LGRC has built a formidable reputation among the most competitive clubs in junior rowing. 

After the 2025-2026 school year ended, while most athletes had already completed their seasons and started their summer recovery, the LGHS rowers were ramping up their training in anticipation for their national championship in Florida. 

A select group of athletes who qualified their boats at Southwest Youth Regionals in May traveled across the country to compete at Youth National Championships in mid-June. The women’s team, who sent six boats, came away from the week with not one, but two national titles, as well as a third, fourth, eighth, and sixteenth place finish. Junior Chloe Stopford, two seat of the first-place Women’s Youth Varsity Quad, described the whole experience as “almost expected because we had been working toward it for so long… we knew going into the finals that we were capable of winning, and when we pulled it off, it felt so deserved.” 

The men’s team also took home two national titles in the Men’s Youth Junior Varsity Quad and the Men’s Youth Straight Four. The junior varsity quad, with junior Matthew Willey and senior Matthieu Boillet, had an extremely close race, with the margin between them and Belen Jesuit, the silver medaling crew, being fewer than three seconds. The Men’s Youth Coxed Four, stroked by senior Luke Degraff and coxed by senior Kai Yoo, won second place by less than a foot over the third-place team. 

After coming home from the successful run in Florida, four LGRC boats were still not done with their summer racing. 21 athletes made the trip across the pond and raced at the highly prestigious and competitive Henley Royal Regatta (HRR) on the River Thames in England. HRR is a single elimination tournament, meaning just one loss will eliminate the crew for the whole weekend. The Men’s Youth Varsity Quad, Second Youth Varsity Quad, and youth eight all made it to round one, where international crews beat them in close side-by-side racing. The Women’s Youth Varsity Quad made it past the first round, but in a tight race with George Hariot’s School from Scotland, they ended up losing in the second round. 

Now that their summer training is over, LGRC is entering their new season, rested and ready for fall competitions. With the upcoming Head of the Charles race, athletes and coaches alike are trying to find any extra speed they can before taking on the racing in Boston.