Sara Hansen’s mom, Mette Lund, suggested her daughter sign up for rowing camps with the Mercer Rowing Club when she was in eighth grade. It didn’t take long to see that Mette had good intuition.
“As soon as I felt the oar in my hand, and got to erg myself (on an indoor machine) to the point of utter pain, rowing had me hooked,” Hansen said.
Sara was so addicted, she got her friend Mia Barkenbush involved that summer, and the two were rowing competitively for the Princeton National Rowing Association’s Mercer Rowing Club during their freshman year at WW-P High School South.
One year later, they were both part of a boat that was among the best in the nation. Over the weekend of June 10-11 at Mercer Lake, the PNRA/Mercer varsity girls 8 plus coxswain took fourth in the USRowing Youth National Championships. Barkenbush occupied the bow seat after being in the 4 seat much of the year, while Hansen was in the seventh seat.
“I think I speak for our whole boat when I say that I’m proud of the hard work all of us put in throughout the season to achieve fourth,” Barkenbush said. “While we had some great races over the course of the weekend, it was the months of training and endless pushing to improve ourselves that allowed us to perform the way we did at nationals.”
“I think fourth in the nation for our club was a huge accomplishment,” Hansen added. “We lost a lot of seniors last year and (also lost) an amazing coach in Ted Sobelewski. Our main goal going into nationals was just to make the A final, so getting fourth was a really nice achievement.”
The final results were decided through a progression of heats, semifinals and finals, from which the fastest boats advanced to the next round. The top three boats from Friday’s heats moved to Saturday morning’s semifinals. The top three in each semi advanced to the A final, which determined the top six national finishers.
Mercer was the only club in the event to make the A final for the third straight year, and finished seven seconds behind champion Saugatuck Rowing Club of Connecticut.
It was a strong and somewhat unexpected finish for Mercer under first-year coach Steve Baranoski, as the team was beset by injuries. Hansen noted that the first race of the nationals was also the first race where everyone was where they were supposed to be in the boat.
“Going into heats we just wanted to get third,” Hansen said. “But when we beat Marin and got close to Saugatuck, we knew that we could do better than just getting into the A final.”
Barkenbush admitted that in the weeks leading up to Nationals, there was some uncertainty among the boat members as to what they were capable of.
“We weren’t able to race our full lineup all spring, so after four weeks of practicing and gaining speed, we entered nationals a completely different crew than we were earlier in the season,” she said. “Our strong performance in heats took a lot of crews by surprise.”
The WWPS duo had different experiences concerning their boat seats, as Hansen was in one spot all year while Barkenbush had to adjust to a new one when the pressure races arrived.
Hansen was in her No. 7 seat behind coxswain Kate Hickey. Her responsibility was to “follow her stroke and make sure the rest of the boat follows, especially the starboard side. Since I am the first starboard blade, they follow my oar.”
Barkenbush went from the middle of the boat in Seat 4, to the bow at the back end of the boat. Baranoski changed the team’s configuration just as the team began training for Nationals. “At first, it was a big adjustment, but I came to love that position, and the changes helped us to find even more speed as a boat,” she said.
The remaining rowers in the boat are Notre Dame’s Hickey, Princeton’s Caitlin Cleary and Bridget Parker, Hopewell Valley’s Laila Shehab, Freehold Township’s Colleen Gillis), Council Rock North’s Katie Lustig and Millstone’s Rachel Mumau.
Hansen and Barkenbush, who will be juniors when school starts back up, will get a slight rest before getting right back into two-a-day practices for the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in St. Catharine’s, Ontario in early August.
Each girl has their complete focus on crew now, although Barkenbush was contemplating lacrosse entering high school.
“My favorite thing about rowing is the direct relationship between work and success,” Barkenbush said. “ If you put the time and effort into improving yourself, you will see the results.”
Hansen agreed. “My favorite thing about rowing is that you can make yourself good. You don’t need some innate talent, or special gift. The work you put in is the work you get out,” she said.
Hansen, not the tallest athlete, appreciates the fact that in crew, her size is not the disadvantage it would be in, say, basketball. “Rowing gives you a chance to have an even playing field,” she said. “I also like the feeling after knowing you’ve given it all you have. The pain you feel in your whole body, it’s a feeling you don’t get from any other sport.”
And when that pain leads to reward, it’s all the better.
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West Windsor-Plainsboro had several other residents in boats that fared well in the nationals. WWPN senior Elise Gorberg and WWPS senior Eileen Hu were on the PNRA/Mercer lightweight girls 4 plus coxswain boat that finished eighth; while WWPS junior Daniel Stoddard was on the PNRA/Mercer boys varsity 8 plus coxswain boat that finished 11th.
