Six Darien Girls with Connecticut Boat Club Compete in Head of the Charles Regatta

The Connecticut Boat Club (CBC) sent four boats and 25 athletes — including six girls from Darien — to Boston for this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta.

With close to 11,000 athletes from all over the world, the Head of the Charles Regatta is the world’s largest rowing competition.

— an announcement from the Connecticut Boat Club

The Darien girls who participated are Julia Abbruzzese, ViVi Van Ingen (coxswain), Catherine Garrett, Casey Batson (all from the Women’s 1st Varsity Youth 8+ boat); Flynn Woodring and Gigi Skolds (from the Women’s 2nd Varsity Youth 8+ boat).

CBC’s First Varsity 8+ finished 3^rd out of 85 boats from across the country to earn a Bronze medal.

CBC’s Second Varsity 8+ competed in the same event and finished 44^th, ahead of 41 other clubs’ first varsity boats.

The club’s Varsity 4+ placed 35^th out of 84 boats, thereby guaranteeing the team an entry for that event in next year’s regatta.

And CBC’s Varsity 2X finished 29^th out of 43 boats.

Here’s the full list of team members on each boat:

Women’s 1^st Youth 8+: Bridget Galloway of Ridgefield, Ella Petreski of Pound Ridge, N.Y., Heidi Jacobson of Greenwich, Julia Abbruzzese of Darien, ViVi Van Ingen (coxswain) of Darien, Catherine Garrett of Darien, Jenna Macrae of Stamford, Casey Batson of Darien, Kiki Stoker of Pound Ridge, and Head Coach Liz Trond of New Haven.

Women’s 2^nd Youth 8+: Ellie Forbis of Ridgefield, Tess Nobles of Wilton, Josie Constantine of Stamford, Flynn Woodring of Darien, Lucy Collins of Ridgefield, Gigi Skolds of Darien, Madi Santa Barbera of Milford, Olivia Moor of New Canaan, and Ali Triano (coxswain) of Stamford.

Women’s Youth 4+: Jaia Wingard of Manhattan, NY, Katherine Lynch of Ridgefield, Paula Pucel of Ridgefield, Eleanor Imrie of Wilton, and Taylor Brown (coxswain) of Ridgefield.

Women’s Youth 2X: Gabriella Moore and Whitney Short, both of Fairfield.

About the Connecticut Boat Club

Connecticut Boat Club is a high performance female-only youth (middle school and high school) rowing club and Women’s Masters program based on the Norwalk River in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Founded in the spring of 2010 by U.S. National Team Junior/CBC head coach Liz Trond, the team includes girls from throughout southwestern Connecticut and Westchester County New York.

Not only has CBC proven to be a top-tier program in scholastic rowing, but almost every year a handful of CBC athletes compete for the USA at international events such as the Junior World Championships, where in 2018 Catherine Garrett won Gold in the Youth Women’s 4- and Heidi Jacobson and Julia Abbruzzesee won Bronze in the Youth Women’s 4+.

You can find the Connecticut Boat Club on Facebook.