Sports
Wayland Rowers Take Bronze at Nationals
Wayland rowers Gabriella Purman and Hannah Brigham win a bronze medal at the 2011 US Rowing Club National Championships.
Gabriella Purman and Hannah Brigham had the race of their lives at the 2011 U.S. Rowing Club National Championships, winning a bronze medal.
The Wayland rowers joined the Boston Rowing Club for the summer and the team travelled to Indianapolis for the national championship regatta. The regatta was a five-day event starting on July 13.
On Sunday morning, Purman and Brigham rowed with two of their teammates in the Women’s Intermediate Lightweight Quad race. This was a sculling race, where each of the rowers uses two oars.
Find out what's happening in Waylandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Both Purman and Brigham have been rowing with the Wayland-Weston crew team for two years, but neither girl has had much experience with sculling until this summer. The Boston Rowing Club is a sculling club for women.
Their quad was not expected to do well in this race, since they had to row against much more experienced rowers, including college-aged women. But they surprised everyone, including themselves, earning a bronze medal with a third-place finish.
Find out what's happening in Waylandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
As expected, the team from the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia took the early lead and won the race. But it was the Boston Rowing Club team that did the unexpected.
The Boston Rowing Club quad pushed hard from the start, moving into second place right away.
“We could see the Wisconsin boat in the lane beside us," Purman commented. That really motivated us.”
Brigham added, “We knew we had to be rowing well to be ahead of Wisconsin.”
The Boston Rowing Club crew nearly held off the hard-charging Wisconsin team for second place, but still finished well above expectations, earning a bronze medal and smiles for the team.
Brigham and Purman were very happy to make it to the medal stand. This was their first trip to the national championships and they made the best of it.
“Everything came together for us today," Brigham said. "This is an exciting day.”