Teal Cohen Brings Home the Gold for the U.S. Junior Rowing Team!

After a tough four week qualification and selection process in New London, CT, Teal earned a spot to compete in the U.S. Womens' Eight and Womens' Four against the top junior rowers from Canada and Mexico.   She earned GOLD in both of her races at the regatta in Sarasota, FL in late July, which were 2 of only 3 golds earned by the U.S. women and men combined.  Mexico won the overall medal count and the U.S. narrowly finished second ahead of Canada.  

 

It was a tough road to the regatta and the Gold medals.  Teal first had to earn an invitation to the US Rowing camp, which she did through her ergometer testing and training with Hockaday Coach Tim McAllister.   Once she got to the camp, the selection process was grueling and involved on-water races, workouts, erg testing and fitness testing.  Teal was selected out of more than 60 of the top female high school rowers in the country at the training camp to be one of only 13 junior women to represent the US in the CanAmMex Regatta.  Teal hopes to return next year and try to earn a spot on the Junior National team to compete at the FISA Junior World Championships. An interesting side note is that the Hockaday team competes in sculling (2 oars).  Teal had to train and learn to sweep row, which is rowing with only one oar and quite different from sculling, but she clearly had a steep learning curve!   

 

Hockaday is extremely proud of this unprecedented accomplishment!!