Owner Message
Matt Knifton - TRC Owner
TRC has just completed an unprecedented summer of racing at the national, international, and Olympic levels! Congratulations to our masters coaches and athletes, winners of the Masters Nations Overall, Club, and Men's Points Trophies. And our women finished a strong second in the Women's Point Trophy competition. The highlight for me was undoubtedly watching Tina, Devon, Lauren and Krista win the night-time quad sprint and $1,000 in prize money! Once again, TRC proved it has the best masters program in the country.
This past weekend, we watched TRC HP athletes Jasper Liu, Ian Richardson, and alum Jimmy McCullough win a silver medal in the lightweight quad at the senior World Championships in Ottawa! For these three, this race was their last elite-level competition, and we wish them the best as they start the next phase of life. Thanks for the memories guys!
Finally, this summer I had the experience of a lifetime watching my daughter Kate race in the Paris Olympics. As many of you know, Kate started rowing with the TRC Juniors back in 2015 as a high-school sophomore. She would go on to win a silver medal for TRC at the 2018 Youth Nationals in the pair with her partner Denise, as well as a bronze medal at the U19 World Championships. Kate then went on to an incredible college rowing career at Texas, stroking UT's Varsity Eight to the program's first two NCAA National Championships in 2021 and 2022, as well as stroking an all-Longhorn four for the USA to a U23 World Championship in 2022 - Hook'em!
But during that summer, Kate's back pain became unbearable. Doctors discovered she had a herniated disk and there were only two viable treatment options - traditional physical therapy rehab or spine surgery. Traditional PT meant a very long recovery time and probably the end of her UT rowing career and her Paris Olympic dream. She chose surgery and three months of post-op rest and rehabilitation. This option also had risks and no guarantees, but gave her the best chance for immediate pain relief and getting to Paris. Eighteen months later, Kate was selected for Team USA, and ultimately stroked the four to a strong fifth-place Olympic finish - the best finish by American women in that event since 1992. Kate became the first home-grown TRC rower to make the Olympics, but we hope she won't be the last. Congratulations Kate and Go USA!Â
August Results
2024 Paris Olympic Games
Congratulations to TRC alum Kate Knifton on her 5th place finish in the Women's Four event! Kate rowed at TRC from 2015 to 2018 and is the first member of our Juniors team to compete at the Olympics.Â
World Championships
Congratulations to TRC HP alumni Jasper Liu, Ian Richardson, and Jimmy McCullough along with their boat mate Casey Howshall for their silver medal in the Men's Lightweight Quad at the 2024 Senior World Championships in St. Catherine's Canada! This was the first ever silver medal in this event.
Another TRC alum Timmy Pars also had an outstanding 7th place finish in the Men's Lightweight Single at the Under 23 World Championships also taking place in St. Catherines.
RowFest Summer Nationals
Fantastic results from the first year of the TRC Under 23 Development Camp at RowFest Summer Nationals in Oklahoma City! The camp was made up of athletes from various schools including the University of Texas, Syracuse, Hobart, and MIT. Congratulations to all the athletes and a special thanks to coach Alex Sutherland for having the vision for this camp!
Men's U23 Four - 1st
(Savannah Cunningham, Pieter Maximilian Feenstra, Dimitri Chamitoff, Pedro Colucci Kfuri, Rory Taylor)
Men's Open Eight (Composite with San Diego Rowing Club) - 1st
(Kelsie Salgado, Tom Peszek, Kyle Mabry, Steve Kasprzyk, Pedro Colucci Kfuri, Pieter Maximilian Feenstra, Lucas Stroud, Stephen Foster, Dimitri Chamitoff)
Men's Open Four (Composite with San Diego Rowing Club) - 2nd
(Tom Peszek, Kyle Mabry, Steve Kasprzyk, Lucas Stroud)
Men's U23 Double - 4th
(William DuBois, Holden May)
USRowing RowFest
Congratulations to our masters athletes on another very successful Masters Nationals (aka RowFest 2024)! This year, our men’s and women’s masters teams once again proved that TRC has the biggest, deepest, and fastest masters program in the country. Our team, which included our partner squad, Look Of Change, had the most participants and most entries of any team, and the racing results were outstanding.
TRC repeated as winner of the Overall Points Trophy, Club Points Trophy, and Men’s Points Trophy (second was Riverfront Recapture). And our women’s team nearly repeated as Women’s Point Trophy winners, finishing a very close second to Chinook.Â
The men’s team was highlighted by some great performances, including wins by John Cullicott in the D and E singles; and a victory by Bob and Simon in the C pair over the 1992 and 1996 US Olympic pair - take that Ex Nemo! Incidentally, Simon won ten medals, including eight golds - take that Tom Peszek!
Likewise, there were many outstanding performances by our women, including a convincing victory by Krista, Lauren, Devon and Tina in the quad dash that included a $1,000 bonus check! That lineup followed-up its dash victory by also winning its category at the  standard 1k distance - take that Chinook!
Team TRC once again demonstrated that our inclusive approach, combined with a strong commitment from TRC and its coaches/athletes, produces the best racing results. Just about every TRC athlete who went to OKC returned with at least one medal. Please thank your coaches for their work in preparing you for this success.Â
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