Junior rowers from Megunticook Rowing excelled in their two regattas this spring and can call themselves the state’s champion junior rowers after the boy’s four won both the B2 (second boat) and B1 (first boat) races at the Maine Youth Rowing Association (MYRA) Championships in Portland May 24. They beat out older and more experienced teams from Yarmouth Rowing, Waynflete School, and Berwick Academy for the wins.

The MYRA event was hosted by Waynflete on a 1500 meter stretch on the Fore River in Portland. Approximately 150 teenagers from around the state participated, a record number as the sport has taken hold in Maine.

The Midcoast rowers battled a strong headwind to win the B2 race handily. Then got back in their boat an hour later to race in the B1 event. After a rough start, they powered through the middle of the race to take the lead and hold it for a strong first place finish. What made the wins even more remarkable is that the Megunticook rowers are novices, which means they all have been rowing for less than a year.

They also were the only rowers at the event who competed in two races. The Megunticook boys (Jonas Eichenlaub, Trey Gilson, Jack Hanson, Zach Markowitz, and Drew West) had done so well in their novice races the previous weekend that this time Coach Ry Hills decided to enter them in the B1 and B2 races (the equivalent of jv and varsity) instead.

On May 17, both the Megunticook boys and girls fours won gold medals at the Moose on the Malden Regatta in Medford, Mass., in the first sprint competition ever for the fledging midcoast club and its teen-age rowers. The Megunticook boys four beat 11 other boats to win the boys’ novice four event, while the girls’ novice four also posted the fastest time of the 12 boats in their class to win gold on the 1,500-meter course. There were 14 clubs from Maine and Massachusetts at the event, including Waynflete School and the Yarmouth Rowing Club from Maine.

The girls’ boat consisted of Alexandra Dobbins, Emily Haining, Jade Hazzard, Carrie Helmholz, and Alexis Roszahegyi. Kate McKenna went along as team manager.

Megunticook Coach Ry Hills started the Megunticook club with five other people in 2009. They worked with the town of Camden to allow them set to up boat racks and a launch site at Barrett’s Cove, and then acquired a handful of rowing shells.

In the first few years, the club focused mostly on teaching both juniors and adults how to row. Students who learned to row from Hills have gone on to excel in both high school and college, including Emma Conover whose varsity eight at Bates College won the ECAC National Championship and competes this weekend in the NCAA Rowing Championships in Sacramento, California.

Conover has been elected team captain for next year. Brooks Saltonstall went on to row varsity crew at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

In 2013, Hills entered a junior four in Megunticook Rowing’s first-ever race, a three-mile competition in Massachusetts. They finished well. Last summer the club hired an assistant coach Ryan Boutote, who helped attract even more young rowers. Then last fall, two Megunticook junior teams competed again and this time did really well in two so-called head races, which are courses that cover several miles; the Textile Regatta in Lowell, Mass., and the New Hampshire Championships in Manchester.

The junior boys won their novice event in both races and the junior girls finished near the top, competing at the varsity level. Over the winter, Boutote worked with the junior rowers on indoor weight training and conditioning for the spring season.

A long-time rower and coach, Hills’ background includes coaching at the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Junior National Team. Before she hurt her back and took up coaching, Hills was a nationally ranker rower who missed making the U.S. Olympic Team in 1976 by just one second.

She decided to start the local program because she missed the sport and wanted to get people in the region rowing. The other people who helped get the Midcoast program started included Meredith Currier, Tory Dibner, Peter Edwards, Amy Wilton, and Heather Bruce.

Hills says she hopes the club will grow as a community rowing program, introducing more adults and teen-agers to the sport.

“Someday I hope we can have a permanent home on the lake, and maybe even a boathouse,” she said.

Megunticook Rowing offers classes and community rowing.