Proud History

The Hillsborough High School Crew team, the only scholastic rowing team at an IB high school in Hillsborough County, was established in 1999.  While Tampa currently boasts a large rowing community, it was not considered a rowing town at that time. In fact, although Florida might be a powerhouse now, it was not a rowing state by any means in the early 2000s. At that time, a few alumni from northern schools living here made a concerted effort to bring rowing to the greater Tampa Bay area.  At the same time Hillsborough started, Plant, Tampa Catholic, and Berkeley began their programs. The early years were a little lean at times.  Initially, you could only race eights as a generally accepted rule, making it difficult for smaller teams to compete with larger teams at regattas.

Over the years, there were some notable successes at Hillsborough as diversity increased, boat sizes decreased, and general competition increased. Now, Hillsborough can count several Naval Academy graduates among its alums, Anna Paz being one of the most recent and notable. At the Naval Academy, she participated in the women's rowing program for four years and served as brigade commander. At Hillsborough, she created and won the Junior Women's Double trophy during her sophomore year in 2012 with partner Kellen Yent and defended it with her the following year at States.

In the beginning, Hillsborough's bread and butter were singles and doubles, and we slowly expanded on that as our talent pool increased and our numbers grew.  After building our shell sizes, we were considered a relatively strong force within the Junior Four categories.

2017

The men's team has won several victories in recent years as well.  Nick Jeske and Savion Fordham have medaled in nearly every race where they've competed as a double partner's set.  They've qualified for Nationals together, and they've qualified in the Junior Four as well.  We consider the Junior Four our legacy shell because of its success over the last four years, trading people in and out, medaling at States, and medaling at many regattas, proving that even a small squad like Hillsborough can compete with the bigger teams in select categories. In addition to the success on the men's team, our women's lightweight squad won the Girl's Lightweight Quadruple Skulls at States and qualified for Nationals.

 

 

 

2019

Hillsborough High School is known for its hard work methodology in academics and in rowing. 2019 was proof of this as for the first time in HHSRC history a freshmen boat medaled and was invited to compete in a National Championship Regatta in Nashport, OH. Comprised of the Girls Freshmen 8+: Anna Mullins (Coxswain), Gabriella Sprague, Skye McCarthy, Asher Montgomery, Sophia Cavallari, Annika Luecht, Kristen Cordell, and Gianna Settimi.

 

 

 

2022

HHSRC showed up again at SRAA Nationals, held in Camden, New Jersey with the Girls JV8+ team made up of Erin West, Logan Taylor, Nydia Sepulveda, Maddie Perrone, Ella LeMieux, Mireilla Kamprath, Isolde Rayman-Moore, Evelyn Woody, and Ralyn Dye. Senior Gianna Settimi competed in the Girls Varsity 1x.

2023

HHSRC traveled to Melton Hill Lake, Tennessee to compete in SRAA® National Regatta 2 Boys 4+ teams: Duncan Gormon, Martin Schomaker, Quinn Hammond, Xavier Alvarez Neff, Sloane Waggoner, Gabriel Kroh, Coen Zimmerman, Diego Molnar, Preston Malouin, and Ralyn Dye.

2024

The SRAA®National Regatta was back in Camden, New Jersey in 2024, and HHSRC had the largest showing of student-athletes in attendance in our history!
Competing in the MLT4+: Martin Schomaker, Quinn Hammond, Xavier Alvarez Neff, and Ralyn Dye (coxswain).
Competing in the MJr8+: Gabriel Kroh, Diego Molnar, Dominic Capobianco, Alejandro Garcia, Preston Malouin, Wyatt Smith, Aarav Sood, Sriyan Katta and Christian Santiago (coxswain).
Competing in the WJr8+: Nydia Sepulveda, Ella LeMieux, Mireilla Kamprath, Jaya Uberoi, KC Carter, Elana Bailey, Mia Molnar, Hannah Carey and Sloane Waggoner (coxswain).

 

Congratulations to our Men’s Lightweight 4+ for placing 3rd at 2024 SRAA Nationals!

The future is bright and we look forward to competing strongly in future competitions in all categories.

GO BIG RED!