The Detroit Boat Club Crew kicked off its racing season with hosting a successful Motown Madness Indoor Regatta followed by the Grosse Ile Indoor Regatta, with 11 victories across the two events.
Later that month, the team packed up and traveled down to Camp Bob Cooper in Summerton, South Carolina for Spring Training, with over 30 junior rowers present for the week of training and team building.
The first regatta was the Dogwood Juniors with our Women’s Youth 2- placing 1st and the Women’s Youth 4+ placing 3rd. With a change in the regatta schedule, the juniors next headed down to Wyandotte’s Wy-Hi Regatta and, although most of the events could only be raced as exhibitions as the DBCC represents mixed high-school boats, our crews won 8 events with the all Grosse Pointe South High School boats in the Women’s Varsity 2-, Men’s Varsity 1x, and Men’s Varsity 2x earning gold medals and the trophies for those events.
A few weeks later, the Juniors traveled to the Midwest Junior Rowing Championships on Bethel, Ohio’s Lake Harsha where they earned four medals, becoming Midwest Champions in the Women’s Varsity 2- and the Men’s 2nd Varsity 2x, placing 2nd in the Men’s 2nd Varsity 4x, and 3rd in the Men’s U17 1x. In total, Detroit qualified 6 boats for the USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota, Florida. There, our Women’s 2-, placed second to last year’s national champions, by 2.7 seconds.
Over the summer, three of Detroit athletes were selected to train for the US National Team. The rest of our relatively young group of juniors were introduced, for most of them, to their first Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in St. Catharines, Ontario, continuing a DBC tradition that dates back to the 1890s.
The Juniors and Masters began the fall season at the Head of the Welland – Five Bridges Fall Classic in Welland, Ontario before travelling to the Huron Henley Challenge in Milford for the first time, placing 4th in the Men’s Varsity 4+ and 5th in the Women’s Varsity 4+
DBCC had 5 entries at the Head of the Charles, with Roman Lesnau and Greg Walker teaming up in the Men’s Veteran 60+ Doubles, placing 5th, Mike Deszi in the Men’s Masters Singles, both a Women’s and Men’s Junior eight, and a DBCC women’s alumni eight of Molly Packer, S. Dierksen, Lindsay Healy, J. Rebischke, Sarah Konopacki, Inga Sabourin, A. Lewis, Erika Pluhar, coxed by B. Curry.
The DBCC juniors and masters finished the 2024 season in Chattanooga at Head of the Hooch, with notable finishes from Grady Deenik and Peter Stephens placing 8th out of 39 in the U17 2x, the Men’s U19 4x placing 17th out of 52, the Masters Women’s 8+ placing 10th out of 20, Stephen Malbouef, recovering from a back injury, placing 5th in the Championship Lightweight 1x, and our coaches, Mike Gentile and Stephen Malbouef, keeping up the DBCC’s 3 year streak of placing 2nd in the Master’s U50 2-, having the fastest raw time.
A Historic Year
2024 was a remarkable year for the Detroit Boat Club Crew, seeing four of our current rowers or alumni racing for the United States National Team at the Olympics, World Championships, and CanAmMex International Regatta.
In August, St. Catharines, Ontario hosted the U19, U23, and Elite World Rowing Championships on a course that has been well known to rowers of the DBCC over the last 121 years as the location of the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. This year, DBCC had two of its rowers representing Team USA at the Worlds.
Carly Brown, who won gold for the US in the U19 4+ at the 2023 U19 World Championships (the only medal for Team USA that year) returned in 2024 as the stroke seat of the United States U19 Women’s 8+ (which they starboard-rigged for her). Carly’s boat led the pack all the way down the course, finishing with a dominant nearly two boat-length lead over last year’s world champions – Great Britian. Carly became the third DBCC rower to ever earn more than one medal at a World Rowing Championship, after Paul Fuchs and Jen Reck, and she is the ONLY DBCC World Champion, let alone 2-time World Champion. Carly was the 3-seat of the DBCC’s Youth National Championship winning 4+ in 2023, the second time in the club’s history that a boat has won Youth Nationals, and she was bow seat of the U19 2- that placed 2nd at Youth Nationals last year. She also represented Team USA at the CanAmMex International Regatta in 2022 where she won both the 8+ and the 2-. She is currently in her freshman year rowing for Stanford University.
Our second worlds athlete was Olivia Bachert, who was bow seat of the 2nd place US Women’s U23 4+, just missing gold by 1.8 seconds. Olivia is the second U23 rower in DBCC history to earn a medal and the first U23 rower from the DBCC to medal in 23 years. Olivia was the 2-seat of the DBCC’s 2023 national champion 4+ and is currently in her sophomore year at Syracuse. As a freshman, she made the Syracuse Varsity 8+, placing 8th at the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Of the 35 rowers who have represented the DBCC at the World Rowing Championships, only 6 have earned medals: Paul Fuchs, Jeff Pfaendtner, Jen Reck, Lauren Shook, Carly Brown, and Olivia Bachert.
In addition to our athletes at worlds, DBCC rower Elizabeth (Lizzie) Peberdy competed for the US National Team at the CanAmMex International Regatta held in Mexico City, winning both the Women’s U19 8+ and U19 2- over Canada and Mexico, winning the 8+ by nearly 18 seconds. Lizzie was the stroke seat of the DBCC 2- that placed 2nd at Youth Nationals last year and she is currently rowing for the University of Tennessee.
With Carly at Stanford, Lizzie at Tennessee, and DBCC alum Alex Rollins at Texas, we currently have alumni at each of the top 3 ranked women’s rowing programs in the country.
In addition to these accomplishments, DBCC alumni Sorin Koszyk, currently training with the California Rowing Club, placed 4th in the Men’s Double Sculls at the Olympic Games in Paris, the best finish the US has had in the event since 1984. This was the fourth time the DBC has been represented in the Men’s 2x and Sorin is the DBCC’s 19th Olympian since 1904. Sorin rowed for the DBC through his senior year of high school and during that time he won four US National Championship titles for the DBC as well as a Canadian Henley title.
Koszyk went on to row for Vesper, earning an additional 4 nationals titles and a Canadian Henley title in 2016 and Cornell where he won IRA’s twice, which all together makes him a 10-time US National Champion, and a 3-time Canadian Henley Champion. After college, he rowed for Penn AC and most recently has been training with the California Rowing Club. In the last several years, he has placed 2nd at World Cup II in 2023, 13th at Worlds in 2023, 7th at Worlds in 2022, and 4th at World Cup I in 2021. He also set the course record for the Championship Single at the Head of the Charles in 2023, meaning both the lightweight course record (set by Paul Fuchs in 1984) and the heavyweight course record are currently held by DBCC alumni.
Since 1965, the DBCC has had at least one person on the US National team for 41 of the last 59 years.
- 2024 USRowing Youth National Championships – Peberdy & Brown – Women’s 2- – Silver
- 2024 U19 World Rowing Championships – Carly Brown – Women’s 8+ – Gold
- 2024 U23 World Rowing Championships – Olivia Bachert – Women’s 4+ – Silver
- 2024 CanAmMex International Regatta – Elizabeth Peberdy – Women’s 8+ & 2- – Gold
- 2024 Olympic Games – Sorin Koszyk – Men’s 2x – 4th
2024 VICTORIES OF THE DETROIT BOAT CLUB
Motown Madness, February 10, 2024, Detroit, Michigan
- Women’s U17 – Addie Hall
- Men’s U17 – Samuel Beleshi
- Women’s U19 – Carly Brown
- Men’s U19 – Ethan Kent
- Women’s Relay – DBCC
Island Sprints, March 2, 2024, Grosse Ile, Michigan
- Women’s Masters (40+) – Larae Baker
- Men’s Veterans (50+) – Edward Benz (91)
- Women’s Junio r- Carly Brown Brown
- Men’s Coxswain 1k – Jack Horrocks
- Women’s Junior Relay – DBCC
- Men’s Lightweight – Gregory Marsh
Dogwood Junior Championship, April 27-28, 2024, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
- Women’s Youth Pair – Elizabeth Peberdy, Carly Brown
Wy-Hi Regatta, May 4, 2024, Wyandotte, Michigan
- Women’s Varsity Pair – Elizabeth Peberdy, Carly Brown, GPSHS
- Men’s Varsity 1x – Samuel Beleshi, GPSHS
- Men’s Varsity 2x – Grady Deenik, Samuel Beleshi, GPSHS
- Women’s Junior Varsity 8+ – (Exhibition)
- Men’s Varsity 4+ -(Exhibition)
- Women’s Novice 8+ – (Exhibition)
- Men’s Varsity 4x – Grady Deenik, Ishaan Marfatia, Brennan Supino, Ethan Kent (Exhibition)
- Women’s Varsity 8+ – (Exhibition)
Midwest Junior Rowing Championship, May 18-19, 2024, Bethel, Ohio
- Women’s Varsity Pair – Elizabeth Peberdy, Carly Brown
- Men’s 2nd Varsity 2x – Maxwell Baloh, Michael Roustemis
Indy Summer Sprints, June 15, 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Mens Masters 4+ – E. Spector, Cox., M. Gasper, Dennis Wojdyla, Michael Thibault, M. Stormberg
- Mens Masters 4x – M. Gasper, Michael Thibault, Dennis Wojdyla, M. Stormberg
Midwest Summer Sprints, July 11, 2024, Zanesville, Ohio
- Mens Masters 1x – Alex Stanovoy
Henley Masters Regatta, July 13-14, 2024, Henley-on-Thames, England
- Mens Open Masters H 8+ – Chris Boit, Cox., Bill Byrd, Dennis Wojdyla, Mike Gasper, Paul, Michael Thibault, Dennis Sitek
USRowing RowFest National Championships, July 13-21, 2024, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Mens Masters Open G-K 4- Richard Anderson (DBC), William Byrd (WRC), Rick Sitek (DBC), Dennis Sitek (DBC)
- Mens Masters Open H 1x – Richard Anderson
- Mens Masters Open H 4- – William Byrd (WRC), Dennis Sitek (DBC),
- Mens Masters Open G-K 4- William Byrd (WRC), Patrick Hayes (LBRA),Rick Sitek (DBC), Dennis Sitek (DBC)
Michigan Club Invitational, July 20, 2024, Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Mens Masters 1x – Alex Stanovoy
- Mens Masters 4+ – L. Maldonado, Cox., Paul Johnson, Alex Stanovoy, Paul Stefanutti, G. Smith
World Rowing Masters Regatta, September 11-15, 2024, Brandenburg, Germany
- Mens H 2x Final 7 – Dennis Sitek, Richard Anderson
- Mens H 4- Final 1 – Dennis Sitek, Rick Sitek, Richard Anderson, William Byrd
Head of the Cuyahoga Regatta, September 21, 2024, Cleveland, Ohio
- Mens Masters 2x – Michael Deszi, Alex Stanovoy
Head of the Welland – Five Bridges Fall Classic, September 28, 2024, Welland, Ontario
- Mens Masters 4x – Allan Baur, J. Montie, Dennis Wojdyla, Michael Thibault