“At first it was just to try it out and see if it was fun,” Primmer said. “Now it’s more of trying to win and get medals and not letting the rest of the people in the boat down.”

 

Primmer, who competes as the third seat in a men’s youth lightweight 8+ boat, travels to Bladensburg after school to practice with rowers from Churchill High School. The hard work paid off in mid-May, when the team traveled to Mercer Lake near Princeton, N.J. to compete at the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Championship.

 

Primmer’s boat went straight to finals and came in third place, crossing the finish line only 1.2 seconds behind the second-place team. Their time was good enough to qualify them for finals, making club history as the first boat from Montgomery Boat Club to qualify for national competition.

 

The victory follows success in April at the Cooper Cup regatta in Camden, N.J., where Primmer’s boat came in first place.

 

He said this achievement shows how far the team has come in the past three years.

 

“I think it shows how we’ve grown as a team and how the team’s overall strength is getting better and better,” Primmer said.

 

Since he started rowing his freshman year, the program has grown from 30 to 40 members to around 90, Primmer said. Two St. Andrew’s students have started rowing at the novice level: Daniel González-Kosasky ’20, who competes in the men’s youth novice 8+ boat, and Meredith Amick ’21, who competes in the women’s youth novice 4+ boat.

 

At the US Mid-Atlantic Championship, González-Kosasky’s boat placed second in their heat and third in the semi-finals, ending the day with a fifth-place finish in the finals. Amick’s boat also placed second in their heat and came in fourth in the semi-finals, only 1.6 seconds out from third place and a chance at the finals.

 

Looking ahead to the National Championships, which begin Friday at Lake Natoma, Calif., Primmer said he expects the team to put forth their best effort on the water.

 

“We’ll go there and do our best and try our hardest,” Primmer said. “As long as we do that, I’ll be satisfied.”