The Atlanta Junior Rowing Association competed in five events at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships in Oak Ridge, Tenn. from June 7 to 9, finishing with the strongest results in the club’s 25-year history. The event brought together nearly 1,600 athletes from 150 clubs in 30 states competed for a national championship in one of 18 events. An AJRA boat, the Women’s Lightweight 4, plus coxswain, competed in the Grand Final, which determines the top six boats nationally, for the first-time ever. The team, including Milton High School student Zoe Canaras, finished fourth. Trevor Appier of Roswell High School led his Men’s Pair boat to a tenth-place finish in the Petite Final, the highest mark for an AJRA men’s entry since the Championship expanded to its current format. The Women’s 4, plus coxswain team finished 10th in the nation, led by high school students Sarah Hudnall, Roswell, Hayley Liebenow, Johns Creek, Maggie Nugent, Cambridge and Hannah Onians, St. Francis. The final two AJRA boats, the Women’s Pair and Men’s Lightweight 4, plus coxswain, placed 13th and 18th in their respective events. Those teams consisted of Joe Cecil, Johns Creek, Jessica Geng, Roswell, James Virgo, Milton, and Cassi Lobaugh, Milton, while Samantha Morton, Alpharetta, and Janey Murray, Roswell, served as alternates. “AJRA rowers capped off the spring season with record-breaking performances all the way around at Youth Nationals,” said AJRA head coach Sam Greenblatt. “We knew coming out of the Southeast Regional with multiple titles that AJRA stood a great chance of breaking open the club’s record books at Nationals.” AJRA was founded in 1988 as a non-profit club sport dedicated to providing opportunities for high school students throughout metro Atlanta to participate in the Olympic sport of rowing. Today, AJRA has more than 120 rowers from 32 high schools who row in spring and fall seasons at regattas across the Southeast. In addition, AJRA has a developmental team for more than 80 rowers from local middle schools.