Montclair High School Rowing claimed the 2025 US Rowing Youth National Championship title as its Girls Youth Pair dominated the water to capture gold at the country’s premier national regatta in Sarasota, Florida, securing their place as the fastest women’s pair in the country.
The US Rowing Youth National Championship Regatta is the largest and most competitive junior rowing event in the country, drawing over 5,000 of the nation’s fastest high school athletes and club programs across more than 40 boat categories. Crews must qualify through regional championships, and only the top boats from each region advance to compete at this elite, invitation-only regatta.
The championship-winning duo, Madeleine Young, a Montclair High School senior recruited to row at Brown University in the fall, and Caitlin Cecere, a Montclair High School sophomore invited to US Rowing’s Selection Camp in Chula Vista and chosen to represent the United States at the 2025 World Rowing Junior Championships in Lithuania, powered to victory with a commanding, open-water performance. Their composure, strength, and seamless rhythm on the water capped off a historic season for the Mounties, earning Montclair its first-ever gold at Youth Nationals.
Fantastic Showing
Montclair’s other boats also had a fantastic showing, marking the team’s best overall program results at Youth Nationals: The Men’s Youth Coxed Four and Women’s Youth Eight both finished as the 9th fastest boats in the nation, with the Men’s Youth Four coming in as the 11th fastest crew.
This national performance adds to the Mounties’ dominant 2025 championship haul, which also includes crowning them Stotesbury Cup Champions and capturing the New Jersey State Championship, Cooper Cup Championship, Philadelphia City Championship, and Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship this season.
Under the leadership of Head Coach Jeremy Michalitsianos and Women’s Coach Lorna Rundle, the rowing program, now in its 23rd year, has built a national reputation for excellence, a remarkable feat for a public school program competing against elite, privately funded prep schools and clubs. The program is rich in diversity, spirit, and academic achievement, producing high-performing student-athletes who are consistently recruited to top collegiate rowing programs in the U.S. and abroad. Graduates have gone on to compete for rowing powerhouses, including Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, UPenn, Cal Berkeley, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Tufts, Columbia, Northeastern, Boston University, the University of Washington, and many others.
On the international front, Montclair is proud to have five alumni competing at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in the UK this summer—a pinnacle achievement in rowing and a powerful testament to the caliber of training, athletes, and the lasting legacy of the Montclair High School Rowing program. Montclair Rowing Alums competing include Kenny Coplan and Alex Abuhoff (Leander Club), Owen King (Oxford Brookes), Amelia Cataldi (University of London Boat Club), and Samara Haynes (Tufts University, USA).
