Local rowers best college teams Local rowers best college teams (November 20, 2002)

A rowing crew of five students from local high schools finished ahead of 23 teams, including teams from Princeton, Cornell and Syracuse universities, in a 6,000-meter race before some 250,000 spectators lining the Charles River in Boston on Sunday, October 20.

SVCrew (Silicon Valley Crew), made up of four junior girls and one senior, came in 12th in a field of 35 boats in the "Youth Fours Women" section of the "Head of the Charles" race.

SVCrew overtook the Berkshire School team in the last 30 strokes and edged out the Princeton University Women by two-tenths of a second after Princeton clashed oars earlier with the Syracuse team.

Rowing for Silicon Valley were Menlo School junior Courtney Morgan, Palo Alto High School junior Jamie Lyon, Gunn High School junior Rachel Gilman, Menlo-Atherton senior Leah Wachtel at stroke, and Sacred Heart junior Stephanie Neidig as coxswain.

Neidig founded SVCrew two years ago. They're coached by former U.S. national and Olympics team rower Mike Still. Because race rules require a crew to be in existence for at least three years, SVCrew entered under the charter of its Stanford affiliate, the Kent Mitchell Rowing Club.

The team practices out of the Port of Redwood City. This is their second year in the Boston race, where they placed eighth this year among all U.S. high schools entered.