
Left to right: Andres De la Puente, Enrico Pradines, Eddie Hoffman, Connor Tomchin, and Ashlyn McGinn in front. Photo by Susan Tomchin.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
Two Coral Springs residents just took home a silver medal at the 2019 Scholastic Rowing National Championship held in Dillon Lake, Ohio.
Connor Tomchin and Eddie Hoffman, both juniors at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, are lifelong residents of Coral Springs. Connor is the son of Susan and Eric Tomchin of Eagle Trace, and Eddie is the son of Ed and June Hoffman of Pine Ridge. The two have been rowing on the Pine Crest varsity team since the 9th grade, and this weekend, traveled to Ohio to compete in the championship regatta.
Hosted by the Scholastic Rowing Association of America, teams must qualify to enter, which determines the North American Champions.
Both Tomchin and Hoffman’s team entered the varsity four-oared shell with coxswain race which included rowers Andres De La Puente, Enrico Pradines, and their high school freshman coxswain, Ashlyn McGinn. The team could have entered the Junior Varsity event but decided to enter the Senior division since it’s a more competitive race.
There were 26 qualified boats in their race, and the competition began with races in heats. The first place winner in each heat would move on to semifinals the next day. The Pine Crest boat came in first place in their heat by open water and moved on to day two.
Next, they competed in the semifinal races, where the top three boats move on to Grand Finals. They came in second place in the semifinals behind Culver, a military academy school in Indiana, and qualified to move on to the Grand Finals, where they came in second place overall, returning home to South Florida with the silver medal.
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- Editor of Talk Media and writer for Coral Springs Talk. CST was created in 2012 to provide News, Views, and Entertainment for the residents of Coral Springs and the rest of South Florida.
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