EAST PROVIDENCE — Freshman Lindsey Williams along with sophomore Emma Leary recently teamed to place second in the Under-17 Women’s Division, 2x2,000 meter event of the USRowing Virtual National Championships.

Williams, of Riverside, and Leary, of Little Compton, submitted their latest time in the competition of 7 minutes, 34.5 seconds, which was less than three seconds behind the winning time of the combo from Winter Park (Fla.) High School Crew, which posted a time of 7:31.65. A total of 18 teams submitted times for the national event.

Williams and Leary previously won the Northeast Youth Regional portion of the event by recording a time of 7:37.1 to top the field of entrants.

Offered by Rowers Choice in partnership with USRowing, this one-of-a-kind national indoor ergometers competition was developed in response to the ongoing COVID-19 virus outbreak because regattas across the world have been canceled, leaving few competitive options for rowers. Registered rowers submitted their verified times at each level of competition. Those who qualified for nationals had until June 12 to record and submit their times. Results were posted on June 15 at https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/results2/?job_id=7058&org_id=0.

The Bay View team as a whole reached out to Bengals rowing coach Lisa Evans to participate in the unique opportunity. Each are committed to rowing not only in high school but also in college and wanted to enter a virtual erg competition, since the opportunity to row on the water this spring was been put on hold due to the pandemic.

In addition to the silver medal for Williams and Leary, teammate Lily Sarnowski of Tiverton placed  eighth out of a field of 16 entrants in the women's youth lightweight national singles competition with a time of 7:59.9. The winning time of 7:31.7 was posted by a competitor from Oklahoma. Sarnowski earlier placed third with a 8:05.8 in the Northeast Regional event.

“I am extremely proud of these four girls for taking the initiative to compete against dozens of teams,” Coach Evans said earlier during the competition. “It takes great discipline and mental and physical toughness to compete on an erg, especially without your teammates’ support, alone in your basement!”

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