Area trio wins gold in rowing championships

Three area high school rowers - Lou Lombardi and Pat McGlone of St. Joseph's Prep and Justin Jones of Bishop Eustace - won gold medals for the U.S. team in the World Rowing Junior Championships, held earlier this month in the Czech Republic.

Lombardi, McGlone and Jones were on the eight-with-coxswain crew that defeated defending champion Germany by 0.65 seconds to take the gold. Germany finished second, and Italy was third.

The U.S. team had placed second in both its heat and repechage before winning the final.

"It was unreal," Lombardi, the coxswain, told U.S. Rowing's website. "I had to double-glance to my right a couple of times, and thought, 'Wow, we're in first place. Let's hold onto this and let's walk away.'

"We made a little change to our length at 20 strokes to go. I said, 'Let's go. Let's go now,' and we did."

Said men's coach Colin Campbell: "We knew we had speed. We knew we could race anybody here, but we had to get it right on the right day. Today, we got it right."

John McGrorty of St. Joe's Prep and Patrick Eble of La Salle were on the four with coxswain that finished fifth. Overall, the U.S. junior team won four medals, surpassing its previous record of three.

The world championships were held Aug. 5-8 in Racice, Czech Republic.