Riverhead duo earn gold medal at state rowing championships

When you think of Riverhead sports, rowing doesn’t necessarily come to mind, but two seniors are trying to change that by successfully competing on a national level.

Danny O’Neill and Hunter Bingham, the Boys Senior Varsity Double team for the East End Rowing Club located in Flanders, have made the nationals in the sculling (two oar) event after completely dominating in the New York State Scholastic Rowing Championships this past weekend.

After placing first in time trials on the first day, they won the gold medal in their race, securing a place in history as New York State champions.

“They won by 20 seconds,” said Debbie Bingham, Hunter’s mom. “They finished the race about 8 to 9 boat lengths ahead of second place.”

Though the two will eventually split up after the season ends as both will enroll in Division I NCAA programs with O’Neill heading to Cornell University and Bingham to Oklahoma City University, there is still one important regatta to be had.

They will race in U.S. Rowing Youth National Championship in Oak Ridge, Tenn. from June 7-10, with hopes of ending their season as national champions in their event, proving all the hard work they put forth has made a heap of difference.

“Nationals has been our goal since the end of the summer,” said O’Neill. “We have had other minor goals along the way, but Nationals will be the highlight of our season. There will be some very fast teams from all across the country so it will be hard to say exactly how we will perform. We are really hoping to get a medal there, and anything better than that would be great.”

To perfect any art, one must train and train they do, behind the guidance of coach Co Rentmeester, a former olympian and member of the 1960 Dutch National Rowing Team.

Rentmeester will take the boys to Amsterdam this summer, on June 22, graduation day in Riverhead, to compete in the Holland Beker: a globally known regatta.

There are two types of rowing events: sculling and sweeping. O’Neill explains the difference and why they chose sculling:

“In sculling there are two oars and it is more of a symmetrical exercise,” He said. “Sweeping only allows one oar per person and is a slight asymmetric movement. We scull mainly because there are not many other competitive people that we can row with in our area, and most sweep boats require a bigger number of people and our coach knows sculling better than he does sweeping.”

“They practice six days a week for two and a half hours a day, all year long,” said Mrs. Bingham. “If they can’t get on the water, they’ll go to the gym or row the erg.”

The erg, or the indoor rowing machine, delivers a grueling cardio workout with resistance training while allowing the rower to perfect the his or her rowing stroke. A typical erg workout for the duo lasts about an hour and a half.
“Hunter is a great person to work with,” said O’Neill. “He trains hard every practice and always pushes his limits. He has a very high pain tolerance and that is always a good thing to have in our sport. Knowing that he is always pushing his hardest helps me work a little harder too.”

Both have been offered a spot on the Junior National Rowing Team but have decided not to join for a bevy of reasons.

It’s has been one heck of a season for the sculling unit, they have placed in all but one race since teaming up.

“Hunter used to race in a single and Danny used to race in a double,” Mrs. Bingham said. “Something didn’t work out with Danny’s partner so they teamed up and ever since then, they’ve been on fire.”

Their next challenge: Northeastern Regionals in Lowell, Mass. on May 19.

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