By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN WEST — New York rowing teams created waves in the Hudson by beating the competition at the 16th annual American Star high school rowing competition.
Despite the cold, city teams won two out of three final races in the event Saturday, held at Floating the Apple Boathouse at 44th Street.
Students from Stuyvesant High School won the mixed gender race and Governor Island's Harbor High School won the boys' race in the competition.
The girls' race was won by Connecticut's Sound School team.
Although the teamwork between students was evident, competition was fierce amongst the schools.
"It was intense," Jasmine Massa, 14, a Sound School student said after her victory Saturday. "We're a very competitive team. We try to be confident, but not too cocky, so we win."
The windy weather and choppy waters made the competition even more challenging, students said.
"It was so cold," Harbor School rower Elizabethe Abre, 16, said. "And the current was really pushing us into the stern."
New York rowing competitions date back to 1824, when they would draw 50,000 spectators. At Saturday's event, only a few dozen braved the weather to cheer on teammates or family members
Although it's less popular than it once was, rowing is an important sport to keep alive, Sound School coach Neil Geist, 40, said Saturday.
"I love this sport, it's great," Geist said. "It really helps to set confidence. And there's a community amongst rowers."
"You really have to have strength and stamina," observer Joe Miley Jr., 18, added.
Some students even hope to use their skills to gain scholarships to college, one parent said.
"It's going to be an easy ticket to college for her," Joe Miley, 50, said of her daughter Melissa, who competed Saturday.
