Garrison rower in elite company
Every year, as many as 300,000 spectators flock to the banks of the Charles River in eastern Massachusetts to cheer on some 2,000 boats at the Head of the Charles. As one of the largest and most prestigious rowing competitions, the regatta is notoriously difficult to enter.
Eleanor Mercurio, a Garrison resident and rising junior at O’Neill High School in Highlands Falls, has been lucky enough to compete not once, but three times.
Mercurio began rowing in seventh grade, training with the Cortlandt Community Rowing Association in Verplanck and participating in scattered competitions. By the spring of that year, she had moved up to a varsity women’s 4+ level (4 rowers and a coxswain) and raced in the New York high school championships. She was hooked.
After two years, Mercurio transferred to the Rockland Rowing Association in Valley Cottage, where she sought more competitive training. Rockland instructors have years of experience, including head coach Macarena Urdiles, who rowed and coxed for the Chilean National Team and coaches at U.S. Olympic Youth Development camps.
Rockland focuses on sculling, which uses two oars, rather than sweeping, which has one. Mercurio started sculling primarily as a single rower, navigating the challenging technical shift from sweeping.
“I had never rowed a single before, and it’s the most unsteady boat,” she said. “But one of my coaches said, ‘If you push harder, it’s more stable,’ so I pushed harder.”
With only two weeks of sculling under her belt, Mercurio raced in a single at the nationals qualifier and finished in the top six. This spring, competing at the same race in the same single, her time was 90 seconds faster.
In January 2024, Mercurio was invited to a U.S. Rowing Association recruitment camp in Princeton, New Jersey. After a tryout, she was offered a spot at the Youth Development Camp, a program for young rowers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she launched from the McCallie preparatory school boathouse on the Tennessee River. Each day involved four hours of training on the water, a weightlifting or yoga session and discussions on nutrition, mental health and career advice.
At the camp, Mercurio was able to experiment in boats with two, four and eight seats on a much longer river than Rockland’s 15,000-meter lake. Mercurio’s first 2,000-meter race in December 2022 took her 8 minutes and 15 seconds to finish. After a year of training at Rockland and attending the U.S. Rowing camp, she shaved off 42.3 seconds.
Beyond the physical challenge, rowing has provided Mercurio with a tight-knit community. She remains close with many of her roommates and campers from the U.S. Rowing program. The rowers at Rockland bond with team breakfasts every Saturday, bowling and trampoline park trips. During the Summer Olympics last year, the team huddled for a 3 a.m. watch party.
“It’s not like any other team — we’re all really close, we all care about each other and we support each other,” said Mercurio. “We’re not singled out just because we’re rowing in singles.”
Eleanor’s mother, Jennifer, rowed for Columbia University while attending Barnard College and at the Cortlandt Community Rowing Association with Eleanor. Mother and daughter traveled to England two years ago to watch the Henley Royal Regatta. After the race, they rowed together on the Thames. “It was interesting seeing our different styles play out in the boat,” Eleanor Mercurio said.
Early morning practices with Rockland loom ahead, but for now, Mercurio enjoys training daily after school. Her immediate goal is to cut another 15 seconds off her 2K time. She hopes to row in college and continue in U.S. Rowing’s developmental circuit, perhaps one day reaching the U.S. Olympic National Team.
This summer Mercurio will return to Chattanooga to participate in U.S. Rowing’s U19 Elite Women’s Pairs Camp, the next step in the circuit. As one of the camp’s top 16 athletes, Mercurio will be coached by Olympic medalists.
“I knew that I needed to drop my 2K to under 7:40 to be able to get into this camp,” said Mercurio. “I worked over the winter season and kept dropping until I got there. Next year, hopefully I’ll drop like that again.”
Clara Tripp, a Philipstown resident and recent graduate of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx, is a member of The Current’s Student Journalists Program.
