In just over seven minutes of furious exertion, three Greenwich rowers helped make history for the Maritime Rowing Center in Norwalk. At the USRowing Youth National Championships held in Cincinnati, Ohio July 12-14, the team stroked to unprecedented success, bringing home 18 medals.

Out of the four Maritime boats that qualified for the Championships, the Youth Women’s Lightweight Eight and Varsity Eight both claimed bronze medals for their respective events. Greenwich High School student Heather Oudhuesden, rowing sixth seat, and Sacred Heart student India Knight, rowing bow seat, powered the Lightweight Eight through three races at the regatta, finishing their Grand Final in 7:07:53. Greenwich Academy junior Paige Gonye, rowing bow seat, helped lead the Varsity Eight to finish the Grand Finals with a medal time of 6:47:41.

Greenwich 10-year-old all-star first baseman Michael Tang gets the ball from Joseph Lanni. Greenwich was in New Canaan this week to compete in the district tournament. Against New Canaan Monday, Greenwich fell 14-2. The team had five hits and one walk on the day. Kevin Iobbi went 2-for-2 and Michael Tang finished the day 2-for-3. New Canaan, which scored in every inning but the third, finished with 12 hits and 11 walks. — Dave Stewart photo

This was the time of the year that Megan Jarchow loved. Growing up playing volleyball in Texas, Jarchow would compete at the highest levels, appearing quite frequently at the Junior Olympics National Championships.

However, things changed two years ago when Jarchow and her family moved to Connecticut, which isn’t known to be a volleyball powerhouse. Despite the move, Jarchow, who will be a senior next fall at Convent of the Sacred Heart, was determined to get back to Nationals.

There is no doubt that Greenwich resident Robert Pollak loves the sport of tennis.

Growing up, Pollak played the sport non-stop and he just finished his third year with the Brunswick School varsity tennis program.

Greenwich Lady Redbirds 16-U softball team pitcher Kelly Andrianos hurls the ball to the plate during Monday’s game against the  CT Rebels Lightning. In that contest, which was played at the Greenwich High School softball field, Andrianos helped lead the Redbirds to a 6-4 victory. She was the winning pitcher of record, giving up seven hits, two unearned runs and one walk while striking out seven. Andrianos was also stellar with the bat, netting a hit that drove home two runners. Meg Foster also had a hit and two RBIs. Nicole Schlosser added one hit and one RBI and Olivia Franchella, Stephanie Cotter and Maggie Koester each added a hit apiece. With the win, the Redbirds are 2-1 in the Fairfield County Fastpitch Softball League. — Paul Silverfarb photo

In a nail-biter, Bank of Greenwich won the American league Junior Babe Ruth championship 4-2 over Greenwich Physical Therapy.

Bob Decker and Max Barefoot went through a pitching duel, tying the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning.

Nick Cavataro, the 32-year head coach of the Greenwich YWCA Dolphins who has trained swimmers for such top-rated schools as Harvard, Stamford and Yale as well as many Olympic Trials, led the Dolphins to a fourth-place finish at the Sun Kissed championship meet in Charlotte, N.C.

In the event, there were 24 team throughout the United States competing.

Head coach Mike Abate is movin’ on up ... to the American Legion senior division. After dominating the junior legion ranks last year, Abate is taking his entire junior roster, as well as coaching staff, and moving up to the big time to compete in the Zone IV senior legion division.

“It’s great watching these kids grow,” Abate said. “I am seeing them get better all the time, but this level is a much different level. They are going from playing a junior legion schedule to playing teams where there are 18- and 19-year-old kids and even some college kids. Most of my players are sophomores in high school, so that’s a big difference right now. Last year, where we saw these kids have such great success, we’re going to now see them have to make some adjustments, but that’s part of the game.”

Although the Greenwich High School softball team didn’t reach one of its goals of playing in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference tournament, first-year head coach Mary Beth Fratello is still pleased with her team’s performance and improvement on the diamond.

“I think this team met its expectations,” Fratello said. “We only won nine games, but we had a very young team, starting in the infield. This team never gave up and fought every single game. They never put their heads down and fought for that last hit. It wasn’t like a team was going to outscore us and we were just going to play out the rest of the game. We were going to fight until there was no more softball to play.”

The 2009 Greenwich Women’s Town Championship Tournament will be held Thursday, July 16, and Saturday, July 18, at the Griffith E. Harris Golf Course.  The format is 36 holes, medal play- gross and net. 

There are three flights: Town-Wide, Seniors (50+) and Super Seniors (65+).  Town champion in each flight is the player with the lowest gross score.  Overall champion can come from any flight.  The cost to enter is $57 for seniors and Super Seniors and $73 for Town-Wide.  A favor is being provided by The Dowling Group.

There must be a minimum of 48 players by July 8 to play both days. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, July 8, at 4 p.m.