Congratulations to Westlake Girls Rowers, Charlotte Mawston and Tayla Coplestone 

There has been no time to rest for Westlake Girls Rowers Charlotte Mawston and Tayla Coplestone.  At the end of March, both were selected for the New Zealand Rowing Under 18 North Squad Trials, followed by weeks of intense training. On 20 April, both were named in the North Team.  

Under the guidance of their diligent coaches at Lake Karapiro, the Under 18 North team competed against the South team to determine the best in the country.  After 16 races over two days, the Northerners victoriously wrestled the silverware off the South to end the five-year hiatus on Wednesday, 24 April.

Mawston and Coplestone performed impressively in the big boats, with Charlotte Mawston (Y11), settling into her familiar sweeping seat in the Women’s Eight and Four crews while Year 12 Tayla Coplestone rose to the challenge of coxing the Women’s Coxed Quad for the first time and drove them to two commanding victories.

Prior to the regatta, the South team were favoured to win after impressive results at the Maddi Cup. However, there must have been something in the water at Karapiro because the North Team was unmatched on the lake, winning 12 of the 16 races:

Women’s and Men’s Eights, Women’s and Men’s Pairs, Women’s and Men’s Single Sculls. Women’s Quad, Men’s Four, and Men’s Double. 

Now, while Tayla takes it down a couple of notches to enjoy her social netball team over winter, Charlotte returns to the Westlake Girls Premier Basketball Team, which is preparing for the World Schools Basketball Championship in China at the end of June.