SARASOTA, Fla. — Silver medal. High school graduation.
It’s only mid-June and Sequim’s Elise Beuke is already having a heck of a summer.
She’s just getting started. If all goes as planned, she won’t return to the state of Washington until August.
Beuke knocked five seconds off her semifinal time to place second in the women’s single final at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships on Sunday morning at Nathan Benderson Park.
Friday evening, after rowing the best women’s single time in the preliminaries, Beuke found a way fulfill a pact with her “closest friend” Victoria Cummins and attend Sequim High School’s graduation ceremony.
“We’ve promised to be walking partners since we were in middle school,” Beuke said in a phone interview Sunday.
“So she FaceTimed me so I got to be on the phone and watch everything like I was there.
“People took photos with me. I even brought my little hat.”
Beuke, who will row at the University of Washington this fall, then pulled the third-best time (8 minutes, 24.719 seconds) in the semifinals Saturday afternoon.
In the finals early Sunday morning, she improved her time and her position, finishing in 8:19.368 to earn the silver medal.
Emily Kallfelz, who placed third at last year’s national championships and was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team, won the gold with a time of 8:10.011.
“The girl who won the gold, she made the national team last year,” Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association coach Rodrigo Rodrigues, who coaches Beuke, said Sunday.
“She’s very strong. She won the single and the double [Sunday].”
Sunday was the first time in her short rowing career that Beuke hasn’t been the winner.
“At least it was at the national championship,” Beuke, who has been rowing for only 14 months, said.
“I’m glad of the position that I’ve put myself in the last year.
“I think I tried my hardest [Sunday]. I put it all out there.
“Whenever you get to the end of the race and you cross the finish line, you think, ‘I could have done more.’ You always have those thoughts in your mind.
“But, overall, it was good.”
Beuke will remain on the East Coast at least through early July. After that, there could be a quick trip to New Jersey, and then possibly a trip to Brazil.
For the next three weeks, she will be in New Milford, Conn., competing with 27 other top youth rowers for eight positions on the U.S. Rowing Junior National Team that will race at the Junior World Championships in Rio de Janeiro in August.
The United States will send one quad (four-person boat), one double (two-person boat) and a single (one-person boat) and an alternate rower to Rio de Janeiro. There, they will row on the courses that will be used at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Rodrigues, a native of Brazil, will serve as a coach for the U.S. Junior National Team.
After three weeks in Connecticut, the coaches will make their first cuts.
There will then be singles and doubles trials in West Windsor, N.J., on July 5-7. The winners at trials advance to the Junior World Championships.
The rowers then return to Connecticut to train together.
Rodrigues recognizes the quality of competition Beuke will face in Connecticut, but likes her chances of joining him in Rio.
“She’s going to do that,” Rodrigues said. “I’m pretty confident that she can make at least the top six.”
Despite not winning — and, furthermore, not having a big lead of open water — for the first time, this past weekend boosted Beuke’s belief in herself.
“It’s kind of weird because I feel confident because I know I’ve done all the work I can do in the last year,” she said.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
