By Matt McFarland
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, May 25, 2008

Gonzaga won the boys' senior eight petite final at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Nationals yesterday in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The final included the area's three best teams, Gonzaga, Jefferson and Yorktown.

"It's satisfying to be the best crew in the area. We've never been that, ever," said Gonzaga Coach Tom Spooner, who is retiring from coaching. "We've been waiting for the varsity to row a really good race from start to finish; they finally did it."

The Eagles held off a late charge from Jefferson, which finished second, 2.8766 seconds behind Gonzaga's winning time of 4 minutes 35.52 seconds. Yorktown placed sixth.

In the girls' senior eight races, T.C. Williams, Robinson and Georgetown Visitation all had strong showings. T.C. Williams finished third in the petite final, and Robinson placed sixth.

In the third-level final, Georgetown Visitation placed third, finishing in 5:22.22.

"It's pretty funny to come down here and compete at such a high level while being so young, while competing against schools who are two to three to four times larger than us," Georgetown Visitation Coach Gretchen Abell said.

Woodbridge placed second in the junior boys' four final, finishing in 5:08.02. The Vikings were disadvantaged at the start, when their boat wasn't lined up correctly when the race began. Twenty strokes into the race, they'd fallen three-fourths of a boat-length behind, but rallied to finish second.

The Hylton girls' senior double and Woodbridge girls' senior four made their respective finals.

Gonzaga and DeMatha were recognized as two of the nation's best high school athletic programs in Sports Illustrated's top 25 rankings for the 2007-08 school year.

The schools made the WCAC the only league in the nation with more than one school on the list.

Gonzaga, ranked 18th, was praised for a diverse crop of titles won in basketball, crew, rugby, soccer, swimming and diving, and tennis. DeMatha, ranked 19th, won titles in football, golf and lacrosse in what SI termed "an off year."

The top-ranked school was Punahou of Honolulu, Hawaii's oldest high school and winner of 16 state titles in 2007-08.

Fairfax County is scheduled to host the first Virginia state rugby championship at South County on June 7. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors declared June 7 "Rugby Day." . . .

Northwest has hired Jesse Irvin as its boys' basketball coach. Irvin was an assistant at Seneca Valley this past season. . . . The Montgomery County all-star baseball game, an exhibition for high school seniors, is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Blake High School.