Sarasota, Florida – The 2017 World Rowing Championships kicks off today and High Point rower Junior Ognovich has been selected to race in the women’s quad sculls for the Southeast region in the first ever ‘Youth Regional Challenge’.
The Youth Regional Challenge event will feature 312 of the top Under-19 rowers from across the United States, racing in eights and quadruple sculls. The Southeast region team comprises the best athletes from Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Junior Ognovich was picked for the Southeast squad from over 900 rowers who applied for selection. Her race in Sarasota this weekend will no doubt feel like a home course for her. Earlier this spring she teamed up with Maddie Mullins to finish 6th in the nation at the women’s U19 pairs event.
2017 has been an incredible year for Junior Ognovich. In addition to the finals appearance at youth nationals, she and Maddie won the North Carolina State Championships in the women’s double sculls and then were crowned regional champions in the women’s pair. The win was the first in history for High Point.
Junior is not short of athletic genes in her DNA. Her older sister Katie won gold on board the United States women’s eight at the CanAmMex Games Regatta and is now rowing at the University of Oklahoma. Her grandfather is Nick Ognovich, the renowned Wake Forest University Hall of Fame “blocking quarterback” in the 1940s when the program was regarded as one of the toughest in the South.
When not rowing, Junior lives in Greensboro and attends Bishop McGuinness High School. Junior will return to the Triad next week in time to prepare for the High Point Autumn Rowing Festival on Oak Hollow Lake on Saturday, September 30.
