The Marin Rowing Association, located in Greenbrae, California, is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 by Coach R.C. "Bob" Cumming.
For the first eight years of its existence, the program was composed of high school boys from Redwood High School and what the club called the "cardiac 8+". The cardiac 8+ was a small group of men who had previously rowed in college and continued to row on Sunday mornings. That group of men, including Olympian Dick Draeger, held the facility and equipment together. In 1977, U.C. Berkeley rower Jana Barto began a high school program for women from Redwood High School, and in 1982 Olympian Lou Lindsey joined Coach Cumming to run the men's team, taking over in 1984 after the death of Coach Cumming. Today both the boys and girls teams, recruiting throughout Marin, row under the name of the Marin Rowing Association.
Numerous Marin juniors have raced on Junior National Teams throughout the years, and some have gone on to represent the United States at the World Rowing Championships and the Olympics. Scott Munn, Fred Honebein, Tim Evans, Tim and Jerome Ryan, Mike Altman, Brian Ebke and Nito Simonsen are all Marin Rowing Association alumni.
In 1984, Jana Barto and Joan Corbett started a rowing program for adult women. Originally the rowers were moms of the junior women and men, but today that original program has split into beginning, intermediate and advanced levels for men and women, with the competitive/advanced level winning numerous gold medals at State Championship races, the Masters Nationals and the FISA World Regatta.
The club is currently managed by Sandy Armstrong.
At the Head of the Charles in 2010, the Marin Varsity boys made history by racing from the 69th starting position to win their event, posting a course record in the process. The boat was composed of coxswain Harry Blatt, and rowers Zander Bonorris, Griffin Whitlock, Scott Roycroft, Greig Stein, Peter Woolley, Sam Seder, Scott Kennedy, and Patrick Konttinen. In 2011 The Marin boys again placed first, the boat composed of Greig Stein, Peter Woolley, Sam Seder, Scott Kennedy, and Patrick Konttinen returning rowers from the 2010 boat, and newcomers Kenny Thompson, Julian Goldman, Elliot Gutekunst, and David Slater. In 2012 the Marin Varsity Boys repeated their victory for the third time in a row, becoming the first ever junior team to win three consecutive Head of the Charles Regattas, this time with a decisive lead of more than 33 seconds to the second finisher. The 2012 boat was coached by Dustin Kraus and composed of three time member Peter Woolley, two time member Julian Goldman, and newcomers Riley Overfield, Tavish Traut, Jackson Dobronyi, Jake Johnson, John Killeen, Chase Giannini and Niels Laurberg. Winning the event two years in a row is unheard of, three times in a row is legendary.
The Marin Rowing Association has won national championships on numerous occasions. In 2011 the MRA youth team outperformed itself as well as every other varsity club in the country with a remarkable performance. It become the first team to sweep Youth National Championship gold medals with victories in the Men's & Women's Varsity 8+ as well as the Men's Lightweight 8+ (composed of 6 novice) at the Oak Ridge, TN venue (Coaches: Graham Willoughby, Sandy Armstrong and Patrick Schulkers respectively). At the 2012 Youth National Championship Marin Men's Lightweight 8+ (Riley Overfield C, Michael Brewer S, Jamie Naso 7, Chase Giannini 6, Tavish Traut 5, Blake Patterson 4, Olivier Bazalgette 3, Daniel Nagler 2, Niels Laurberg B) and V8+ (Kenny Thompson C, Julian Goldman S, Greg Stein 7, Peter Wooley 6, Patrick Konttinen 5, Scott Kennedy 4, Sam Seder 3, John Killeen 2, Elliott Gutenkunst B) again made history by winning both events two consecutive years. (Coaches: Graham Willoughby and Andrew Lennox) Previously MRA had won several gold medals in the Youth National Championship at Harsha Lake near Cincinnati, Ohio; amongst them, the Men's Lightweight 8+ in 2004, Martin Schluter and Daniel Felling in the 2007 Men's Double Sculls, and the Women's Varsity 8+ in 2008 and 2009.
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