Something told Skyline High School crew coach Kit Bennett that Saturday would not be a good day for rowing.

Bennett, who coaches the Ann Arbor Skyline rowing club, was in Camden, N.J. for the Scholastic Rowing Association of America National Championship Regatta, and he told his junior women's duo of Ella Bourland and Lindsay Davis-Brady to go all out and race hard.

His strategy worked. Bourland and Davis-Brady finished the semifinal run in 5 minutes, 54 seconds that day, and inclement weather conditions washed out the final day of competition on Saturday.

Since Bourland and Davis-Brady had the fastest time of all of the junior women's double competitors, the semifinal time was good for a national championship.

"It was interesting this year," Bennett said. "We had exceptionally poor weather, but we also had the fastest semifinal time. I think a lot of the coaches were telling their teams the same thing because we thought Saturday would be a bad day."

Bourland is a junior at Community High School in Ann Arbor, while Davis-Brady is a junior at Skyline. The rowing team consists of individuals from both high schools.

The regatta was held along the Cooper River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The event was a sculling event, where two oars are used per person. A sweeping event is diffferent in rowing, as one oar per person is used.

Bourland and Davis-Brady arrived in time for a Thursday practice row-out to get the boat situated. They qualified for the national competition on the basis of a second-place finish in varsity double competition at the Midwest Championships, held May 10 in Zanesville, Ohio. Rowers from seven states competed at that meet.

Because varsity double was a harder event than junior women's double, Bourland and Davis-Brady were eligible to drop to the junior event at nationals and row in that competition.

Each team races over 1,500 meters in a field of 12 boats, which encompass all the winners from the major regions. The top three boats qualify for the finals, but the times from the semifinal event stood thanks to the weather conditions.

Skyline's duo edged out a team from Pittsburgh, Conestoga, by two seconds.

"I am unbelievably proud of these girls," Bennett said. "We didn't know what to expect going into this race. It's just a testament to get in. They really deserve all this credit. This coupled with Huron's fantastic achievements, it was a great week for rowing in Ann Arbor."

Huron had a pair of boats bring home bronze medals at the competition. The women's senior four-seat boat and the women's junior four-seat. On the senior boat were Corey Wellik, Katie Paige, Nessy Decker, Anna Schaldenbrand and coxswain Jillian Co. On the junior boat were Izzy Matossian, Anna Chewter, Emma Kellenberg Callewaert, Savannah Binion, and coxswain Maria Bonvicini.

“The varsity girls found themselves in fifth and put a gigantic move on and started to sprint with 450 meters to go,” said Huron coach Mike Taft said. “They actually moved into first but had to hang on for a bronze medal.”

More than 174 teams from 15 states took part in the competition.

“They both rowed great final races,” said Mike Taft, Huron’s head coach. “Winning two medals at Nationals of whatever color is a significant accomplishment for the program, the team and the girls.”

Huron's boys junior four-seat boat also made the finals, finishing sixth. The boat included Ben Walsh, James Bernard, Quinn Johns, Brendan Schatz and coxswain Rose Lewis.

Huron entered four boats in the competition, the most its qualified in the program's 20-year history.

Results of the event are available at sraa.net.

Steve Ungrey covers sports for MLive Media Group. He can be reached at Steven_Ungrey@mlive.com.