Ethan Pirigyi '26 will row for a world championship on Sunday.
Pirigyi and the United States Under-19 National Team Men's Eight earned a spot in Sunday's final during Thursday's heats at the World Rowing U19 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Sunday's Men's Eight A Final is 3:05 a.m. (10:05 a.m. in Bulgaria).
Pirigyi, a Buffalo native who will row at Brown University, is in the 7 seat for the U.S. Men's Eight.
Pirigyi was selected for the eight after being one of 26 athletes invited by USRowing to the United States Under-19 National Team Selection Camp this summer in Chula Vista, California.
In Thursday's semifinal, the U.S. was second behind power Great Britain in the opening 500 meters and stayed with them until a charge from Croatia, which took second. The third-place finish in 5:48.07 was the fourth-fastest time in the two heats and qualified the U.S. as one of the six boats in Sunday's final.
Last year, Isaiah Aljuwani '25 of Kenmore and Liam Feeney '25 of West Seneca were part of the U19 National Team Men's Eight at the world championships in Trakai, Lithuania, where the U.S. finished second in the B Final and recorded the fifth-fastest time among nine nations.
Pirigyi is a three-year member of the CHS Senior Eight who was part of 2025 Scholastic National and Canadian National Championships in the Eight, both firsts for the CHS program. He was the senior captain for this year's team, winning three state championships and helping lead the Crusaders to another spring of outstanding finishes against elite national and Canadian competition.
Families interested in the decades-long winning tradition of CHS Rowing and the excellence only found in a Jesuit education at Canisius – ranked by Buffalo Business First as the Buffalo area's "Best Catholic School" and WNY's top private school in "Best High Schools for Athletes" – can learn more by arranging an on-campus experience via canisiushigh.org/visit
This place is special. Let us show you why.
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