SARASOTA, Fla. — While her classmates at Sequim High School have been graduating and celebrating, Elise Beuke has been more than holding her own at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships.

Today, she will row for a national championship at Nathan Benderson Park.

Beuke, who has signed to row at the University of Washington starting this fall, pulled the fastest time in Friday’s Women’s Youth 1x preliminaries: 8 minutes, 34.817 seconds.

That was more than one second faster than second-place finisher Emily Kallfelz of Narragansett Rowing Club of Rhode Island (8:35.888).

Kallfelz was a member of the 2014 U.S. Junior National team member and finished third at the 2014 U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships.

In Saturday’s semifinals, Kallfelz pulled the best time, 8:08.749, and Beuke was third with a 8:24.719.

Beuke, who rows for Port Angeles-based Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association, was one of six to move on to this morning’s finals.

The finals begin at 5 a.m and can be viewed online on U.S. Rowing’s YouTube channel at www.tinyurl.com/PDN-USRowing.