New royalty was crowned, a Dragon Boat team left everyone in its wake and hundreds of families celebrated the St. Joseph River during the Niles Riverfest over the weekend.

Except for some rain Friday, the annual Niles festival was blessed with sunny skies and good weather at Riverfront Park in downtown Niles.

On Thursday, Nick and Sarah Brittin were crowned Mr. and Mrs. Riverfest at the Riverfront Amphitheater. The Brittins own Pizza Transit, a popular pizza restaurant on Main Street in downtown Niles. Miss and Mr. Niles had the honor of crowing the Brittins during the event, which was sponsored by the Niles-Buchanan YMCA. Lacey Weimuth-Peters, former Miss Niles 2005, chaired the event.

The Dragon Boat race, which took place Saturday, was a close one. The teams Dragon’s Wake and Leader Publications advanced the finals after finishing with the top two times during the morning’s heat races. Dragon’s Wake edged out Leader Publications by nearly two seconds in the final race — 1:34.78 to 1:36.04.

Dragon Boat Race Results

Heat Races

Finish/Team  Avg. Time

1. Dragon’s Wake      1:35.53

2. Leader Publications          1:37.06

3. World Dragons      1:38.09

4. N-B YMCA  1:39.62

5. Majerek’s Mottley Crew   1:40.66

6. NHS Band/Community Team      1:41.88

Finals

1. Dragon’s Wake      1:34.78

2. Leader Publications          1:36.04